I have gradually eliminated the most BS prone roses in my gardens. I just do not want to spend so much time spraying--which is why I never replaced my third Peace rose (some years ago) after I spaded it in disgust. But I still think it is an incredibly beautiful rose. But nope--I refuse to be tempted again!

I really miss Gypsy Carnivale--red with yellow reverses. So charming--and the worst BS magnet I've ever had--well, unless one of the very first roses I ever planted--Angel Face--wins those honors. I seem to remember you posting a cool pic of Angel Face, Sara--well, between Peace and Angel Face, you have a couple of the worst bs-prone beauties. Every gardener has different tolerance levels, but I kicked both of those out of my gardens years ago.

In one bed out back I have Queen of Sweden, Munstead Wood, Love Song, and the climber The Wedgewood--all of which are mostly excellent on BS resistance. It is such a relief to have such a beautiful bed that is not disease-prone--and I might not have discovered any of them if I had not been on a persistent search over the years for more BS-resistant roses. They turned out to be four of the most beautiful roses in my gardens.

I say, grab that spade and go for it!

Kate

Edited to add: Unfortunately, my latest impulse buy was Pope John Paul II--which you inform me (above) is BS-prone. Groan!

Sara, you seem to be among the growing trend of rose growers who are just sick of sickly roses. I don't blame you. I too am tired of spraying my roses. I will spend all the time in the world fertilizing and improving the soil. But spraying just bothers me.

I do spray and I will continue to do so as sparingly as possible due to having such intense black spot pressure down here. But I only spray when the roses wake up wet from dew every morning. Then I know I'll have to if I plan on keeping any leaves. But I've had great success with some really disease resistant roses like Easy Does it, Elegant Fairy Tale and Duchess De Brabant so I know they are out there. I don't even mind a little black spot as long as they keep growing new leaves to make up for it.

Pat Austin, Claire Austin and The Shepherdess are also good with BS for me. As well as Eden, Boscobel and Dames De Chennonceau. The Romantica style roses seem to do better for me than the standard Hybrid Teas although Regatta has been great and Love gets BS but just shrugs it off and keeps blooming. Unfortunately Pope JPII is a BS magnet for me too. I thought i was just the spot it was in, but it was the first one to get BS come the rainy season.

Dick Clark is another one that like Love gets BS but is so vigorous it just keeps going. I just prune it back when it gets too leggy.

I look forward to seeing people's suggestions as I too am about to start shovel pruning the weaklings. I have no room in my garden for sickies (except for maybe Chicago Peace, I don't think I could ever get rid of her, the blooms are just too gorgeous LOL).

Roses sleep in heavy dew & awake still drenched during most of the growing season in this no spray garden. Those that endure do very well at resisting blackspot despite it. This season's been exceptionally cool & wet with little sunshine, and I'm seeing blackspot scattered on a number of roses that have typically been clean. Sixty plus roses still residing in pots since last Fall, put there for safekeeping while reroofing was underway, are not yet planted out since it's no good working on soggy clay based loam soil here. Though there's space between the individual roses parked in rows, perennials similarly in temp pots are stashed in another area. Normally these two groups are interspersed, rather than segregated. Integration seems to be a key element encouraging rose health here. (Never had much luck growing roses all by themselves, so it's fortunate I prefer mixed plantings.) The potted roses likely have less soil microbial activity than the garden itself. Fully mature roses left undisturbed in ground are barely affected although their buds are ready to open.

Saw this happen once before this time in 2003. Remember it well, since tomorrow is the wedding anniversary of my son & his wife. We had 6 weeks from their announcement till they tied the knot. Both ceremony & reception took place in the garden. It rained heavily every day but one leading up to the date. Bareroot roses ordered & planted beforehand were dug & potted. Some went to the pot ghetto, where they were hidden from view in a disheveled state quite like those now awaiting planting. Others went into decorative planters kept protected from the relentless rain beneath pop-up canopies. Those were immaculate & in full bloom scattered in strategic spots & lining the reception tent windows when the time came. (Wish I'd had the foresight to canopy all the pots of roses awaiting planting now! Planning an event, hope to consider any contingency. This year, the thought that the rain would go on & on never crossed my mind.) Miraculously, on their special day, the sun came out mid morning to shine brightly all day for the occasion...

