The Roots Of Your Roses Will Rot And Die If They Are Left In Stanging Water.
by Bob Bauer
Standing water is water that is in puddles that does not go away after a couple of hours after watering or rain. Seeing this in the garden is the 'Smoking Gun' of bad drainage. If you see this you DO have a problem and you MUST do something about it. Roses flat out will not grow in this type of environment. They will die 100 percent of the time. You have got to either make raised beds above the general level of the garden or amend the soil with a lot of organic matter. And I mean a lot. 50 percent or more in order to make it work. Raised beds are definitely your best bet in this situation, and it has the advantage of making the roses a little bit closer to your nose, and you can't beat that.
Rose Problems Page
The first sign of bad drainage is when the oldest bottom leaves of the rose start turning bright yellow at the center and in the veins, then drop off and eventually leave the stems bare. The veins and the central areas of the leaves turn yellow first. Surprisingly this a similar thing you start to see if your plant doesn't have ENOUGH water! Blooms also appear smaller and of poor quality. What this means in general is that your plant is stressed and starting to go into 'survival' mode. In the case of waterlogging, it is because the roots are starting to rot due to waterborn fungi and bacteria and lack of air and there are not enough nutrients being absorbed to support the existing leaves
'Duet'
If you see moss growing on the surface of the soil close to the base of your rose, your roses are getting too much water. This is not always fatal, but it can lead to waterlogging, especially if you have clay soil. Depending on your climate, you can just take a look around and see if moss is a normal part of the local ecosystem. If it is not, you have a problem. Stop watering so much or improve the drainage of your soil. Your roses will definitely suffer from wet feet.
'Brigadoon'
If you grow roses long enough you will definitely experience this one. This condition produces a general feeling of helplessness in the rose gardener as you watch a healthy rose start to lose branch after branch in a slide down towards death. This condition can be caused by many things and is generally knows as 'Canker'. Slowly one by one canes turn black at the bottom and the blackness moves up the cane until the last leaves drop off and the rose is dead. 'Canker' is a garbage can term for several fungal and bacterial diseases that affect roses. Many of these diseases and conditions get their start in waterlogged soil with bad drainage. These common bad drainage caused problem are generally known by the term 'root rot'. Once root rot has a good hold, it is almost always fatal, so keep a good eye on your plants. You have got to get to this one early on.
Clay soil is the leading cause of bad drainage. Here is how to tell easily. When your soil is moist, reach down and grab a handful of it. Squeeze it as hard as you can and form a ball. Now poke your finger into it. If it breaks apart easily and crumbles, you do not have a clay dominant soil and you probably don't have a drainage problem. If it forms a clump that you can toss to a friend back and forth like a ball and nothing falls off of it, you have a definite clay soil problem. There are many stages in between these two forms, and you can judge for yourself what your level of clay is along this continuum. If you have severe clay soil, you are either going to have to garden in raised beds or amend your soil with at least a 50 percent addition of organic matter. Whatever you do, don't add sand to your clay soil without adding a lot of organic matter. A soil consisting of clay and sand has a name: Concrete!! When it dries, you can break a pickaxe trying to dig in it. Think what that means to the roots of your rose.