RoseBlush1 said:No, that's not sun scald. That leaf pattern is common to water stress in roses.
Now, don't jump on me and say that your roses were never water stressed. On any rose in hot weather even half an hour of water stress can cause a few leaves to show that pattern. It's no big deal unless the whole plant is showing that symptom of water stress.
Roses often will abandon leaves in order to survive in the heat. They will use all available moisture to keep the root mass alive and not send moisture up to the top growth. It's how they are genetically programmed to survive.
With our drought and often with water restrictions, many rose gardeners are finding this in their gardens. I've even got a few roses that are the more thirsty roses than the others screaming at me to water them more in my triple digit temps by showing this symptom on some of their leaves.
Smiles,
Lyn
RoseBlush1 said:Mark ... I don't know what "smh" means ...
Somehow, I knew you were going to say you watered them well recently.
The thing is, roses are survivors. They will do whatever it takes to keep the root mass alive so that when they finally get sufficient water, they can keep on keeping on. The stress probably occurred before you watered them.
The root mass may have even never dried out, but with the heat hitting the leaves and, if you are more inland in San Diego, the lower humidity on the top growth will trigger the rose to think it is water stressed and it won't send up sufficient moisture to support all of the leaves on the plant. (sorry for saying a plant "thinks").
The water stress signals for a rose don't only come from the root zone. There are a lot of factors that tell a rose to go into survival mode.
Smiles,
Lyn
RoseBlush1 said:Very possible. Mark do you live inland ? I lived in the San Diego area until about 10 years ago and am familiar with how things change the further inland you go from the coast.
Smiles,
Lyn
RoseBlush1 said:Mark ...
OK... that tells me that you get more of the ocean influence than if you were further inland.
You won't have the deep soil moisture issue I described in my post above because you don't get the kind of soaking rains that I normally get up here in the mountains.
However, drought is drought. Your plants are adjusted to growing in your normal climate and with the drought conditions you are experiencing, your plants are still being impacted by the drought, but in a different way than what is happening in my garden. That's the stress they are responding to in your garden.
Toni is right about mulching being one of your best defenses because it does hold moisture in the soil longer. Your plant may still show water stress and possibly go into a kind of dormancy, which I call survival mode, because of the crazy heat you are experiencing even if the root zone is moist and never dries out.
You also have the rose sited in front of a fence and the plant is going to get some reflected heat off of it. If you have a concrete sidewalk in front of your rose, not shown in your photo, the plant can also get reflected heat off of the hardscape.
A friend of mine actually tested this theory by comparing the heat with a thermometer where a rose was sited to the thermometer a few feet away on a patio. There was a 20F difference !
Just something to think about.
Smiles,
Lyn