Question
Hi there! Really hoping you can help me!

I inherited 5 rose bushes (5 are stand-alone, one a climber) with this house I moved into a year ago, and even though I have been ignorant as to what to do with them save water and occasionally fertilize, they have bloomed well. Love them.

I guess I have two problems:

at one end of the yard I have the climbing white rose that climbs on a chain-link fence and is encroached on by surrounding plants. Earlier this year (may) it bloomed WONDERFULLY. Then, as if from one moment to the next, the buds would turn black & hard and never bloom. All I could think to do was prune back the surrounding foliage to give the rose more room, and cut off some of the canes that had spots on them, but is my whole plant doomed?

the other problem: I purchased 2 rose bushes from Home Depot and planted them at clear the other end of the garden, near the other free-standing rose bushes. One has done really really well, sprouting small, pink roses and is full of foliage (though at times leaves turning a bit yellow), but the other one - save for sprouting one exquisite red bud and a few leaves from one cane sometime in May, it has done NOTHING. In fact, it looks quite dead, completely lacking even one green cane, let alone a leaf or bud. Is this dead too? Or is there a way I can revive?

I guess I am so ignorant at this point as to how to tend to a rose, that I'm afraid I am somehow a rose murderess. Any guidance would be welcome - even recommendations to a book or website that might help me, step by step.

thanks!

Answer
I can think of only two reasons your white climber buds didn't mature. If only some buds didn't bloom because they were dead, then it could have been the high heat of the sun on the metal chain link fence killed them. The other is Botrytis Blight where the buds get a fungal disease that kills them but there is usually some flowers that have it too. It looks like a brown mould. Giving th climber better air circulation was a good idea as fungus likes humid areas. Can you tell me what colour the spots on the canes are? If they are a grayish white then that is mould and any rose fungicide spray for a fungus, such as mildew, will solve that problem. The rose from Home Depot is definitely dead.