What makes a pink rose bush bloom a nearly white rose?

This year after planting my pink rose bush in the ground I had 19 roses the first time around of blooming. Then just recently it began to bloom again. I noticed that one of the flowers was white; while the others are pink in color. I was just wondering what could have make it do that?



1st image take two day before the pink one bloomed:

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb261...



2nd image taken two day after the pink one bloomed next to the white rose:

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb261...

What makes a pink rose bush bloom a nearly white rose?
Grafting would affect blooms on the same cane. First thought after seeing the condition of the white rose is thrips. These are insects that get inside the bud and suck the juices and weaken the flower...and perhaps to the point the pink didn't form up.



This looks like a mini rose??? You could also have spider mites...they just LOVE minis. They are "suckers" too, slurping all the plant's strength.



Thrips you can see (with good glasses) by tearing apart the bloom and watching for quick scattering little brown or green specks. Spider mites leave the leaves rather spotty and yellowed or grey. Thrips need a pesticide, mites can be washed off daily for 2-3 weeks to break apart the repo cycle.



Another thought is a genetic mutation........have to see if it happens again on the same cane.



TFinally a virus......which we won't even think about here.



I am concerned on how you are pruning. Cut spent blossoms back to a 5 leaf cluster...just above the. Don't leave long blind canes since they will not produce a flower and will only attract disease and insects.
Reply:The pink part of your rose bush was probably grafted onto a white rose stock.
Reply:that rose did not look healthy, and tho genetic mutation is a possiblility, i suspect less-than-optimal rose health here. so: is this in a pot? big enough? (be generous with roses!) lots of ferts, plenty of h20?. good quality soil w/plenty of humus?
Reply:White flowers simply have no pigment. So it is a simple sporting event (mutation) that lost the color in that portion of the plant. It could easily be just in the cells that produced the one flower so pruning could remove the altered chromosomes. Time will tell.



Some roses are more prone to mutations than others. Ophelia is a rose that had many sports (mutations) - Madame Butterfly was one of them.



One of the most common examples of a rose sport is a change in color of the roses on one cane only. At the following link, you can see an example of a sport in the side-by-side photographs of ‘Westerland’ and its sport ‘Autumn Sunset’: http://www.rose-roses.com/issues/sport.h...



Other examples of a change in color are found between floribunda ‘Livin’ Easy’ and its sport ‘Easy Going’; the David Austin rose ‘Hero’ and its sport ‘Huntington Hero’; and the hybrid tea ‘Peace’ and one of its sports ‘Chicago Peace’.

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