Disneyland Roses - Fall Rebound - Early October 2024

Dahlias aren't the only thing 'popping off' in our garden right now.  Surprisingly (to me), I'm seeing some nice-shaped blooms on our Disneyland Roses that are planted in our sideyard.  Last year, we had six of these Disneyland Roses - but I lost all three in the front porch bed.  (I replaced them with Dahlias, which...I think worked out nicely...)

But, the three on the sideyard are still around.  But, they struggled all year. 

I published a post in June titled:  The Disneyland Roses are Struggling.  At that time, they were dealing with (what I'm pretty sure was) a double-trouble combo:  sawfly larvae and fungus.  I treated them a variety of ways - Neem Oil, insecticide dust, systemic combo treatment. 

They seemed to 'rebound' by late June.  But, that might have been a response to fertilizer.  Then, they dropped all their leaves.  That had me REALLY worried. Articles like this one - talking about how roses drop their leaves when stressed - didn't pacify me.  

I kept up with my feeding schedule and with the planting of the dahlias, I turned to watering the Disneyland Roses even more the past six weeks.  

That's resulted in *another* rebound.  They started to put on new foliage growth a couple weeks ago.  And today...I'm seeing SOME initial October blooms that are well-shaped and holding their petals.  See below for the current state of the three Disneyland Roses:

Below is a look at one of the Disneyland Roses that is showing some new light-green growth with new foliage.

In 2022, these were blooming all the way until mid-November.  I'm hoping they'll recover and bloom in the coming weeks.   The last time I fed these were September 2024.  

The other thing that I need to do this Fall - and in 2025 - is to add 'cracked corn' to the base of these roses.  Why?  It (surprisingly) helps fight fungus.  From Birmingham Live:

Preventing black spot disease in your roses this autumn is crucial, and there's a simple natural remedy that can help. Cracked corn, commonly found in bird feeders or used as chicken feed, doubles as a soil amendment to fend off fungal diseases, reports the Express.

Cathy said: "Cracked corn is an inexpensive source of the beneficial fungus Trichoderma which research has shown to be an effective fungal biopesticide.

"We can attest to its efficacy. We have been treating our rose beds with cracked corn since 2005 and have noticed a dramatic decrease in the incidence of blackspot when we put it down in early spring compared with those years when we either didn't use it at all or put it down much later in the season."

I feed the squirrels with cracked corn, so I should dig some out and put it down.  Fall 2024/2025 to-do list item.