At the end of August the leaves on this climbing rose disappeared! They did come back a bit. I also recently noticed that the same thing has happened to selected raspberry canes. Can it be grasshoppers? I've noticed an abundance of grasshoppers this year; however the damage has only been done to some rose bushes and some raspberry canes. Any ideas on what it is and what I can do? Thanks, Nancy
Answer
Hi Nancy,
My guess is that the heat and dryness from the summer knocked back the rose bush. In general, rose bushes languish in the summer. It's too hot for the plant to produce flowers or sometimes to even keep their leaves. When plants are water stressed, the first thing they do is drop their leaves so as not to spend the energy to support them. Roses prefer the cool weather of Spring and Fall to thrive and bloom.
Next summer (June - Aug), make sure to water the rose bush at least once a week with a 5 gallon bucket of water...more if it does not rain. Roses also need to be fertilized once a month starting in May and ending in mid-September in order to produce flowers and leaves to stay healthy. If it was grasshoppers eating the plant...they would have eaten the entire plant and not stop at the leaves. Thank you for your question.
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About Linda Lillie
Linda K. Lillie is the President of Sprigs & Twigs, Inc, the premier
landscape design and maintenance, tree care, lawn care, stonework, and carpentry
service provider in southeastern Connecticut since 1997. She is a graduate of
Connecticut College in Botany, a Connecticut Master Gardener and a national
award winning landscape designer for her landscape design and landscape installation work.
