Have you had a lot of rain and maybe poor drainage? I believe it's botrytis blight. The buds that open show brown edges. This is a first for me, too. We've had non-stop rain.

There are other, more knowledgable gardeners here that I hope will respond.

Are you spraying anything?

Dingo2001: No... I’ve never sprayed

Looks to me, too, like too much water. Are you getting lots and lots of rain?

Thrips maybe? I get this on anything light colored, assumed it was thrips.

Thank you everyone for your responses. All very helpful.

Botrytis Blight and Tripes are both very good leads for me to look into.

If it is Botrytis Blight Fungus... I’m gonna give this a homemade fungicide try and and see how it goes. https://www.google.com/search?q=botrytis+blight+roses&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS760US760&oq=botrytis+blight&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.9690j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_H0H_XvD8Dcux0PEP06W2kAw3

If it’s trips... I’m gonna have to try this first... https://youtu.be/11K7YmGbK2s... but I may also need to look into predatory bugs to help get rid of them.

Witchygirrl: how do you prevent or get rid of thrips???

Flowersaremusic: How do you get rid of botrytis blight when you get it on your roses?

Ann, which area of SoCal do you live in? Chilli Thrips have made their way into most of LA, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and portions of San Diego and Ventura Counties. The proliferate in heat, so you will likely see increased damage symptoms now the heat of summer has arrived. These links may help.

https://www.desertrosesociety.com/chilli-thrips

https://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/lso/thripslinks.htm

http://agrilife.org/extensionento/files/2016/04/EEE-00041.pdf

https://www.mastergardenersd.org/rose-chilli-thrip/

Ann, this is a first for me, too, so I am also waiting for an answer. I had the blotchy pink dots on rose petals one other time (also botrytis, I think), but all these brown buds is a first. This is normally a very dry area.

As for thrips, some people here have had luck with brightly colored plastic picnic cups, smeared with any oil - vaseline to cooking oil - held at bloom height on a stick. The thrips go for the color and are trapped in the oil. (That doesn't make sense to me because thrips usually like the lighter colored roses.) Other than that, I've never heard of a thrip preventative. I'll read your links. Thank you for doing the research and posting the links.

You didn't ask about aphids, but if you have them, try to attract chickadees to your garden. They're light enough to sit on a stem without bending it over and devour every aphid in sight. My aphids are so bad this year, that the chickadees have become almost pets.

roseseek, I will also take note of your links because our weather is new and different every year. We've had so few pests and fungal problems, but looks like they're finding us. Thank you for the links.

Thank you Roseseek! I will look into this... and I suspect you might be right. I’ve never had this issue until this just year. Hoping I’ll be able to find a good solution. Thank your the helpful links.

By the way... I’m in Orange County, California... about 6 miles from the coast.

You're welcome. I sincerely hope it won't be Chilli Thrips, but they appear to be spreading everywhere and the heat doesn't help. The greased, colored plastic cups help with Western Flower Thrips but not Chilli Thrips.

I really hope it’s not Chili Thrips... What is grazed colors plastic cups?

Here’s a few more photos I just took... in case it’s helpful to anyone else on here.

Greased cups. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3816744/omg-blue-cup-thrips-control-actually-works

Wow! What a cool idea... worth a try. Hopefully it works.

Read it all. It isn't only blue cups which work.

Will do! Thank you very much. Hoping this works. Hmmm... I wonder why it isn’t working for chili thrips? I’m wondering if it’s maybe the fact they they seem to prefer to attack white roses.

Chilli Thrips are completely different critters from Western Flower Thrips. They are attracted to different things than Flower Thrips.