oops! I posted the pictures wrong and dont know how to delete it edit.

You can if you want but you don't really have to cut them all off. Some people like the look and there is now a florist rose that cultivates it. Not my cup of tea but to each their own.

It doesn't hurt the rose as far as anyone can tell. It may be caused by an excess of nitrogen in the soil or over fertilizing. It may also be caused by weather conditions. Lord knows we have had odd weather!

Not sure what you mean by the buds looking black. Can you post a photo?

The rose looks pretty healthy otherwise. This first bloom was probably affected by the late freeze we had. Next bloom will probably be fine.

I am in Bavaria but we also had a late Frost just about two weeks ago. The outer petals of all the buds have this blackish look in the picture below.

I have the exact thing on some roses, most notably Zaide, in the Spring. I do believe it's the combo of cool, wet weather and possibly fertilizing. For me though it's more the first two as I've had it on Zaide when she was still in a pot with no fertilizer. I'm hoping her buds open somewhat normally. Oddly enough, it's only on the more shaded of the two Zaide. While in full sun now, the sun was not as high while they were developing. It's cool when another rose actually develops straight out of the old flower. I also have the blackened affect due to late freeze.

oh wow, that is so strange looking! i've never seen anything like it.

I have this on about half of my 300 roses! It's ruining my first flush :( I have no idea what causes it. The rose 'Florence Ducher' has it the absolute worst. I am going to deadhead all the blooms off so it can focus on reblooming. I do tend to get this only in spring during the first flush, and normal blooms the rest of the season.

My RCT is blooming for the first time (purchased late season last year) and has the same proliferation as well along with the darkened petals in some cases. It seems healthy otherwise but I’m also seeing this with my otherwise healthy VdB, Souv du President Lincoln, and Mme Dubost. I’m curious if some roses or types of roses more susceptible than others to proliferation?

RCT

VdB

I get proliferations on Raspberry Cream Twirl every once in awhile. Its usually during cooler spring weather. Also on Evelyn more often.

Diane, I agree that a small anount of proliferation is interesting and can be attractive. My baby Bishop (Velours Escopial) from RVR came with buds that have opened up with adorable little proliferation. I honestly don’t even mind it much in general but its a bit annoying when its so bad it takes over the entire bloom on my once bloomers like VdB (though I do sometimes get some late flowers from her). Interesting about the nitrogen, I use Neptune’s Harvest Rose Formula on all my roses which isn’t particularly nitrogen heavy so I don‘t think that is the case here either.

Sultry, it has been a fairly cool this spring and the older comments on this thread mention late cool weather as well so it does seem that might be a trigger.

For fun here is the first bloom from my cute Bishiop (Velours Escopial) from RVR showing proliferation

I get proliferations most often on Flamenco Rosita, but never so much as to spoil the blooms and they look rather cute.

On occasion I see it on The Prince, Thomas à Becket, Falstaff and William Shakespeare 2000. Bit of a dark Austin theme going on there! I don’t think I have seen it on any of my apricot or yellow roses. Also I get bull nosing, which is a pain because the blooms kind of shrink, flatten on top and don’t open at all.

This always happens after big temperature changes, usually from really warm and sunny to cold and raining, like right now. Just noticed some buds on Yolande d’Aragón have a combination of bull nosing AND incipient proliferation!

Proliferations on..

'Eustacia Vye'..

'Othello'..

..trying again with 'Othello'..

I too have a proliferated Othello. Last season, many of the early blooms had proliferation, but not the late ones.

Looks like proliferation is a fashion!

https://my.page2flip.de/16611054/17420225/17420227/html5.html#/20

I have had this happen with Bolero and First Crush. At the beginning of the season, they'll be at least one proliferation bloom. I just cut them off. I've wondered if it has anything to do with the jumpstart of fertilizer in the spring.

Interesting pictures and feedback! So far from the comments it seems a lot of folks see this early spring which makes me feel better. Somehow I never had proliferation in my last garden but I did triple the number of roses I have so I guess the odds caught up with me. I also have a lot more potted roses than usual right now due to ongoing construction projects and as a consequence have been very diligent about fertilizing with liquid fish fertilizer (my dogs will eat anything granular) so maybe that is a factor as well.

Heather, it's definitely a spring thing here, though late spring. But it's quite rare.

Nollie, Evelyn also has bullnosed buds, as well as the rarer proliferations. Yesterday, Augusta Luise sported a huge severely bullnosed bud, which I promptly removed. Ugh. But Evelyn and AL are the only roses to do this. Of course, they are two of my favorite roses. They get mild thrips in the spring, too. With great beauty comes a payment from the rose. The beauty tax, I guess. Diane

Some roses are bred to have that as a feature.. Elizabeth- an Austin, has that on all the blooms when fully opened..

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/products/elizabeth

Kordes (cut) rose 'Houdini' has this "feature' quite prominently..

@cooldoc how interesting! I have DA Elizabeth on the way and will look for that when it blooms.

I have a rose that looked like it had buds but now they are growing leaves. No petals show at all. Just the green lump but with leaves coming out the top.

Out with the dogs this evening and one of my favorite roses on the walk had some cute proliferation going on.

I think this is The Prince? It looks similar to Diane’s picture earlier. It’s more purple than my phone was able to capture and at least 8 feet into a tree (not a climber, just very very tall).

I think it's a weather thing more than a fertilizer thing, at least in my garden. I also get proliferation on many of the roses named here and only on some of the early blooms in the first flush. I got it this year too and as I had a baby last fall, my roses didn't get any fertilizer (no compost, no manure, no alfalfa, nothing) this winter and still proliferation. I grow so many roses, but it's just Augusta Luise and Peter's Joy that get medium to mild proliferation and Bolero who gets very mild proliferation (it looks more like a button eye).

That could be, Librarian. But the bullnose buds are worse than proliferations on Evelyn and Augusta Luise, who just started blooming, and her first bloom has some bullnosing. I hate it. Now what could cause bullnose buds, I wonder? Diane

Falstaff is chief bullnoser here, far worse than proliferation I agree, Diane. It could equally be called frozen nose since it aways happens after a cold spell here.

I've got those bullnose buds all over AL this year. They are a disappointment for sure. I think it must be because we had a cold drop after a warm week in March. Some roses get fooled by false spring and others must be influenced more by the length of daylight rather than temperture. Many of my roses were almost a month early, AL included, but wise old ladies like Madam Hardy weren't fooled and are set to bloom as normal in the very last day or so of May.