You're welcome Bayarea-girl. The choice whether to retain a particularly "needy" plant is completely personal. I coddled Angel Face for years because of the color, scent and beauty it COULD provide, as long as I catered to its needs. I completely understand why someone would want to provide it the extra care. I have done that for many years to one of the most intractable roses ever introduced - Grey Pearl. Everything in Nature exists for a purpose. Rust (and black spot) are "geriatric diseases" as they primarily affect aging foliage. Mildew is a juvenile disease as it affects new growth first. Rust is actually used by Nature to trigger many species to stop their juvenile stage, cease flowering (ovulating) and trying to reproduce. R. Arkansana utilizes the increasing sunlight and warmth of spring to put the melting snow and winter/spring rains to use, triggering its "reproductive stage". It begins pushing new growth and flower buds along the previous year's growth in its effort to set seed and reproduce itself. Reproduction and perpetuation of the species are the "Prime Directive" in Nature. As long as those light, temperature and moisture levels continue, it (and many other once flowering types) continue pushing new growth, new flowers, in pursuit of that goal. As the year progresses, the sun rises higher in the sky. Heat intensifies and water begins to run short, making maintaining that growth and flowering push more of a strain on the plant. If it continued using its dwindling resources growing and flowering without preparing for the harsher winter conditions, it would either completely use them up prematurely and die, or enter the extremes of the winter weather where it is indigenous, unprepared for hard freezes and be killed by them. As the heat increases and water becomes increasingly scarce, it appears the plant's immune system is impaired and the species contracts rust to a rather heavy degree. The fungi impairs the plant's ability to feed itself, triggering it to begin "hardening off", altering the sap to conserve the moisture and nutrients it has absorbed and generated when conditions were better for it to push its growth. Hardening off conditions it to withstand greatly reduced light levels and much greater cold. Nature uses rust (and some other triggers) to "tell" Arkansana to stop expanding, stop reproducing, ripen its seeds and prepare to shut down for winter. You will see the same mechanisms at work with many weeds and other desirable ornamentals. Petty Spurge, a common "weed" member of the Euphorbia family, as well as many Oxalis follow the same cycle of growing until triggered to rust badly and shut down until better conditions arrive. It is entirely possible the contraction of rust by other types might be used similarly and be caused by similar triggers. I attempted to grow R. Arkansana in a large pot here in my garden. It suckers vigorously. I didn't want a yard full of the plant, nor did I want to have to irrigate a large stand of one type. I knew Arkansana's mature foliage rusts in fall, but I didn't expect the brand new foliage to rust immediately after unfurling, particularly in spring when nothing else was rusting. I theorized that it contracts the disease "in the wild" due to decreasing water, so I increased the water to that pot. The old, rusty foliage fell and was replaced by new, healthy foliage all over the plant. As long as I continued providing heavier water to it, the plant grew and flowered without contracting rust. Long before anything else in the garden showed any signs of rust, I cut back the water to my Arkansana. It began rusting almost immediately. Increasing the water again resulted in new, healthy foliage pushing all over the plant. As soon as I cut back the water again, even the new foliage developed rust. Arkansana has gone on to someone else's garden where it can enjoy greater water, more room and conditions closer to its natural habitat. I've grown a number of the Canadian cold hardy Arkansana hybrids. All but one performed the same way. As long as I provided the extra water and never permitted them to experience water stress, they grew and flowered well and remained healthy. As soon as they began stressing for water, all but Morden Blush rusted badly, very quickly. Morden Blush remained completely healthy in this climate. I really loved the whimsical veining and stippling in Morden Ruby's flowers, but I could not keep the foliage rust free unless I chemically treated it, something I refuse to do for a variety of personal reasons. So, that one is no longer in my garden. Eliminating water stress in this climate and my soil is virtually impossible. Varieties which can't endure that stress without quickly contracting rust simply aren't suitable for the variables I garden under. One of my favorite miniatures to use for breeding is Cal Poly. It is extremely fertile, thornless, accepts a wide variety of pollen, generates many very viable seeds and produces many thornless offspring. I grow them potted to make protecting their hips from squirrels and other rodents easier and to make access to their flowers for pollination more convenient. I quickly learned not to allow their pots to dry out too far or they rusted quickly. Grown in the ground, they've never rusted for me anywhere I've grown them. When I have rust (or other disease issues) on seedling roses I raise, I experiment with water levels in hopes of discovering whether that might make a difference in their health. Most often, it does. Of course, each variety, each seedling, varies quite a bit in its natural resistance to disease. Particular garden conditions as well as climate differences play enormous parts in the probability a variety may contract a disease. One of the easiest to control in your efforts to diagnose the cause of the infection is how much water, when and how the plant receives it. I would bet starting with that would help figure out whether the plant is suitable for where you are, the conditions you can't change and your preferences whether to chemically treat the infection or not. It has streamlined that determination for me greatly. Kim

