roses are not as difficult as many believe, trust me. You should put a photo of the leaves. The holes could be due to parasites (maybe Athalia rosae). Blackspot could be due to bad air circulation, so check if the rose is "suffocated" by overgrown hedges and similar.

Three simple steps:

1-remove all severely diseased leaves (burn them, else the spores of the fungi will just stay close again to the plant and re-infect it). New leaves will soon appear.
2-at the same time, spray a broad-spectrum fungicide.
Natural fungicides that in italy are allowed even for biological agriculture are based on copper (copper oxyclorure etc). They are effective in preventing fungal diseases.
3-at the same time, use a broad-spectrum pesticide. Pyrethrum is a natural product, cheap, extracted from plants, very effective, allowed even in biological agriculture.

You often will not have a rose with 100% of leaves being 100% healthy 100% of the time, that's impossible for many roses which are disease susceptible, but you can nonetheless have an overall very healthy bush that will flower a lot.

If you plan to add new roses, go for the more healthy kinds. ADR is a german selection which is very though, if you see that a rose won the ADR prize that's a very good sign. Plus in your climate you can easily grow rugosas: alba, rubra, roseraie de l'hay, dagmar haartrup are completely disease free and no-spray roses.

Blackspots with small holes are signs of spot anthracnose, a usually mild fungal infection. I would ignore it until you learn more about roses.

Chances are your parents planted a modern rose, such as a Hybrid Tea or a Floribunda. Modern roses tend to bloom every year so long as the plant is still healthy enough to put out leaves and make some semblance of growth. Modern roses are usually sold as grafted plants with the named variety grafted to a rootstock variety. In your case, I suspect the named variety has perished and your seldom-blooming plant is the rootstock variety. There are several options, but I'd buy a new rose.

I can't say that Roseraie de l'hay has been disease-free for me. I have some trouble with black spot on them (they aren't overcrowded either, lots of breathing room) and rugosas aren't supposed to like sprays and so I'm reluctant to do anything even in the way of organic sprays. My Rosa Rugosas, rubra & alba have no such problems. This is my first year growing Quietness and Kiss Me. They're supposedly pretty trouble free. I'll have to see what this summer brings.

When you have no blooms or buds, you have a insect called midge. It's a tiny little thing that drills a hole in the bud. So your bud will fall off, and you will have just leaves. I recommend Merit granules to kill off the insects coming out of the ground. There is at least two generations a year. Use the granules, not the spray. Then water it in well. This same chemical will take care of the grubs that come out as Japanese Beetles.

Midge damage is very distinctive. It either looks like the burned end of a matchstick and the end is brown/black and crispy or there is a bud, but the bud is nodding and there are brown/black scrape marks on the neck below the bud. See harryshoe's photo at the end of the thread linked below.

I'm with Mike R., I'm suspecting rootstock suckering and that Dr. Huey has arrived. Sara, did you cut the plant back at all during the past few years? If you have been pruning/cutting the canes, and the plant has suckered, Dr. Huey is a once-blooming climber that blooms on the previous year's growth. that may be why you haven't seen any buds/blooms.

Here is a link that might be useful: Midge control help, please!

Not Dr. Huey - R. multiflora. It's much more susceptible to anthrancose. The rules are the same, though.

My parents have cut the plant back a few times, as far as I know. I walked past the poor thing the other day and it just looks so sad, I can't wait to try all these ideas and see if I can fix it! This plant is my baby - it was propagated from a rosebush my grandfather had since the 1960's and is very dear to me - I really hope I can fix it!

The leaves looked (and felt) very crunchy to me last summer and they looked exactly like the pictures I found so I'm inclined to agree with whoever suggested the midge damage. This might be a silly question, but where do I get these Merit granules?

Thank you all for helping me save this part of my family's history! :)

Sararose, scratch my first posting, your last posting changes everything. If the rose was propagated by a family member, it is almost certainly not grafted and is still the same plant grown by your grandfather. I'll butt out and let other people offer suggestions on how best to bring your plant up to snuff.

Can you post a picture? The knowledgeable people here can give you some idea of what type of rose you have just by looking at the canes and leaves.

I can take a picture of my poor pitiful plant and post it tomorrow - I can't believe how smart all of you are about roses, I am so clueless! Thank God for all of you! I am floored at the thought that you all could figure out what kind of rose it is just by looking at it without blooms or anything! Amazing.

I'd suggest spreading granules containing Merit and Cyfluthrin on the ground underneath the roses as soon as the temperatures hit the 70s. You may want to repeat this once a month during the growing season.

Here is a link that might be useful: Merit and Cyfluthrin granules

First of all, in my experience, anthrancose is not a disease of repeat blooming modern roses. Frontenac will get it, and The Fairy will get it, but hybrid teas, floribundas and more typical modern shrubs don't really. So based on that, I'm guessing it's a once blooming multiflora rambler. Good close up pictures of the entire leaves can answer that question fairly quickly. Multiflora hybrids have very noticable fringed stipules - the little offsets at the very bottom of the leaf.

If that is what it is, it won't bloom if regularly cut back. It's a very common problem here. It's harder to solve is the cutting back is from winterkill, but it doesn't sound like that is the case.

You can get merit form Lowes.

Well, it turns out my mother hasn't given me all the information there is to know about this rose! I asked her today what kind of rose she thought it might be, she told me that some of the blooms were mauve and some were pink/white... how is that possible? Unless this rosebush is two different rosebushes(which is what my mother thinks)? Now I'm really confused. So far, no actual leaves yet, but I have some pictures that I took today.

[IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk309/SMPagano28/IMG_0119.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk309/SMPagano28/IMG_0120.jpg[/IMG]

It just really doesn't look healthy to me at all and I don't know what to do anymore. I wish my parents had taken better care of it so that I wouldn't have to worry about it so much now. Help!
Sara

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1. The description of color sounds like it could be a multiflora rambler as Mad Gallica suggested. These have many small flowers in June. Go to helpmefind.com and look at Veilchenblau or Seven Sisters (multiflora).

2. Ramblers must not be pruned severely in fall or spring. This would prevent them blooming. Possibly this is the whole problem

3. The diagnosis of spot anthracnose disease is based on holes inside the dark spots or rings. Before the center drops out, it is colored light gray or tan. If the holes are separate from the spots, it is insect damage such as rose slugs, usually trivial. Post a closeup picture of your spots when they appear.

4. Rose midge is unfortunately common in northeastern zone 6. It is a very bad problem that calls for insecticide use a couple of times a year. This is a possible diagnosis, but you will need to watch and see whether the growth tips are being killed massively. As I understand it, roses are usually able to make some growth in the early season and then growth is inhibited later on as the pests build up. For more info and pictures, search on robin rosetta midge.