Those roses relegated to the pot ghetto then mostly recovered once the weather settled into sunny days. Some pushed off spotted leaves on their own a few at a time & grew clean new ones. Mimicking this, others were helped along with scattered removal of hopeless leaves & replaced them as well. Clearing shed leaves daily from pots & ground helped minimize any lingering contagion. All were treated to a foliar spray tonic of seaweed & fish emulsion, my usual treatment for roses off their game. If I'd chucked the lot as duds, would have missed finding those that recover easily from such stress & hit their stride. We've all seen younger plants have bouts with troubles they outgrow with increased maturity or a change of site that suits them better. I've moved roses whose health declined with encroaching shade into more sunlight & seen them recover & thrive. Similarly, those in too much harsh sun have revived with more shade. Conditions recently during their seasonal surge have amounted at most to the equivalent of bright shade - inadequate for the sun lovers - as well as the stress of alternate cool & warm along with overwatering. Roses that thrive in bright shade, such as Penny Lane & Buff Beauty, are rolling along unspotted despite the dreary days, and will need repositioning from their temporarily open exposure if the cloudcover lifts.

Likewise, I came down with a cold, no doubt encouraged by the weather's damp & gloom. Expect to fully recover along with the roses!

I say if something bugs you to the point of worry then break out the shovel...

I'm ever so happy I've already done this. If for no other reason than my age. I do have other reasons that I quit spraying but is beside the point. There is so much to do in the garden as it is and the energy only goes so far. We also have many if not most years. In which my roses are covered in due all season. I really do appreciate my disease resistant roses. It was well worth the investment.

I have found here that a black spot covered rose did not appear to bother my most disease resistant roses. It did infect my borderline roses. That is in the past now. I only had one rose last year that showed black spot and that was Lady of Shalott.

Thank you so much, you've all given me a lot to think about.

I'd suggest watching the results of recent rose trials to find the best disease resistant varieties--often, the winners are specifically bred and tested for disease resistance, so it is no wonder that they win. More importantly, by the time they win, they have been exposed to many different diseases without issue--something that the home gardener is reluctant to do!

Hey Sara Ann, I'm trying to replace a few of mine every year. It will take several years to get all the bs magnets out, but hoping one day to have a garden full of mush less fussy roses...but finding fragrant, bs resistant roses has been hard...lots of non-fragrant choices these days, but I really want fragrance, too. Seems more have become available the last couple of years, so I'm hopeful fragrant choices will keep increasing each year. I started with digging out my worst offenders and/or my least favorites...but it's still very hard to see some of these go. I really didn't want to dig up Peace last weekend or Rio Samba earlier this year, but they both spot SO badly here and aren't terribly fragrant...two strikes and your out :) Fragrant Cloud is still hanging around even though it is a disease magnet. It will have to go one day, but it blooms so much in our climate, smells great and is a good cut rose...so it is further down the shovel prune list. This is really just my second year of seriously SPing, so too soon to tell how my replacements will fare long term, but here are some that have come and some that have gone.

Gone: Touch of Class, We Salute You, Perfume Delight, Veteran's Honor, Golden Celebration, Peace, Bronze Star, Gingersnap, Rio Samba, Strike it Rich, Cherry Parfait, Wild Blue Yonder, Love, Chihuly

Replacements: Savannah, Dark Desire, Summer Romance, Beverly, Enchanted Autumn, Honey Bouquet, LaPerla, Karl Ploberger, Versigny, Prairie Sunrise, Prairie Breeze, Well Being, Big Purple, Madame Anisette, Blue for You, Eyes for You

Pat, thanks! I have to admit that I've made the mistake of planting roses just because I like the way they look, and their fragrance too, with no consideration of the blackspot. That was okay for the first three seasons of my starting over, but this year it's hit with a vengeance! I planted a Veteran's Honor and a Touch of Class this season, VH is already showing blackspot, I thought it was supposed to be healthy! Do you have Pink Promise? I just planted that one too, I wonder about its resistance too. I will have to do the SP a little at a time also, getting rid of the worst ones first! I guess it never hurts to have another excuse to buy new roses, and this is a really good one!

I think this is a very tricky question to answer. I've found that it depends on the year and the weather since it has a profound effect on my roses in terms of vigor. The two roses that I can always depend on for vigor is Golden Celebration and L.D. Braitwaite. They are also among the oldest ones in my garden. All of my roses gets blackspots later in the season but based on last year, Julia Child seems immune so far.

I was going to shovel prune swan lake this year because it is only a one cane wonder but this year it seems to be sprouting multiple canes. It is the first among my roses to get blackspot early but I want to see what it will do this year since it is in its third year.

We were in a drought when we first started growing roses, so BS wasn't the issue it is now. While you may not like how it looks, a tall plant with bare legs is actually a good way for a rose to survive an environment favorable to BS. BS spores splash from the ground to the lower leaves--the higher the lower leaves are the harder it is for an infection to take hold.

