Question
Hi. I think I may have contacted you about this already. I'm sorry if I did. I know that I asked someone but I don't remember who/when.

I bought my grandma a rose bush 4 years ago. it grew to be about 3.5 ft tall but never bloomed flowers.

Its branches were rotting, turning brown, looking hideous.

So.. we whacked it down. *sad music*

Then, last month, lo and behold.. NEW ROSE BRUSH SPRANG FORTH FROM THE GROUND!

At a speed of about an inch a day, it grew and grew and now it is almost 2.5 ft tall.

It has over 17 blooms on it right now.

HOWEVER..... The flowers are struggling. They rot really quickly, within 2 days of blooming. Some of them never make it to bloom.

What do you call it when the flower is still enclosed in the leaves and not yet open? They stay like that and then rot. They turn black. Or they will open half-way, then turn black.

Right now there's about 4 big pretty flowers open, the rest are small blooms that are either not yet open, half way open, or rotted looking.

What do we do?

Answer
It could be a tiny insect called a rose midge that is causing your problem. It lays it's eggs in the flower buds and when the worms hatch they then damage the flowers. Any rose spray that says it is for rose midges will solve that problem. The other reason the flowers are not doing well could be way down at the base of the rose. Check to see that there are no bugs eating the roots and that there are no growths the size of a marble. Both of these cause the same problem. You can use the rose midge spry for all around the base of the rose bush to get rid of any insects that are hiding in the soil.