Sharifa Asma Rose Issues/Disease?

Rose Growing Diseases
1

Unsure if this is a Disease or a pest or other kinds of damage. Long story short, I bought 5 Roses in late July. I live in South Africa so Winter is May(ish) to August and Spring is in September.

4 of the roses are doing great. Constant new leaves with buds, they are roughly the same size although 2 are the largest. No pests or issues aside from a few Aphids now and then that I remove by hand. Not even a single mark on any leaf.

The 5th rose, the smallest by far is my Sharifa Asma. Judging by the size it seems to be less than a year old. Maybe 6 months when I got it? I noticed when it started to produce leaves, they were sort of twisted and slightly curled. I assume this is because it is a young rose and still needs to mature to develop properly. However today I noticed a few other things. Some of the leaves have burnt/blackened tips. Some are weird shades (Unsure if the leaves are still young and have not fully turned from red to green.) There are no insects on this rose, in fact this rose seems to have had no Aphids at all since I got it. There is a small spider on it but that can’t be the sole reason there are no Aphids.

Some Information:

  • Roses are watered every 2 days. 4L each (~1 Gallon). This seems to be enough to completely saturate the soil and any more results in large amounts of water loss through the drainage holes.
  • Most of the roses receive full sun from 9am to 3pm. Some until 4pm.
  • I have not used Fertilizer beyond a slow release potting mix that was recommended to pot all roses
  • I don’t use chemical spray

Unsure if I am under or overwatering Sharifa or of it’s getting burnt from too much sun. All other roses that are far larger, some 2-3 times the size are doing really well on the same amount of water and sunlight. Is it a disease? Pest?

Sharifa Asma is no longer being propagated in South Africa and I got the last stock. So this is the only bush I will be able to get and would like to propagate a second as a backup so I am really trying to baby it.

Anyone have any idea what could be happening? Images attached

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2

I would say that problem is definitely not being caused by a disease or pest. The potting mix containing slow-release fertilizer (and maybe wetting agents, too) is likely the primary cause. The damage doesn’t look too severe based on that leaf, so you might start by flushing the medium with water for a while, allowing plenty to escape through the drainage holes. If damage keeps increasing despite the flushing, or for a faster way to prevent further damage, you could try removing it from that growing medium, maybe soaking the plant’s roots in plain water for a while, and then repotting into an entirely different mixture (preferably one made from basic ingredients that you’ve selected yourself). With any luck, flushing the medium will correct the problem without having to do anything else.

Stefan

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