Not happy Jan !!!

G'day. When we had the front fence put up some time ago, we decided to plant standard roses. 8 in total. There is one on the other side of the drive that you can't see in this photo. These roses have been there for about 14 or 15 months now and have been just beautiful. They took a little while to establish as we have very heavy clay soil. But, the last few months they have looked a treat. That is until last week. One of the standards has died. I went out to give them a deep water last week as we were expecting hot temperatures in the mid 40's and nearly fell off my perch when I saw that one was looking very sick indeed. The leaves were wilted and dry and I knew I was in for a battle to save it.

 

I knew it wasn't through lack of water, so I decided to cut off all the dead leaves, hoping that this might help. Usually I would leave any leaves that have been burnt from the sun, even though they look unsightly. It is not much use cutting away burnt leaves only for the sun to scorch any new shoots. But drastic measures were called for. I even put some rose food around the base and watered it in well, but to no avail. The plant was dying and I was powerless to stop it. I have always grown roses and have never had one die on me. When we had the farm, we planted over 300 roses and I never lost one, even though we suffered through one of the worst droughts here in Australia, I looked after my roses.

I was baffled, what could have gone wrong with just one rose? I kept an eye everyday on the other standards to see if they were going to suffer the same fate. But they are just fine. Hubby saw the cut back rose and asked me why I had done that and I said it is dying. He got this strange look on his face and I knew I was not going to be happy with what he was going to say. It appears one day when my back was turned, he decided to spray a few weeds and there happened to one growing in the bricks that run along the fence. I am the weed sprayer here and even on the farm, it was my job. I never trusted anyone else to do it. If I killed a plant through carelessness, then it was on my head, no one else's. 

I saw hubby that morning out the back here with the small spray bottle and I said to him to leave it, as there was a slight breeze getting up, but did he listen? No, he didn't. He wanted to kill the weeds growing up among the pavers. Little did I know he went out the front as well and saw that weed in the bricks and attacked it. It was right in front of the rose. I think some overspray must have gotten on the rose  It's the most likely explanation. 

So, no, I am not a happy camper. I told hubby that if I ever see him with that spray bottle again I will not be held responsible for my actions. The last photo shows the gorgeous bougainvillea that grows on the side of the front verandah. It's a magnificent bush. Shame I didn't hold the camera straight when I took the picture though....

Take care.

Liz...