Sara, I've had great luck with Kordes roses. There is a thread that Nippstress (Cynthia) started last year with evaluations of her Kordes roses that she grows no spray

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3235370/newflora-kordes-roses-lets-rate-them-to-provide-feedback

I just planted the Kordes last year so I don't have much experience overall but Poseidon, First Crush, Sister's FT, Cinderella all had little to no disease. Poseidon was completely bs free, First Crush had very little. I live in MA in the tri state border so we are only about 35 miles from the Atlantic Ocean in Providence. We have very high humidity for most of the summer and steamy nights as well.

Easy Elegance roses did well too. Yellow Submarine has pretty bright yellow blossoms, Centennial Rose has exquisite palest apricot blooms. neither have scent though.

Julia Child did well but is not really winter hardy for me but she flowered nicely even in semi-shade and smells wonderful. Bolero also did well, just a bit of bs towards the end of summer and is one of the most heavenly scented roses I grow with beautiful ivory, apricot blooms with green button eye in some of the blossoms. One flower will literally perfume a room. She is crossed with DA Sharifa Asma so that must account for her delicious scent and exquisite form. She is such a favorite that I have at least eight. She stays smaller here about 3 x 2.

Sharon

I already had to shovel prune two rose bushes this year due to BS, they were cheap Home Depot specials so no big loss.

I'm surprised you had BS on your Julia Child, my JC never gets it. It all comes down to the weather, if you had a wet and warm spring(like I had) then you will probably be battling BS. The insects have also been horrible this year, my leaves and blooms are being eaten up.

Hey again :) I haven't grown Pink Promise, so not sure on that one. VH was very bad to bs here and not fragrant to me, so it's gone and same with ToC. Both good bloomers and good cut flowers, but I just don't cut many that aren't fragrant. Those may do better for you, as I've heard others say they are resistant for them...different strains of bs I guess. PJPII isn't too bad here...but I still spray some...once I go completely no spray, it may be a different story. I always bought based on what I liked, too...living in humidity heaven where even knockouts get bs, I didn't think no spray would ever be an option if I wanted to grow anything other than a landscape rose, but with breeders focusing more on disease resistance now, it might be obtainable. With my age and my roses both growing in number, would love to get away from fungicides altogether in the foreseeable future.

Thanks again everyone, appreciate it so much. Thanks enchanted rose for suggesting the the Kordes roses, I have several and am considering others. Thanks for answering my questions, Pat. So far my ToC seems healthy, but we'll see.

Vasue, you're in Virginia and say you have a number of resistant roses. If any of them are Austins, would you mind letting us know what's working well there? Thanks!

Spectograph, only 3 Austins have endured here no spray, including a pair of Golden Celebration & a pair of The Endeavour. A lone Abe Darby is off by himself, downwind of other roses, since he blackspots periodically, but does recover & blooms well. The Endeavour seems rather a dark horse out of the Austin stable, seldom mentioned here, but in this garden it's exquisite & healthy. Picked it up at an Autumn nursery sale years ago as one of the few still blooming late in October. http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=50981&tab=1 Austin still offers it stateside. https://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/showrose.asp?showr=4342 Bought another 2 years ago from Heirloom, since the first is grafted & those seem to peter out for me eventually. Wouldn't want to be without it. Wonderful changing hues, solid fragrance, rude health & rapid rebloom from early to late. Well known Golden Celebration shows star power here, with nearly continuous generous bloom from early to late, great perfume, luscious coloring & stalwart health. Soft spot for Abe Darby - great bloom. lovely fragrance, wonderful coloring. The hybrid tea Aloha from Boerner in '49 does beautifully here, but its offspring Abe Darby doesn't seem to have inherited its robust constitution along with its beauty.

Grew Austins since the 80's, many at the time from Wayside Gardens when it was still a reputable source. Those were grafted on Manetti rootstock, not ideal here, and didn't last long. Later ones on Dr. Huey didn't fare much better. Rose mosaic virused plants were common (still?) & that likely contributed to the individual plants' lack of resistance to blackspot & failure to thrive long-term. Austin didn't seem much interested in breeding for health till recently. After 25 years & 100 or so failures, trying to grow Austin's roses no spray in these conditions, lost my enthusiasm. Haven't tried any of his roses debuted in the last 10 years & some of these newer introductions are billed as healthy. Many breeders now produce roses with the "English" look in a variety of forms & colors on healthy plants.

Jim, I love the shovel. Just leaning it nearby should wake up any slackers.

Oldworldroses, I know I'm a beginner, but MW is doing GREAT for me, although they were new grafted bareroots from DAR this spring. Super vigorous and gorgeous! I'm going to post pics in bit. I'm interested in QOS, so hope to hear more of it.

Thanks Vaporvac, please let me know how it does for you in our humid Ohio August and I will put it on my shortlist for next spring. I am also looking at Royal Jubilee which is an Austin climber, said to do well in shade.

