I've had the general impression that my Kansas roses (Zone 6) have had more BS problems than usual. I only grow one Buck rose--Earth Song--it is usually very disease-resistant, but its leaves has been having a slightly sickly look with some blackspot--lots of yellow leaves falling off and the new growth definitely was not vigorous or even as green as it should be--until just the past couple days.

I'm thinking the earlier rainless weeks were harder on the roses than I realized. For the past week we have had rain nearly every night --the soft slow rains that plants love--and Earth Song and other roses have suddenly perked up and begun putting out much better looking foliage. I did spray about a week ago, so that may also have caused improvement.

I haven't really studied any of this closely, but I have been thinking that a number of the roses are experiencing more BS and yellowed leaves and undercolored, smaller-sized new leaves--but some of the roses have shared none of those symptoms.

If nothing else, it is good to hear that I am not the only one wondering if something more is going on this year or not. I'm thinking now I should have been doing a lot more watering about a month ago.

Kate

Thanks, Prof, posts like this are very helpful.

One possibility is that "Prairie Harvest' #1 has picked up a strain of blackspot that hasn't reached PH #2 yet. You could test this hypothesis if you dare ;) However, I've never heard anyone report severe blackspot on PH before. PH in my climate does get a lot of cercospora spot, but this disease is so slow to kill leaves, I doubt it would defoliate a plant by early June.

Nah, I'm not about to spray my good Prairie Harvest with leaves from my "bad" one in Radler-ish fashion. I'm happy to leave it a mystery. But thanks, michaelg, I learn something every day; I've seen cercospora but didn't know much about it until you just prompted me to learn more.

I have many of your roses, and consider you quite fortunate if you can grow Honeysweet. Of the ones I had to shovel prune Honeysweet was the most heartbreaking rose. El Catala never became established it was so prone to BS.

I have good luck with Square Dancer and Serendipity. Prairie Breeze is wonderful, and Simon Estes is a sport of Country Dancer,and much like her.

I do tolerate diseases if they do not kill the rose. Often we have weather conditions that seem to cause diseases, the roses get ugly, drop leaves and immediately grown new ones. That does not happen consistently, the rose grows and thrives so I leave it alone.

Your blog is impressive.
Thanks for sharing.

Sammy

Sammy I have Serendipity, but she's just a first-year band rose...nice to hear that she'll doo well. Prairie Breeze would be an interesting rose; I have Dornroschen, the seed parent of Prairie Breeze, but Dornroschen is not near the top of my favorite list; thorny, blackspot prone, and sparse with blooms. To be fair, I have it placed between a tall rose and a viburnum, so it may not be getting the air movement and sunlight to make it thrive.

Thanks for the kind comments about my blog.