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no leaves on bottom


Question
i live outside of detroit and most of my rose bushes except my carpet one have lost or been eaten(i dont know which) their leaves from the bottom up. only the top leaves remain. it has 5been happening since they seem to have bloomed. it dont think its an animal as i have a large rottweiller dog in the yard.

Answer
The leaves on the rose bush should give you a clue as to what is happening. If it is insects then they usually leave some of the leaves on the rose. The holes will be jagged if it is beetles and round but long if it is caterpillars. Lack of certain nutrients in the soil turns the leaves different colours. Because the leaves are falling off from the bottom that usually means the roots are complaining. The two main reasons they do is because they are under stress both from a long period of high heat or too much or too little water. I would dig  alongside of one and see if your watering is getting past 2 inches. During the warm summer roses need watering every other day so the soil is soaked to at least 6 inches. Also take a piece of white paper and knock a leaf on it to see if there are any bugs. Next dig a little with a trowel to see if the bugs are hiding in the soil around the base of the rose bush. If you find some, any rose insecticide will solve the problem for you.
However if the leaf has been completly taken off, I would have a serious chat with your dog. Down the road they have a rottweiller to keep the deer away. The owners woke up one night when they heard a scuffle outside and there was the dog playing with the deer. The deer's head was bobbling up and down and the dog was running around stopping in the "want to play" position. Rabbits, squirrels and raccoons also like roses.
You could try spraying the area for animals with Windex or anything else that has ammonia in it and see if the rose makes new leaves where the old ones were. It is getting close to winter so the roses wont die by losing their leaves now. Hope this helps.

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