Thank you, thank you -- all of you. I am going to try to post some pics I took today. I am hoping they will be more revealing. Sorry that last one is so blurry. Berndoodles, thanks for the pics of leaf hopper damage. I think I certainly have that, don't you (referring to the pic with the lovely bugs)? I also found some webbing, so I think maybe I have spider mites. Oh, joy! And I also think I have powdery mildew. I would love anyone's advice. I sure wish I had a flatbed scanner. My daughter has one, but she is out of town. And I wouldn't mind if we had a Bug Man out here in Colorado. However, I took samples to my local nursery and the very nice rose lady there confirmed that I have several separate problems. She thought that the drooping rosebuds were caused by thrips and told me to go home and cut all of those drooping buds off and dispose of them. She thought I had powdery mildew, too, and also spider mites. She advised that I use Bayer All-in-One spray, so I bought that, but after reading the instructions, I decided to try Neem Oil because the instructions said not to use when bees are active, and they are very active on Ballerina, at least during the day, but maybe I could use it at night. I sprayed yesterday very thoroughly with Neem oil and will repeat in 7 days. However, since my roses are so badly infected, and with multiple buggies or whatever, maybe I will have to go toxic. Another problem with me using a toxic spray is I have large pots of herbs close to Ballerina, in fact right beside it. I think I could cover the pots with black trash bags or something. But I also have black raspberries whose vines are kind of intermingled with one of my New Dawn climbers. I'm not sure if I can cover all of them enough. Maybe if I used a hand sprayer rather than a hose-end sprayer it would be easier. So what do you think? Thanks again. Marlene

Rose powdery mildew is fairly specific to roses and is probably not spread by raspberry bushes. Maybe the raspberry shades or cuts down air circulation around your one plant of New Dawn. The fact is, powdery mildew spores are spread by air and when conditions are right asnd the plant is susceptible, it will appear. By the way, Jerry Baker's Fungus Fighter Tonic (powdered milk, molasses and baking soda) has actually been tested by reliably tested and appears to be a very effective control for mildew of roses, although it's worthless for blackspot - see link below. Here is a link that might be useful: U. of Delaware

Thank you everyone! After taking it all in I'm thinkin' that firstly, I have to/will treat the PM then the best course of action (and easiest) is to dismantle part of my current garden and get this baby planted. Kate, IÂve heard that planting the pot is a good solution but ya know it will take me about the same amount and effort to dig a hole big enough (and i mean big!) to put the pot in the ground and transplanting in the spring seems kinda iffy. Soo i'm just going to plant her in her permanent home...with all the bells and whistles (compost and planting soil and all the amendments and good stuff in heavy bags that I thought I was done with for the season). IÂll prep her for the winter, unbound her undoubtedly pot bound roots, prune her in late winter and treat her PM all the while. Sooo that's the plan:) Any more thoughts are always appreciated! Thanks so much again and Take Care! Dale