Strange rose flowers

turmeric

Hi all, my friend has two rose bushes in pots where they've been happy for two years.  This year however the flowers are opening like tight flowers.  They look like dried rose flowers, too many tightly bunched petals, short stubby flowers.  Last years flowers were quite normal, medium sized loose flowers.  I'm sorry but I don't have a picture.  The leaves are healthy and the plants overall look healthy, it's just really strange flowers (and in early April they're a bit early too!).  If it was one flower I'd put it down to a virus in that bud but for it to be all of the currently open buds (about 5-6 on each plant) I thought it might be something else.  Any ideas anyone?  Many thanks. turmeric 

Nollie

Probably just down to erratic weather, good weather early on can cause them to bud up too early, then it turns cold again and they sulk/refuse to open properly. Often I have that, as it is usually very warm in February here, then the weather turns cold and wet. If the pots are big enough, they have been given their spring feed, watered well and the foliage is healthy I would tell your friend not to worry. They can cut off all the unopened/weird buds and the roses will put out new ones. Perhaps a weak tomato feed and a good drink to encourage them, but apart from that, they will pick up on their own.

turmeric

Thanks Nollie.  I passed her garden this week and she asked me. She did feed earlier in the year and they've been watered properly and the pots are big enough.  I've cut off the flowers that were open for her.  But I think it might be something else, I've not seen it before.  Each flower was more like a squashed cabbage. Instead of last year's roses that were loose and about the size of a teacup, these are about an inch across, half and inch deep and so tightly packed that you can't separate one petal from another.  She was really disappointed as I think they were a gift for her 80th.

Nollie

Hmm, ‘balling’ after heavy rain was the other thing I thought of after I answered you, where the petals stick together and don’t open properly, some roses are prone to that, bit if she hasn’t seen that in the past, that might not be the answer either. Was there any sign of insect damage on the buds? Holes bored in them from the outside causing them to be deformed and not open properly could be earwigs, for example, or other insect damage. Tricky without seeing a photo.

I have tagged our rose expert for you, she knows far more than me. Any ideas @Marlorena ?

turmeric

Thanks Nollie.  I should see my friend again in about a fortnight. If she stays indoors I'll get close to the roses and take a photo.  There was a bud which wasn't near opening but the side of it looked as if it had been sliced off.  I also thought insects but can an insect cause such abnormalities to all the flowers? Wow!

Nollie

Yes they certainly can, and widely varying temps too. Here is a tiny bud I have just picked off from a shrub that has large blooms. Look familiar?

turmeric

Hi Nollie, I think I've solved it.  It's called bullnosing.  I found a video online and it matches the way the flowers looked.  It's caused by hot days bringing on the flowers then cold nights stopping them in their tracks so to speak.  So the flowers open but in a stunted way.  Sometimes proliferation occurs aswell (I did find a second bud forming within one of the flowers funnily enough).  Hooray! I shall tell her to remove the unsightly ones and hopefully as the nights warm up the rest of the flowers will recover.  Thanks again for all of your efforts, we got there in the end!

Nollie

No problem, Tumeric. Bullnosing is an American term, which basically means balling/blooms not developing/opening properly, so far as I understand, so it’s not a different problem to that caused by the erratic temps and/or insect damage we already discussed.

Two additional things she can do is only water during the mornings and only at the base, not on the leaves (she may be doing this anyway) so the roses don’t suffer an additional shock if overnight temps drop. Plus check the undersides of leaves and the new buds for signs of insect larvae or physical insect damage.

The main things is that they will recover!

turmeric

Thanks Nollie, have a lovely Sunday.