Looks Powdery mildew. It can cause misshapen leaves and white residue.

Yes, powdery mildew. It usually impacts roses that are stressed in some way (lack of water, nutrients, light, etc) or very young roses. Some varieties are more susceptible than others and some climates produce more of it than others. If the rose is young and well situated it may grow out of it as its immune system develops.

Pictures 1,3, and 4 look like rose midge damage to me. I’ve been battling them for 10 years unfortunately. They usually show up in July here. In your zone, they might be out by now, depending on how warm the weather has been where you are.

ON second thought, could it be caterpillars of some Kind? There appears to be frass on stems and leaves of the 4th picture....

I did find a worm of some sort in a stem (I got too freaked out to take a photo and just killed it... It was a translucent color worm about 0.5cm long). We do get super rainy weather but boy I can't believe powdery mildew is out already? I battled with that on my zucchinis last year but not my roses.

What should I do if it's rose midge? It has been a rather cool spring though, in the 8-15 C range.

Sorry, I think I might have jumped the gun in suggesting rose midge. They are a scourge in my garden, and I see them everywhere!

This is the season, at least it might be in your zone, for a kind of budworm, not sure what the correct name of it is, that eats new growth, I get them here too, but a bit later. They usually only affect my OGRs, which set their buds earlier. If you saw a little worm, then that could be it. They cause quite a bit of damage, and leave the black frass everywhere, as evidence. .I tried BT one year, but I’m not sure it made much of a difference’. Hopefully someone in your zone will chime in about that.

a worm of some sort in a stem = rose midge. The damage shown here also fits.

If it IS midge then (I am always second guessing myself!) you‘ll see lots of green rose bushes with no blooms by July😕. I usually get a good spring flush, and then barely anything after. There aren’t many solutions available to us in Canada to deal with them, but you can try some of the organic methods to maybe make a dent in their population.. As has been suggested on many posts regarding midge on this forum, you have to be very vigilant, checking your roses daily for evidence. I read somewhere that they leave a small black wound just under the forming buds that signals their presence. You must remove any and all suspect growth as soon as possible, put in a sealed bag and dispose of it away from your garden. Once you see the blackened tips, they have already fallen to the soil underneath. I’ve removed the top2 inches of soil and mulch around each plant where they have fallen to spend the winter, and replaced it with fresh compost and mulch every year (lots of work and expense depending on the size of your garden). I’ve sprayed with neem oil and Safer’s soap mixed in water, early or late in the day to avoid hurting bees, and even did a neem soil drench one year, but am not comfortable with that since I’m not sure how good that is for my soil creatures. There is some evidence that putting out blue and yellow sticky traps helps catch some of the adults. Several forum members have had success with it. In my experience, I also caught a lot of beneficial insects, so I removed them. If you don’t have a lot of underplantings, you can try covering the soil with landscape fabric or cardboard early in the season, as some posters have done.

I really hope, by some chance, that it’s not midge, but dont take any chances...... it‘s really important that’s you start dealing with it now, before it really gets out of hand.

There are lots of posters who fight this battle every year. Do a search and you’ll bring up lots of information from fellow sufferers on ths forum!

Oh no I think you are right Judith....I just googled rose midge and the worm that I found looked like that... This is only my second year with my rose so I can't believe I already have this problem :'( will they spread? My 2 roses are actually in a big pot on my porch, but I have 3 more roses on the way from David Austin and I really don't want everything to get infected.... Plus one of the two that is infected is Jude the Obscure which I heard DA is discontinuing.

I see some black buds but some normal looking buds. I do have neem oil, I think I will use it since the rose is on my porch and away from my other plants. But I'm really quite devastated that this is happening :(

A few observations:

Freaking out and reflexively killing a 0.5 cm long creature is a learned behavior.

A 30 foot tall human is Si Fi stuff, as would be a 0.5 cm rose midge larva.

Midge in garden bed roses is a pain. In pots, it’s a horse of a different color.

in my opinion, rose midge in a garden is more than just a pain. In Canada there are no chemical means to eradicate them, and for ten years I have struggled to get more than just a spring flush, after spending so much money, not to mention all the blood, sweat and tears invested. They are awful.

But yes, midge will be much easier to get a handle on if your roses are in pots, especially if they are on a patio. One member of this forum, Vaporvac I think, has used landscape fabric to cover the soil in her pots and it seems to have done the trick. Remove all affected parts of the roses, completely cover the soil with the fabric (leave it bare) and maybe a Neem spray in the evening for good measure. When your new roses arrive, pot them up and place them as far as possible from the infected ones, and away from grass or soil areas. Keep a close eye on them for any signs of Midge. You should be ok.

I also have several roses in pots, on raised concrete patios, both in front, and in back, of my house.. They have never been affected.

Thank you everyone! I have covered the soil in landscape fabric now and tried to cover the areas in between the stems as much as possible. Will prune off the damaged stems as well, and neem oil spray later tonight. I guess DA being delayed with their shipping is a blessing in disguise ¯\(°_o)/¯

Crossing my fingers hope this will work. How long do I leave the fabric on for? The whole season?