The first rose has very severe blackspot. The other roses have something else, possibly pseudomonas bacterial blight, similar to fireblight, but that's a wild guess..

I would cut off all the deformed growth and the cane areas that are spotted. You may as well defoliate the rose with severe blackspot, as all those leaves are going to die. Start immediately to spray a good fungicide such as Bayer Advanced Disease Control and continue weekly to control blackspot. Copper products are recommended for the bacterial disease, if that is what it is. Copper soap products, marketed as organic, can be found on most garden counters. Be sure the product is labelled for use on roses.

Contact your county extension agent and have him/her send the deformed canes and leaves to the state lab at Cornell to culture out the problem(s). (They should want to see some of the dropped leaves as well.)
Cornell authored the "Compendium of Rose Diseases" and should be state of the art in analyses.

Yes, the OP should do that.

They probably have master gardeners in the extension office who would try to figure out what's happening. If your photos and some samples came into our MG office here in Sacramento, my first question would be, what has gotten onto the roses? Has anything at all been sprayed directly on them, or could anything have drifted? It's also possible that a herbicide like 2-4D could have been spread on a nearby lawn, and gotten to the roots. I'd also look at the leaves through the microscope, and ask a bunch of other questions, before sending the samples to the lab.

That's how we're trained to approach plant problems, but it's also what I've learned from personal experience. I mixed up a spray using Messenger and some fertilizer last spring, and don't know if the combo was the problem, or if the sprayer that I used had some residual toxic agent. Things looked bad, very similar to your first photo. The roses defoliated, and recovered, thank goodness.

I've also had problems with plants growing by my back fence - it's the neighbor's pool sweep, which throws water over the fence, burning the leaves with pool chemicals.

I hope that you give cooperative extension a try, that they get you some answers, and that your roses recover fully. You must be sick about how they are looking.
Anita

Assuming they haven't been sprayed with anything (anything includes things that are regularly sprayed on roses), I'd start by seeing if either BBG or NYBG has a pathology department. If they don't, I'd ask Cornell if they are the ones to look at it. I've got this idea in the back of my head that if it really is some odd rose disease the people who are going to end up with it are Penn State.

I got the same look when my fuel oil deliverer managed to overflow the fill line and it splashed all over the roses. Looks as if the foliage got sprayed with a chemical of some kind. I suspect that if you remove the damaged leaves, water well and be patient, they'll stage a come back. You can also get this effect by spraying with horticultural oil or, indeed, many different kinds of spray materials, during hot weather. I'm not sure at this point if I'd recommend any kind of spray - the leaves look as if they'd already encountered a phytotoxic material - no point in adding more.

are the first pictures from the top of the plant?
I see some orange, could it be rust?
what do the undersides of the leaves look like?
Maybe try to email Baldo Villegas-here is a link to his
site.
I really hope your roses will be ok!
alida

Here is a link that might be useful: Bob Villegas site

So sorry for your troubles with your roses.

The first one looks like some kind of chemical burn to me, though I'm no expert. While I am a fan of copper based fungicides, you can get damage that looks something like that if you use them in the wrong weather. I no longer use copper during the growing season unless I have no choice. I second all the suggestions to get advice from the master gardeners or county extension. You may well have several different things going on. The deformed leaf in the third picture reminds me of the kind of damage powdery mildew can do.

Rosefolly

Thank you for all your support and good wishes when I was feeling desperate and panicky. And I am sorry i did not get back sooner.

Some of what I have been able to figure out is good news.

a) My roses do have severe, I mean all leaves gone, black spot. This rose nook looks so sad. I could not find the Bayer product suggested but I found an Ortho product with chlorothalonil in it and is supposed to take off black spot and I have started to use it. The literature on the bottle says it is supposed to take care of spores too. Over 5-6 days I did not see much improvement. The black spot keeps spreading. One other thread on this forum suggested Mancozeb as the best product to use. I just order it today. Lets hope for the best. I am taking care of the mulch.

b)The other damage, as suggested by rosefolly and oldroser IS chemical damage from sprays and new growth looks good. Because of what looked like black spot to me I had asked my husband to spray a complete fruit tree spray also recommended for roses. But he must have used the wrong concentration. Anyway not too much damage done.

But I am wondering what is going to happen to the roses that have lost all their leaves? Essentially no growth and strength from this summer? Or actually a set back? Should I cut back the canes that lost all the leaves? Will this stimulate robust canes to grow in?

Any other information regarding black spot is all too welcome.

Thank you so, so much for your suggestions and support.

Katyajini

The chlorothalonil (aka "Daconil") will have the same action as mancozeb, it is a surface/contact fungicide. You need to find a systemic fungicide as well, to help the plant resist outbreaks of blackspot. I'm not sure what is "legal" in New York. If you can find Bonide Infuse or maybe even Ortho RosePride Disease Control (old Funginex) those are systemic fungicides.

See the thread on the Roses Forum for more discussion of blackspot and recommended fungicides.

Here is a link that might be useful: Black Spot...same old post but not arguing....

Thank you Diane.

So if I get Bayer Advanced Disease Control (or Banner Maxx?) and use the Bayer product after I have used Mancozeb for a while I should start getting things under control?

I am still confused how to go about this.

Your help is so appreciated!

Daconil is a good contact spray, but you need to be careful with your eyes - wear safety glasses. Also, do not spray it if it is over 80o F, or it burns the leaves. Spray early in the morning, when it is still cool out. Diane, is Immunox a systemic spray with which she can alternate the Funginex? If you have only a few roses, you can buy Immunox in a moderate-sized bottle at a nursery and you don't need so large a container as with Banner Maxx (tho that is a good spray for someone with a large garden). Good luck! Kathy

Chlorothalonil aka Daconil can burn the bejeezus out of roses in hot weather. I agree that it looks like spray burn. When you spray, do you water well first? Have you mixed anything else in like an oil based product or used a horticultural oil as well? I think you started out with blackspot and moved straight past it to chemical burn. I would cut the roses back, water religiously, apologize to the bushes and promise to be sweet to them and do nothing else. If you are growing roses prone to blackspot, you can consider a fungicide regime but I would avoid Daconil in the summetime. Some of the suggestions given like Banner Maxx or Mancozeb are good ones. Good luck.

Jean Harrison

I'd leave the canes alone. They should start to grown new leaves soon. Be sure to keep watering the bushes so they'll have the energy to grow the new leaves. If you can find the Bayer Disease Control it should be all the spray you need. Spray it once a week until the BS is gone, then spray every two weeks. You can alternate with other sprays if you want to (spray Bayer one week, and Mancozeb the next week). Follow the directions on the bottle as too much is just as bad as not enough.

Immunox is a systemic fungicide, but the only thing it is good for in my garden is powdery mildew. Blackspot here laughs when I bring out the Immunox bottle.