It's a wonderful rose in more arid conditions, but I do hear many complaints about blackspot, where it's warm/humid.

Here, when it is humid, it is mostly chilly, so blackspot is reasonably rare.

Jeri

Hi ogrose: blackspots germinate when leaves or soil are wet for more than 6 to 7 hours. I mulched my Golden Celebration last year with horse manure (has lime as a fungicide). It didn't have any blackspots with our 49" rain last year. The sawdust/woodchips that horse manure come with DRIES OUT FAST, compared to other bark mulch that stay wet longer after a rain.

My worst experience with blackspot was 15 years ago, when I used ACIDIC pine mulch with my 15 hybrid teas - this mulch stays wet longer after a rain. Alkalinity discourages fungal growth, thus the logic for baking soda spray and using an alkaline mulch like horse manure.

That's a thought, Strawberryhill, I use a hardwood mulch that we get here in Texas.

What makes me upset is that I had first decided to get Teasing Georgia, and was talked out of it by someone at the Tyler, TX store who said Teasing Georgia got horrible blackspot while Golden Celebration didn't! Perhaps she got confused, (or maybe it was me?)... :)

I will watch this summer and see if there is an improvement; if not, think I will replace. It's right by the entrance to my back yard, looks awful, but those flowers sure are gorgeous!

My GC is a black spot magnet too. She's 12 feet tall and I've seen go nekkid to the top from BS. But she always rebounds and puts on a spectacular show!

Hi Ogrose: My GC foliage is the love of my life (just kidding). It's so shiny and pretty. If you don't have access to horse manure they sell limestone pellets really cheap in a bag, that you can use a mulch. Fungi breeds like crazy on decayed wood, but can't do so on limestones. I got rid of my wood mulch since they breed utterly sick-looking mushrooms.

The fact that alkalinity suppresses fungi had already been confirmed by the joint study by UK and Sweden. I did my own experiments just for fun: I put 4 of my recently acquired bands in green MiracleGro potting soil (pH of 6.5). The other 10 bands in ORGANIC MiracleGro, neutral pH of 7, it has lime added - all ten remain healthy.

The 4 in acidic potting soil (pH 6.5) are not healthy: 2 developed BAD blackspots, 1 has mildew, and one stunt. They were healthy from the nursery until I put them in acidic medium. I mulched them with horse manure for the last 3 weeks. Now the new leaves are 100% clean. Watering with my tap water at pH of 8 helped also.

This is from a government website: "Rainfall is somewhat on the acidic side (a bit less than 6). But, acid rain can have a pH of about 5.0-5.5" Rainfall is acidic, so when it rains all night, or all day here, I dust the leaves right after it rain with WHOLE MEAL cornmeal to impede the germination of blackspot. It worked last year. I don't like to use baking soda spray since my soil is too alkaline.

those golden and yellow roses are going to have problems in wet areas secondary to their DNA. That is something everyone should know prior to purchasing. I learned the hard way. Carefree Sunshine excepted.

I would say you are correct about the nursery's advice being backwards. I have both GC and TG. TG will get spotty, but rarely defoliates. While GC is a BS magnet and will defoliate rather rapidly. I know it can be different in different areas, but I think these two would be the same in most places.

They are both still fabulous roses. My TG is about 5 times the size of my GC thought. I want it to get bigger, but it doesn't seem to want to.

Golden Celebration is a BS disaster here-- it'll spot when everything else is clean, even !! Night Owl.
I don't know of a single Austin that can be grown no-spray here in our acidic, soggy soil. We're very humid here--surrounded by the Great Dismal Swamp. Need I say more?

I've never had much of a blackspot issue with Golden Celebration in Ohio, outside of a few leaves here and there on the base, but outside of that, it's been fine. I think it prefers slightly acidic soil conditions, but mine is starting to pick up a little steam in the alkaline, swampy clay of NW Ohio, but that's probably part of the reason why it doesn't get as much blackspot in this area.

Consider golden fairytale for a bs resistant yellow.

There's still hope for your Golden Celebration, ogrose! I like mine so much I wish I have a second bush. I checked the 2 mini-roses that were BADLY BLACK-SPOT last month in acidic potting soil. They now are 100% clean with new foliage, after I mulched with alkaline horse manure (has lime), and watered with my alkaline water at pH of 8.

They look great now! Someone mentioned that she solved her blackspot problem by chopping all the infected leaves & branches, so the new growth can be clean. I didn't chop my mini roses, they dropped their leaves.

GOLDEN CELEBRATION is a black spot disaster in Maryland and Virginia. Try CHARLOTTE or MOLINEUX among the English yellows. Even then they will black spot some but not nearly as bad as Golden Celebration.

I am enjoying the first blooms of our Golden Celebration in a few years, she seems to be very happy where we moved her too and is even starting canes!

Hi Ogrose, your 4-years Golden Cel. will certainly come back. It's rainy all day, and the last few days as well. I took a picture of my mauve mini-rose, Scentsational. It's 100% free of blackspot. This one came in the mail with a tiny blackspot, then became worse when I put in pH of 6.5 potting soil. I mulched it with horse manure (pH of 8, has lime).

Lime is a potent fungicide. Lime sulfur was used in the old days as spray against mildew for vineyards. My neighbor use limestones as mulch. They come in 2 types: really pretty white ones, and yellowish pellets. Both work as as mulch. Here's a pic. of my mauve mini-rose, 100% clean, taken today in all-day rain:

{{gwi:248385}}

I forget to include info. about lime as fungicide from GardenWeb: "17. A light dusting of lime on plants acts as a fungal control. Egg shells also have the extra benefit of discouraging snails and slugs because of its rough edges."

There are other useful info. as making your own Japanese Beetles traps! See the link below from GardenWeb.

Here is a link that might be useful: Natural pesticides and fungicides recipes

I think I am going to just wait and see what happens later this spring and summer; I don't have ready access to horse manure (I used to!), and just see what happens. Usually after she puts on gorgeous show, I get some blackspot and then it goes away, we'll see what happens this year! I surely like this rose, and would like to keep it; thanks for all your advice and ideas, I'll keep this in mind for sure!!