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What’s wrong with my rose? Oddball rose buds could be signs of stress

Combination of too much heat or not enough water can trigger phyllody

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUN 8, 2022

These are the weird rose buds that

prompted Kristine Castrillo's letter. The

condition is called phyllody. (Photo courtesy

Kristine Castrillo)

What’s wrong with my rose? If buds look like they grew in “The Little Shop of Horrors,” hormones could be the problem. But why?

A question from Kristine Castrillo of Vallejo, a regular listener to our friend Farmer Fred Hoffman’s podcast, prompted this blog post. What she saw this month on her new Forever Amber floribunda tree rose will become relatively common in Sacramento this summer. I know I will see it on my Perfect Moment; it always shows up in August.

First, here’s Kristine’s letter:

“I’m new to roses, and recently planted five rose trees in my backyard. When I went to deadhead some spent blooms, I came across a weird growth coming from the middle! My instinct is to cut it off, but my curiosity is to keep it on to see what happens.”

Kristine attached a photo and included some details about when, where and how she planted her new tree roses. That included another clue: She added fertilizer to the planting holes and top-dressed with compost. The oddball buds showed up two weeks later.

Stress from transplanting and heat probably triggered this phenomenon known as phyllody (pronounced fil-o-dee). It also can be caused by water stress (which can be aggravated by fertilizer), disease or exposure to glysophate, the active ingredient in Round-up herbicide.

A similar condition is called fasciation (like fascination with no “n”), which results in deformed growth such as fused buds and stems. It’s also probably linked to hormones during development, and affects a wide range of plants.

UC Cooperative Extension master gardeners’ plant notes, from the university’s Integrated Pest Management website, describe rose phyllody this way:

“Rose phyllody is a flower abnormality recognized for more than 200 years in which leaf-like structures replace flower organs. The fundamental cause seems to be changes in plant hormone balance, brought about by abiotic conditions such as environmental stress, or by living infectious agents. Some rose varieties such as floribundas are more likely to exhibit phyllody symptoms, probably due to genetic susceptibility.”

Viruses and disease can disrupt hormone production and cause phyllody, add the master gardeners.

“(But) in roses, the most common cause of phyllody is environmental stress, such as hot weather when flower buds are forming, or water stress,” they explain. “If environmental factors are the cause, affected plants usually have normal and abnormal flowers simultaneously but otherwise look healthy. When the weather cools, the bush resumes producing only normal flowers.”

Those super-hot days in mid-May could have triggered Kristine’s case of phyllody. If the plant didn’t get enough water to go along with that double dose of fertilizer, the rose may have experienced some water stress, too.

In my garden, some roses are more susceptible to phyllody that others. It tends to be more common in my floribundas, but my Perfect Moment (a hybrid tea) sprouts odd buds whenever we get a long stretch of triple-digit days in summer.

The solution is easy: Prune off the odd bud and let the rose sprout another one. Given enough water (and cooler days), it should look normal.

The important thing to notice is if it’s the occasional oddball bud or the whole bush. If the weird growth is just now and then, or appears on the bush at the same time as normal roses, then it’s stress-related. If it’s the whole bush and every new bud, then the condition is more serious and likely points to virus or disease.

For more on phyllody and other rose maladies: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7463.html

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GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

UCCE master gardeners Sacramento roses heat stress deadheading rose diseases irrigation abiotic factors weather gardening phyllody UC IPM environmental stress flowers

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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Aug. 18: Pollinators adore scabiosa, aka pincushion flower

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July 28: Naked Ladies put on summer show

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June 30: Agapanthus adds blue fireworks to the garden

June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

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April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

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March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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