Question
Roses are my favorite flowers and a few years ago I started a small rose garden. I live on Long Island and have 4 hybrid rose bushes planted in my yard in their own bed. They are along a fence and get almost full sun. They bloomed in early June and now they appear to be dying. We had a lot of rain lately but the soil seems dry. Many of the stems are brown but there is some new life on some of them. In the next yard there is a dogwood tree but doesn't shade the roses. It seems like a good sunny spot and that they should be thriving not dying. I am considering relocating the roses at the end of the season but if there is some "therapy" that I can do to make them stronger and fuller I would like to try it.  The roses are all hybrids and have been in the garden 3 years. I had to replace 1 last year and even that one which was the strongest is not looking too good.
Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Answer
Roses like rain but not a lot of it. Excessive amounts of rain will cause the leaves to go yellow and also cause a fungal disease called Black Spot. Then if the weather turns hot after the rain, it really causes more problems for the roses as it puts them under even more stress. Even though it is raining a lot it is a wisdom to just check to see if the water is getting dow to at least 5 inches deep. Sometime rain only rolls off the top of the dry soil. Hopefully your roses only look sad instead of dying. Cut your roses back by about 12 inches as this will activate new growth. Then give them some organic type fertilizer. I would try using a liquid fish fertilizer as a foliar spray because the roots are still under stress and will have semi shut down but the leaves are able to use the fertilizer. You can also pour some around the base of the rose bush as in time the roots will take it up. I am not an organic grower but I feel that when a rose is having a tough time, because of the weather or growing conditions, a chemical can be too harsh. Be careful about transplanting your roses as roses really don't like to be moved and this may also cause stress. It sounds like the bed they are in is fine for them.