Bud on Creek

Bud on Creek
Originally uploaded by Rexfree_99

I could change the name of this blog to rose buds and cormorants...just out of range a cormorant swam by.
Sigh...this poor Joseph's Coat looks great in this photo and all the years past photos, but this might in fact be the last year. I have never seen such a suffering rose bush, and I am not sure why.
Symptoms: Whole branches turn brown from the tips moving toward the trunk...then they turn black and are totally dead. Small leaves fry suddenly. Lots of leaf drop...some black spot. This very cheap rose has it all...a real disaster.
But year after year it wins me over with the beautiful flowers and the hope that THIS will be the year that it will extend along the chain link fence and hide it from the world.
And each year, all of the above happens. It is the first rose I planted when I moved here except for my Iceburgs which I brought in containers from the country. They are fine! What is the problem with this guy?
I am a no spray person, except for water and I tend to remove a lot of aphids manually...with my gloves on...this sucker has the worst thorns. I have fertilized it though not yet this year, added new soil to the barrel it grows in, let arugula grow all around it to keep the glare down...and it just wants to die!
This year for sure I think it will have to go. Hard to say that much less do it.