I wish you had posted this a few days ago. I cut off all my damaged blooms and threw them in the garbage.

Usually it is brown around the edges even on buds. If you open the flower, you can see the tiny thrips squirming around. IME the bloom has a hard time opening and may not open at all.

I have sprayed for them.

Buford gave you the best way to detect your problem rather than relying on pictures. If you open a flower you feel has thrip damage you won't miss the rotten little buggers, they will be all over the inside of the flower. You will see them the minute you fully open the flower! I normally get them every year at first flush. Later flushes not so much, so perhaps they don't like my summer heat?

Here are some photos, this is Pink Don Juan. It's not a light colored rose, but gets devastated by thrips every year. I did spray these, but apparently not soon enough.

Thank you all very much. I suspect it isn't thrips,since I don't see damaged buds,though i will try to open a bud, just in case. This was a big help, since frankly it does seem true that thrip damage can look a lot like other issues; for example, to my eye, in the bottom photo the buds look as if they were balling!

The second photo looks like what I thought botrytis looked like, but I'm not an expert on this. What I think is thrips' damage around here is blooms whose petals are narrowly edged in brown and sometimes look a little ragged. But the entire bloom isn't affected like the photos above. I also have some insect that eats out the center of buds. I can't seem to identify it and have had this damage for many years on certain roses in particular, usually many petaled ones in both dark and light shades. This year over half my roses have been affected with at least some eaten out buds. I suppose that could be thrips damage, too, but where are those little thrips? I never find them. I need to get some photos taken of this damage. Diane

I have found that thrips can damage a bloom so badly that they will not open and appear to 'ball'. When I tell you that these blooms were infested with thrips I'm not lying. Maybe there is some balling going on as well, but they definitely had thrips. The first picture shows what the open blooms look like.

That happens to mine too when the thrips are really heavy like that.

Gack, that's horrible. Those things must be worse in the South. Diane

Some roses just get dirty edges. But some roses have every bud/bloom that looks like the pictures above.

Sorry, buford! what I meant was that the problems in MY garden wasn't thrips; I wasn't saying that the damage in your photographs was due to balling!!! I see that my comment was ambiguous. My point was that thrip damage-certified thrip damage, as seen in your photos-can look like something else, and for this specific reason I requested a photo. I am truly sorry to have communicated so badly,especially since your comments and photos have been of such help to me!!!
Diane, I have that problem that you mention, too. Something eating the center of the bloom, but no sign of what it is. And another gross thing: sometimes I find the spoiled bloom full of ants! so I think there must be some tiny,almost-invisible bug in there that attracts the ants...but what is it???

Well, thanks for the offer, Diane, but I am in the process of "going no-chemical". The general quality of my flowers has definitely improved since I stopped spraying for insects; now,last year, I quit totally with fungicides. I kind of fell off the wagon though, using up some granular chemical fertilizer, and then the slugs and snails got so bad, and I'm trying to establish some baby delphiniums, and the only product locally available is a blue-pelette poison: much more expensive than the traditional one, but the traditional one supposed can kill animals that sniff around it! (seriously, why use a poison strong enough to hurt/kill a dog, when the target is a snail???????) I want to try the beer traps, but didn't get around to it. I really want to improve the quality of my soil, and adding chemicals is counter-productive to that I think. Not to mention all the other motivations...

I thought that Cream Veranda was just going to ball which she sometimes does in a lot of rain. With everyones mentioning of thrips I thought I would check. I removed a bloom that had started to brown a little. Under a magnifying glass when I opened it up. They were inside still tiny babies. I've removed the other buds in hopes of keeping the population down a bit on her.

Cherry Parfait with regular flower thrips

Koko Loco bud with regular flower thrips

Diane,I'm sorry to bother you again, but I have another question about the Mystery Damager. Looking around the other day, it seems to me that perhaps it's limited to mainly just one rose right now: The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild, an Austin. Now, I seem to remember that earlier this year, it may have occured with James Galway as well, another Austin,but JG was having other issues with flowers opening badlyand damaged, which may have been due to the weather,as well as the fact that it's between 2 ramblers, and I added in some other neighbours last fall, so maybe JG is having issues with that, as well. On The Ingenious Mr.F,the damage is mainly just in the center : the stamen area is completely blackened,and the stamens are gone; it's just this ugly black nub,spoiling the effect of the flower entirely. Does this description sound like what you are experiencing? thanks, bart

I've just got to get some photos of this damage for you to see. The worst of the damage seems to be winding down rapidly. Your description is quite similar to the damage on my roses. Buds are either "drilled" out in the very center, or eaten out more extensively. The stamen area is completely destroyed. The discoloration ranges from blackish brown to light brown. Even the edges of the outer bud petals are affected with brown discoloration. The severely affected can still try to open and the bud is mostly destroyed on those. Less severely affected will open, but the center is missing. I have several Evelyn roses which have been affected for years. Others which are susceptible are Colette (severe), Caramel Antique, The Prince, Augusta Luise (severe), and Love Song. These are all many petaled roses with an antique look. The puzzling thing is that these roses grow right next to other roses that aren't damaged at all. I also have thrips damage on some roses that aren't "drilled", just have the brown edges on some petals. None of these look as bad as the above photos show. The drilled buds have different look entirely. I'll try to get some up soon. Maybe we can solve this thing together. Diane