Neil Sperry answers San Antonio gardening questions about rose leaves, summer squash, gardenia, St. Augustine and bermuda and more.
Courtesy imageLooking at the one or two leaves in your photo it appears that droplets of water or some other spray have been on the leaves when the sun was shining brightly. That would account for the tiny brown “freckles.”
The most common rose disease is called black spot, and it causes yellowing with large dark brown blotches in the centers of the yellowed leaves. I don’t see those classic symptoms in your photo, but I’d suspect it’s involved. It could also be nutritional. The plant may need nitrogen. Many times we forget to give our flowering plants enough nitrogen, thinking instead that phosphorus is more important since it stimulates blooming. But we overlook the fact that phosphorus accumulates in our soils to the point of being excessive.
Finally, I can’t discuss rose problems currently without at least mentioning rose rosette virus. I see no evidence of RRV from these two leaves, but one would need a larger sampling. That fatal virus causes very distorted growth: strong “bull” canes, flowerbuds that don’t open properly, canes that have incredible numbers of thorns and plants that become weak and lethargic. If you see any symptoms that sound like those do a bit of web searching for photos.
Q: I’ve had my gardenia growing in a pot for eight years. It has flourished during that time until last winter when the extreme freeze hurt it badly, even though it was protected in my greenhouse. It’s now spindly. It’s blooming, but not very heavily. It needs to be cut back. When should I do it, and by how much?Trim it as needed to reshape it so that you can foster new regrowth to help it fill in.
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