Question
Can you tell me what is stripping my Compassion rose leaves?  The damage has occurred high up to one section of the plant and at first the leaves are left looking like a fish skeleton before even the veins are demolished.  Some dahlias have been damaged in a similar way.

Answer
Skeletonized leaves can be caused by several factors, but more than likely your rose and dahlias fell victim to tiny caterpillars that munched on the tastiest portions of the blade. Leaf veins--pipelines that transport water and food to and from the leaf--are made of cells with with thicker, denser cellulose that would be harder to chew, and these veins are all the caterpillars left behind before moving on to ravage yet another leaf. Tent caterpillars can do a lot of damage and thy usually do it on the top of the plant. Any garden spray that is for a chewing type of insect will get rid of them. This is the larvae stage of a moth and soon these insects will go to the ground to pupate.  So when you spray just make sure you spray all around the base of the pats that were eaten.