Rose Care: Common Diseases

Imagine how you would feel if your roses were ruined, after all the hard work and care you put into them, by a fungus or disease. Roses are dormant during the winter, and this weakens them and makes them more prone to disease during the growing season. If the plant does not succumb to disease, it can still be the target of fungus infections during the humidity and heat of spring rain and summer high temperatures.

So an important part of rose care is being aware of the most common diseases which could affect them. Below is a summary of these.

Powdery Mildew

A fungus disease, powdery mildew looks like a white powder which coats the leaves and stems of roses. If it is not treated, the leaves will die and fall, and the plant will be stunted in growth.

Rust

This appears first as an orange, powdery coating on the under side of the rose's leaves, and then spreads to the rest of the bush.

Blackspot

Rose varieties other than hybrid teas are prone to blackspot, which appears in the form of round black spots on the leaves. These spots vary in diameter from 1/16 to 1/2 inch, and if you do not treat the disease it will kill the leaves of the plant.

Rose Mosaic

This is a viral disease, not a fungal one like most other diseases which affect roses. It appears as a green and yellow mosaic-like pattern on the plant.

The infected plant must be removed from your garden, along with any clippings or leaves which have fallen from it.

Treatment tips

A good piece of rose care advice is to try to stop fungal rose diseases from spreading by cutting the affected areas away. If this does not work, however, then you should visit your garden supply store and ask for advice about commercially available products to treat the fungus. Other tips include:

* When you water, don't water the plant itself, but only the soil around it

* Regularly remove all fallen leaves and clippings from around the plants

* Remove any flowers or canes which show signs of disease, and place these in the trash

* Prune regularly, and be especially careful to prune out the center of each bush, which allows air circulation

* Seal any cuts on the plant with a product such as Elmer's Glue, which is inexpensive, safe and works well

* If you feed your roses regularly they will be better equipped to fight infection

* Wherever you can, select varieties which are resistant to disease, particularly if you live in a humid, hot area. The plants will not necessarily be disease free, however, but there will be less likelihood of disease.

Make following these tips part of your rose care regime, and you are much less likely to have your rose bushes infected by disease.