I've been having the same problem. It seems to hit the Chinas worse, then HT's and Teas, and also my Musk rose. Gallicas, Portlands, HP, HM all seem okay. I think it's the screwy weather.
Canker is a fungus. You can spray for it. I'm no-spray so will try to hang in there, but I might get desperate.

I sprayed with 2 different sprays. It did not stop it.

If you're going to use a fungicide, you might want to use one that's systemic. It sounds as if some of the problems for sunni might be inside the plants rather than coming in airborne.

In my garden some of my problems go back to the Easter Freeze two years ago followed by two summers of exceptional drought. The roses were weakened and some are slow to come back (HTs).

Hi, I just wanted to give you a big hug and am very sorry to hear about your loss. I too lost my tree rose to canker but for completely unrelated reasons and a completely different situation from yours. It is such an awful feeling to lose roses to this terrible disease.... I am wishing for you recovery and hope and speedy healing for your surviving roses.

It has been so long since I winter protected that I forgot that winter protecting promotes canker. Another good reason not to winter protect. You wont lose any roses (I never do) and canker will be less of a problem. Canker happens if you have cool damp conditions and if you get it there is nothing that you can do about it. When it warms up the problem will go away.

I'm seeing a huge amount of canker this year. It's done nothing but rain, rain, and then rain some more. The weatherman said it's been the rainest March & April on record since 1946. That, coupled with the cool temps, have left my roses a cankered mess. The forecast for next week is not good either.

I spray with Bayer Advanced. Will this help halt the canker spread? I feel your pain, Sunni. I just cut several canes of my Brite Eyes climber to the ground. Hateful stuff, canker.
-terry

my normal regimin is bayer advanced, that did not help. I the sprayed with some ortho disease control I had, did not help.

We do not ever winter protect here. I never gets that cold. The only thing I do is drag tree rose indoors on very cold nights.

I remember obsessing about canker in the past because I hated to lose those nice big canes that survived the winter. But it doesn't really matter. Wait six weeks and the ones you cut back will look just as good as the rest. Maybe better. Canker will not get those big beautiful new canes that really matter the most.

Sunni

How awfull. And last week they were all looking so good.

Liz

You said it Terry, canker is hateful stuff. Sunni, I've found my modern roses MUCH more susceptible to canker. I use the Bayer Advanced, and it doesn't seem to stop it. I don't winter protect, all my canker starts at old pruning cuts.

Eric

Thank goodness....I thought I was such a loser! I have perpetual canker. It constantly starts at old pruning cuts. This year it is awful, but I DO winter protect and this year it has been wet and cold all spring. What's a mother to do?!?!?!

Has anyone found Daconil to be ineffective against canker? I have it, but rarely use it, due to its potential for eye damage.

Our climate is a little too cold go without winter protection--the losses are terrible if we don't do anything. But, wrapping burlap over the canes and mounding soil over exposed crowns seems be a good compromise--we didn't lose anything out of 150 roses, including dozens of HTs. We don't have any HTs with obvious RMV--they were shovel pruned last year.

How about this? A warmer than usual winter so the roses break dormancy early. The result is a longer period during which they are most susceptible to dieback and canker. Add to his wetter than usual conditions and you have your answer why there is so much canker. Also, a long time ago here there were discussions here about how canker overwinters and what you can do. Specifically I seem to remember that the idea was to do good fall clean up of debris and to spray in the fall with something but I don't remember the details. I never did it. Maybe someone else remembers.

Canker is always a problem here in the north for any tender roses that have to be protected, and even for those that aren't. However, I couldn't help but notice while I was pruning this week, that most of my David Austin roses are pretty much canker-free. I don't know why - I had plenty of canker on my other roses, including shrub roses. Maybe they are a little hardier and don't suffer from as much winter damage, which usually results in canker infestations at the damage site? Those with winter damage often had splits on the lower part of the canes, and in most cases the splits were infected with canker. Growing roses is like reading detective novels - always trying to figure our "who done it" and "how".

--Sunnishine, interesting that you mention The McCartney Rose. Mine (a 1-year ownroot plant) was black to the ground and beyond this spring. It has made one small shoot which also looks sickly.

--"Is it in the soil?" Yes, but that's no particular concern. Fungal spores are everywhere always.

--The galloping black crud that consumes whole stems is probably Botrytis. It often starts in canes that were pruned while dormant or in premature growth that was frozen.

--"What about Daconil?" It is potentially effective against several types of canker including Botrytis. The systemic Immunox is also effective against Botrytis. It might be useful to spray one of these after pruning in spring and after repruning for canker. Since spores are everywhere, sterilizing pruners isn't enough to protect wounds.

--Although Wilt Pruf and other anti-transpirants don't give any protection against cold, they might protect against canker if a fungicide such as Daconil were added to dormant-strength anti-transpirant. This might be applied in November and again after a premature grow-out/freeze or after spring pruning. This is just my speculation; there has been no controlled test of it.

--As Ann said on another thread, when pruning out canker, try to prune 1" below the visible infection.

Karen, I agree with the correlation between winter damage and canker. I took off a nice, long cane from one of my climbers. It had big splits with canker sores all up and down the cane, along with big red blotches. I can only attribute it to the 3 nights and days of -22F temps in January, which damaged the rose's immune system. This is a rose who comes through winter unscatched and no dieback.

Even the much-scorned Knockouts had to be pruned to the ground due to winterkill and canker.

We need sun and warm temps here, and fast.
-terry

sunnishine, I am sorry to hear of it but I am glad for the post, I thought it was just me and my roses have been badly hit, usually my English roses do better than the hybrid teas but this morning I sadly noticed a newly planted Abe Darby has canker on all the canes (thankfully I already have one) and I am losing canes on most of the bushes, I will end up with a bunch of one-cane wonders. The only bushes doing well are the smaller bushy "twiggy ones" like Sharifa Asma (sp?) the rampant Reine des Violettes - I was thinking I will never spring prune again. Seriously, I think in my area it was the warmish winter (mostly) and we have had lots of moisture - the damp rain we will have ALL weekend isn't helping. And here I was especially careful to give great feed this year, the bushes look worse this year than last when I was a bit neglectful.

Sunni, can you post some pictures? I'm curious to see if that is what my problem is here in a specific area.

Carla

I will try and post pics of what is left of them later.

mike-Thanks for the tips. I tried daconil and it was a new bed last year so there is no clean up to do. The McCartney rose is a 1 yr old own root too. It had one big cane it grew at the end of last summer. It totally lost that cane. The only spindly cane left is black at the base.I think it is a goner. hmmmmmm

Liz you saw them. Remember me pointing out the spot where one had died and there were 2 with one cane left and just a few leaves. They were to the right of Golden celebration.

sunni, sorry to hear that. I just planted 12 bands I was nursing in pots all winter. 3 look like goners from canker. Almost all of my HTs have it, they were fine until that dang frost a few weeks ago, then it never stopped raining and then it was 90 degrees! My poor roses.

To top it off, any buds that survived the frost are deformed and bull nosed. I'm really getting sick of this.