Question
QUESTION: hi, i just bought a rose bush from our locale garden, and it was the healthiest looking one out of all of them. but all of them were sick and have aphids, spider mites, and i think asian beatles, but i only saw one on the one that i bought. we live near kallamazoo michigan. the rose has deformed leaves, and some of the blooms are not opening right. but most of them bloom fine, but end with brown spots and shriveled petals. i clipped the roses that weren't healthy off, and a couple of buds too. i also clipped off most of the unhealthy leaves too, but i don't know what to do to get the plant to come back. it has no new growth on it, and it didn't when i bought it. i sprayed it with some organic pesticide.
    i just would like to know how i can nurse it back to the point where it will stop focusing on blooming and start to focus upon sending out new leaves.
    please help me! i thought i could handle it like i did with my mini roses from the store, but i can't! Please help!!!!

ANSWER: Buying the small, sad looking puppy is many times not a wisdom. It is the same for buying a sick looking rose. Although it looked the best it will be infected with whatever the others sick roses had. Your rose has got a fungal disease called Black Spot because it is  is in a poor condition. This disease always attacks the weakest roses. Don't worry about Black Spot at this late time in the season. You will have to make the rose start from square one and then the roots will not be under stress because they won't have as much to support. Cut the rose back to about 12 inches. Use an organic type of fertilizer because it will encourage the beneficial bacteria in the soil which help the roots  take up the nutrients. Liquid fish fertilizer is a good one to use. Place some sort of mulch all around the base of the rose to keep the roots damp and cool. Use 5 thickness of newspaper if you can't get any wood or compost for mulch but keep the newspaper wet. If your weather is hot then don't use any sprays as it is not a good idea to put a chemical on rose leaves when it is hot. In a couple of weeks you should see good healthy normal leaves. If the leaves are still deformed then the rose probably has a virus and I would not keep it but put it in the garbage.

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QUESTION: i agree completely about the black spot, but i cut back all of the leaves to a certain extent, and have been misting it with water every evening to encourage new leaf growth. the problem is that the flower are completely healthy, no deformity, and the ones that were deformed i deadheaded as soon as it was legally mine. i found that it had Asian beetles on one of the flowers but i got rid of it as soon as i saw it. and i think that it might just be badly taken care of. do i still cut it back? i did that to one of my mini roses when it was dying, but it just ended up dying.
    what do i do? i just want to get it to start giving me new growth. you know, the red leaves? instead, its not giving ANY new growth. no red whatsoever. please, how do i do this? do i have to cut it back completely? would prefer not to have to.

Answer
Don't forget that your rose is a sick rose and so it will take time for it to recover. New growth will take time as the rose is very weak. It needs to have a rest before it starts to grow again. It might not even grow at all until next spring. Don't cut it back if that upsets you but mini roses are not nearly as vigorous as the larger garden roses are.