Munstead Woods black spots for me in humid Massachusetts. 'Queen of Sweden' is very healthy and holds her blossoms up nice and tall. She's very narrow though, if you're looking for something bushy, and only lightly scented. My absolute best Austin for flowering and health is 'Windermere'. She's always in bloom with palest peach flowers, again very little scent. 'The Generous Gardener' has gorgeous blooms and little disease and smells really nice. This is only my second year with her so I can't yet rate for repeat flowering. 'Gentle Hermione' does well and is scented. I think she smells nice but others find her scent unappealing. 'Brother Cadfael' has nice brighter pink blooms and a strong scent. He has been very healthy in my no -spray garden.

Sharon

Playboy, Hot Cocoa, Oklahoma and Lavaglut are gone from my garden. When I started having vole problems I took the opportunity to dig them up and give them to a friend.

Golden Celebration and Night Owl both have been terrible with BS, despite several early-season sprayings with Bayer. They're really too big to move so they remain. But only until I get ahold of the vole problem. (Guess I'm kinda letting the voles have them, sigh!)

The roses I kept are mostly in pots, and I believe I can grow them all no-spray once the BS magnets are gone. I'm really happy with the health of Sunshine Daydream, Tamora, Prairie Harvest, Lions Rose, the Fairy, Darlow's Enigma, Blush Noisette, Vanity, Mystic Beauty, Belinda's Dream, and Easter Basket. I'll also keep Lyda Rose and Lavender Dream; they do occasionally shed a lot of leaves but always recover.

I ordered mostly Kordes roses this year which I plan to grow in pots: Savannah, Eliza, Pink Enchantment, Peach Drift, Dark Desire. Sure hope they're healthy!

Sharon, I will look at Brother Cadfael and Windmere. I don't know if you guys remember the British ( ITV) TV series Cadfael with the monk for whom the rose was named ( it may have aired in the US on PBS) and his herb garden, so would give me double the incentive to have him in my little English garden.

I use to grow only HTs out in the arid West and they did well for the most part and a few I miss are PJP II, April in Paris, Gemeni, and Barbara Streisand. Once I moved to the Midwest this became a different story and every variety I tried did not do as well and required regular treatment.

I'm glad I jumped on the Austin bandwagon later as I have had greater success with their roses than others. Teasing Georgia, Gentle Hermoine, James Galway, Spirit of Freedom, and Claire Austin have had shown excellent disease resistance. Others I have are good but these really stand out. Many new ones this year and I'm hopeful that they will do well also. I'm afraid that if I had tried some of their earlier varieties I would have given up on them and likely roses altogether.

Kordes Summer Romance has done very well since last year but wish it would bloom more and grow less. Maybe better own root?

Where did you buy Summer Romance as a budded plant? What root stock? Own root here are heavy bloomers and good repeat without having to cut back.

I could be wrong, Chris, but I thought it was grafted and buried what I thought was the union 2-3 inches when I purchased my first one from Lowes last year. I purchased a second Summer Romance this spring (along w/ First Crush and Dark Desire) and I cannot recall whether or not I noticed a bud union. Are own root Parfuma series offered at Lowes?

Hi Dave,

Last year the Parfuma in Lowes were all one-year field grown own root roses. This year was a mix but still the majority were own root. The producers of roses will be offering both for 2017 season. I love the 1 year own root product. They grow quite large in one year and really give a great start to the season and are usually in bud when at the store.

Chris,

That's great to know! I look forward to trying out even more from the Parfuma series next year.

Yes, my first Summer Romance grew to 7-8 feet last year, and that was even with summer pruning it once. It had one good flush in spring and then a smaller one in late summer. Even though this one became huge I became temped again this spring when I saw it in Lowes to try one on my deck in a 20 gallon pot. It is getting big but has been flowering better than the other.

If anyone needs encouragement to get Munstead Woods and Queen of Sweden, consider this my official recommendation. They are my two best Austins and are beautiful and not BS proof, but nearly so.

Just be careful about placement--they probably don't fit together well. MW is 3-4 ft wide and high, whereas QofS is tall and thin. If you want the full look with QofS, that is an excellent one to plant in threes--about 18 inches apart in a triangle form. It creates the illusion of one fuller bush.

Kate

Omgosh Dave, Summer Romance is listed as 4'! I wonder if your size is normal? I may have to completely rethink my beds and find another place for the two I'm growing up in pots as that way too big for their allotted space. I suppose I could substitute the two Cecile Brunners, but the flower size and colour isn't what I was picturing. Does anyone else have experience with SR?

I'm still hoping Lowe's will get in Dark Desire again. I really want to see its blooms in person before committing.