How can I help my damaged roses recover?

[Kescilly]

We put two David Austin roses in the ground last year. I was quite worried about them because of the drought, but we diligently watered them every day, staked them, fed them. I can’t garden much and these were really the only plants I could spend time on and cared about. I’m a total novice so spent a lot of time trying to learn about roses and do my best. I even cleared dead leaves and such from underneath so they wouldn’t encourage fungus.

They were looking really great this year. They had grown so much and looked really healthy. Then some builders came and trampled them. It’s difficult to tell from the photo, but basically a huge chunk of them has been broken off. There’s also some sort of dust or something has been poured over them. I tried rinsing it off with water but it hasn’t seemed to make a difference.

Is there a better way to get rid of whatever is on the leaves? Should I try to clean them by hand? Also what should I do about the part of the plant that has been broken? Do I cut everything else back a bit? The pavement side is facing south, so the part of the plant that’s been damaged is facing north and I’m worried it won’t grow back as easily.

i.imgur.com/nt1zwZg.jpg

Sorry about the long post, I’m upset about my plants and want to do whatever I can to help them now.

There’s not much you can do about the broken bit other than prune it down to a growing bud. It will grow from there.
The dust should wash off, but you don’t know what chemicals are in it. I’d again, remove the worst affected leaves.

It’s essentially broken all the way down to the ground on that side of the plant, no growing buds. Will the plant eventually compensate and grow more on that side?

I tried a watering can but the dust hasn’t washed off so I think it’s settled onto the leaves. The plant is starting to look a bit droopy compared to how healthy it was before.

Actually I have a feeling it wasn’t dust, that it was some sort of wet mixture that got splashed over the plant. There are all these white spots on it now.

The rose will grow lopsided, but with growth and eventually careful pruning it could look balanced.

Roses take a really hard pruning. I strongly suspect it will be fine. I cut one in my garden back to the stump, at the time a novice, hoping the bugger would die. And a couple of years later it was bloody bigger than before.

Just look after it as yiu were, I suspect it will be fine, it will just take some time.

I would do a hard prune too. It's not too late in the season and your regrowth will be more likely to be balanced. Don't forget to feed, water in prolonged dry weather and spray them as the plants will be stressed.

Thanks everyone, that gives me hope.

@lostinspats is that a hard pruning all over? I’d say about 1/4 of the plant has essentially been broken down to the ground. We did already prune the plant quite a bit a month ago, but I can prune some more if it would help.

The dust is probably mortar or cement, just cut the splashed leaves off.

One of my roses suffered a similar squashing at the hands of a builder a few years ago, it did take a while, but it's lovely now and you'd never know.