I also buy mancozeb under the Bonide label "Mancozeb Flowable with Zinc". I have used the mancozeb once every 3 days for 9 days on existing blackspot. Then use it once a week for the next 4 weeks. Then I alternate Bayer and mancozeb every couple weeks. It did the trick and did not spread to other bushes, although I was sure to spray all my roses and the ground surrounding them because the bs can be there but not visible yet. According to the folks at Rosemania, mancozeb is the treatment of choice if the bs is already visible and to use Bayer as a good preventative. I live in Missouri and we have hot and humid summers. My neighbor's roses get blackspot...but not my roses.

Fun musings, Rick! Another option to consider in the mix of reasons for less BS for you this summer is the notion that rain actually washes the BS spores off the leaves so there's less chance for the disease to take hold. Even in relatively humid weather, regular spraying and/or rain seems to have a positive impact on BS - the real kicker is humid heavy weather WITHOUT the rain to wash off the spores. Nightmare city, eh? Your observations about the health of your plants providing extra vigor has to be a factor in BS being less of an issue, even if plants don't have an immune system per se. Still, if you have a healthy 4' bush putting out new leaves constantly, you don't really notice the 40 of those leaves that are blackspotted, whereas if you have a 2' one-cane runt, those 40 leaves would leave it bare-nekkid. Quick recovery from a disease is almost as good as not having the disease at all, at least as far as roses go. Cynthia

I clean up active blackspot by spraying with mancozeb 3 times, with 3 days between each spray. I then return to my regular spray schedule of BannerMaxx/mancozeb/Indicate5 (pH balancer with sticker properties to hold the products onto the leaves, some people use dish soap instead)/liquid seaweed. I "usually" spray my regular mixture every 14 days (I've been very lax in spraying this year). Many people use Bayer Advanced Disease Control as both the contact and the systemic. Michaelg noted above that spraying the Bayer product weekly for a month will get control over the blackspot and provide the systemic properties needed to control future outbreaks. Others will have to chime in on this as I am not well-versed on the Bayer product. You don't need to alternate between the Ortho Garden Disease Control and the mancozeb, it won't buy you anything. Just a note, though, that the Ortho product can burn at temps over 80 degrees, but mancozeb does not burn. You will also need a few drops of dish soap in the mancozeb solution to hold it on the leaves.

K2laser, I live in South Carolina and we have the hot humid summers, not as long as you, but we sure get hot during the summer and the humidity is so thick you can hardly breathe. There are some hybrid teas that are very black spot resistant, I would research that onine and ask in this forum for some names of some of them. You really can't ever get rid of black spot on a rose. You can spray all kinds of expensive sprays dilligently on the rose bush and canes, constantly keep the rose bush real clean, don't let the infected leaves blow into other roses, and they will always have it. I bought for the first time this spring a knock out rose, double red. It is the only rose in my garden that doesn't have black spot. It is absolutley gorgeous! Clean foliage, and grows fast. When I get tired of all the nonsense for my hybrid tea rose trees and black spot, I will buy another knock out. All you ahve to do is water them, don't even dead head them. Low maintance, it is a beautiful thing.