The leaf with the half moon missing in the first Pic is from a leafcutter bee, Dont worry about that it wont hurt the rest of the leaf or the plant. The black and yellow is black spot. Cut it off and throw it away. You might need to spray but I never had to in my area so I am not sure what spray would be best. Any spary that treats black spot should be ok.

So, Dreamrosered, how can you tell from the picture of the top of the leaf (first picture) that that is not rust? I am curious because I would have suspected that looking at the underneath was gonna show rust........

Susan

Oh my, Susan, I suppose it could be Rust. I bow to anyone with more experiance ;-) (only been growing for about three years, since I was 25 so...yeah, young with not enough experiance) Elaton is closer in zone to yourself than to me. Darn Canadian weather forces us to have differant roses (Hate that, so many roses not even close to hardy here) and the only time I have seen anything like that is BS (I could easily be wrong) I also missed the very chewed leaf in the background (To me that would say caterpillar but not rose slug) Can we get some more people to weigh in here, perhaps people from a closer zone? I would love any info I can get. Thanks Susan for pointing out my mistake, live and learn eh?

The first picture I'm not sure about. There's a lot of yellowing but not much spot. That looks more like rust. But from the looks of the second picture I'd still go with black spot. And coastal NC is a black spot hot spot.

Thanks Seil, I get the occasional BS(?) but usualy on the bottom of the rose, they yellow like that in Manitoba and I have always assumed it looked more like BS than Rust (from Pics on Yahoo) but I am in the middle of the northern praries so I am not a great source on this I suppose. The second Pic Looks ALOT like BS to me but I know the one leaf in the first pic is a leaf cutter bee as I have seen this before and seen the bee doing it (it was amazing I wish I had a camera that worked all the time, darn!) anyone else care to help out Elaton and myself (and I am sure a few others who have lurked like I have, I know all answers are welcome and appreciated. Us newbies count on the experts here, we need your minds and your kind help.

Thank you
-Erika

Are these roses potted? In ground? My William Baffin had those same yellowing on the leaves like the first pic, but I had a soil test done which helped me correct my soil, and now he's healthy as can be (at least I hope so lol).
What kind of soil do you have? If potted, what did you use to pot up with?
I would start there...
I don't know about the other problems as I am also a newbie myself. :)

2nd pic is blackspot for sure. My mini tree roses were covered in BS for a while. They are potted. I picked all of the infected leaves off and dead-headed the infected flowers. I used a spray by Bayer for fungus.

The top yellow leaves looks like old leaves. Where is it on the plant? Doesn't look like rust to me, I always think of orange day-glo for rust. The cut-out is leaf-cutter bee, as dreamrosered noted.

The second photo shows blackspot.

First pic shows some Leafcutter activity on healthy green leaves. The yellowed leaves is not BS or rust. It could be plant stress from a variety of things, but I primarily suspect these leaves have or had been infested with spider mites, whitefly or leafhoppers and are now yellowing and eentually shrivelling up because all of the nutrients and sap have been drained from them. Turn the leaves over and look for signs of spider mites, whitefly or other tiny sucking inscts.

The 2nd pic is the beginning of BS for sure.

Every rose plant will develop a few cruddy old leaves in the course of the season. These turn mottled or pure yellow and die. It may be only that the plant decided the leaf wasn't worth supporting owing to age, shade, or whatever. That's what the KO leaf looks like to me. I would pull it off and not worry. In my climate, KO will lose a few leaves to actual spot diseases, but not enough to call for control.

Rose rust is bright orange on the underside of the leaf, and it is is rare in the US except near the Pacific Coast.

The Pd'O leaf has a fungal spot that could be blackspot, although blackspot on most varieties has fringy margins. The blurry brown and yellow leaf below could be late-stage cercospora spot. Look up images of these diseases.

Oh dear, Dreamrosed, sorry, I just got back to this thread. I had did not mean to suggest you were wrong !!!! Not at all. This is where I come to learn and I thought maybe you could clarify the subject for ME....not the other way around. Since I'm on the west coast, I do see a lot of rust and often the top of the leaf looks just the way the leaves in that first picture look. On the underside there will be the bright rust spots that make the diagnosis a slam dunk.

My two worthless cents are that unless that is rust, and even if it is, there isn't enough obvious disease to be worried about with these roses.

Susan

Thank you to everyone who weighed in. For the blackspot, is it better to cut off the damaged leaves and throw them away OR spray the damaged leaves (if I do spray I'd prefer something organic - like a baking soda mixture)?

kentstar: The roses in question are in the ground, in good soil, but I've never done a soil test so I guess that's something I should do.

I pick off the infected leaves and discard them. And make sure to clean up any that have fallen around the plant. If you only have one or two small spots, you could probably leave the leaves on and just spray them every few days.

Thanks, Naturalchick27.

What do you use to spray them with?

elaton-- I don't know whether Pd'O will have significant blackspot trouble in your climate. Most roses would, but Pd'O is said to be resistant in some southern gardens. Check every few days to see if spots are developing on more leaves. It's OK to lose a few leaves, but you don't want your plant to defoliate.

Organic sprays are not fully effective and so need to be applied every week during the growing season in regions with high blackspot pressure. See the FAQ of the Organic Roses Forum for the use of sulfur or, alternatively, oil/bicarbonate mixture. I used sulfur for a long time with adequate results, so I can recommend it. However, I have switched to Bayer Disease Control because it only needs applying every two or three weeks and doesn't burn the foliage in hot weather.

Organic sprays will not cure the sick leaves. They are supposed to prevent the spread of disease to other leaves. You must spray the whole plant.

Thank you so much, michaelg.

michaelg is correct - I have a few roses that have "leaf drop" right now. In that first pic, it's not BS (no black spots) or spider mites (wrong coloring and pattern), but they are yellowing in a somewhat stipple pattern that looks exactly like your first pic. I believe it's a combination of heat stress and aging. It usually happens in August with some of my roses, but this is earlier than usual - probably because of the heat wave we've been having.

Michael's advice on the BS in your 2nd pic is spot-on (forgive the pun).

I am having a similar problem with my yellow knockout roses. The leaves have nearly all fallen off and are yellow. The red knockouts are fine at the moment. I"m not sure what to do to protect the other roses around these. Any suggestions? I wondered if it was black spot or rust but it may be something totally different. Thanks!

No idea, but if any of my roses looked like that, I would water them well, and then a day later feed them (assuming you have not been feeding them too much already - I tend to feed too little).

Jackie

jlc0083 do you live where there is winter as there seem to be a lot of brown and yellow canes. Did you prune this spring. If your canes where not healthy they can't take up nutrition to feed the plant.

What is your general location?

I would not fertilize possible stressed plants with hardly any green leaves at this time... Not sure why your problem is happening though...

Has it been overly dry? Or overly wet?

We live in central Alabama. The roses bloomed earlier in the season just fine. This started a few weeks ago. We have clay soil so we had to amend it with other soil to make it usable. We do fertilize about once a month and water by hand. The sprinklers hit the front of this bed but not the rest of it. There are other knockout roses on either side but are different varieties. They seem to be fine though - not showing stress at all. The bed in in front of the house on the south side so we get strong morning sun. Everything else in the bed is doing fine. Thank you for your interest and suggestions. If I need to pull them out I will and replace but I want to find out if there is a problem in the soil.

looks like downy mildew to me - it can be brutal once it has the right conditions. I would cut them back and fertilize them. Water regularly. You should get new growth and once the weather has changed to warmer the disease should stop. I often see that a case of downy can have lingering effects on the rose vigor for the rest of the season.