I will go look for Fungonil, as someone else posted do you spray on the canes? In my big cane roses from J&P --PJP II, VOLUPTIOUS, and Princess Diana I dont see any growth. Only dry canes at this point. Some of the Heirlooms are still dormant, except for one. A deer chopped this one down very short last fall. It is growing and leafing very quickly. Should I still prune it even though it has started growing? I see green on the bottom of the others but I havent pruned yet. As far a guarantee I know last year J&P refunded the price, or I could have gotten a replacement for my rose that didnt make it through the winter. Carolina

Most people don't cut roses down when they have powdery mildew. It's true that PM can infect latent growth buds in the bark, but I think if you use a fungicide until you get out of PM conditions (cool and mild with >95% relative humidity during the day or night), you ought to be able to preserve any parts of the plant that are not winter-damaged. Also, I keep up with these things fairly well, but I never heard of treating the soil for PM. The spores are airborne, not soil-borne. Sulfur is an effective PM fungicide if applied preventatively to the plant, not the soil. What fungicides, if any, do you have on hand? Westerners here who deal constantly with PM can better advise you as to what to use. I have found the Cornell mixture of oil and baking soda to be fully effective against active PM and sulfur to be an effective preventative. However, conditions where you are may be more difficult.

Do you want a big, rampant climber (New Dawn makes 15-foot canes and eats houses) or a more modest grower? Please describe the space that the rose will be growing in. You will need to mail-order in order to get a good variety. New Dawn is about the only disease-resistant climber you are likely to find at a garden center. If you want to plant this year, you will probably need to order a small potted rose from a boutique nursery. Or you can wait and get a large bare-root plant next March. I'm not confident Dublin Bay will be blackspot-resistant in E. Tenn, where disease pressure is very high. For a short climber grown in the East without spraying, I'd recommend Quadra (dark red), Papi Delbard (pastel blend), or Carefree Sunshine (yellow, just barely a climber if that, but a great blooming large shrub). Heavy clay soil is not a problem for roses. Just dig in some compost or manure. You can check out roses at HelpMeFind.com, which also lists suppliers.

It is actually suggested around here that you plant roses with the graft union several inches below ground so that if the plant does die back to the ground that what comes back from the root has a chance to be your preferred plant, which may have grown some of its own roots. Then mulch. Don't cut back until spring when you see what has died. Climbers you can detach from the trellis and lie close to the ground and mulch. I tend to grow roses from cuttings from friends that I know will be hardy locally, and even as a relatively inexperienced rose grower I've been reasonably successful. Unfortunately, many of the roses I've seen at big box stores aren't hardy for this area, so enjoy their blooms this year and hope for another mild winter, preferably with good snow cover. I'm biased in favor of roses that I don't have to fuss over too much, so I don't grow hybrid teas and research whether the rose is prone to blackspot or other deseases before I buy them. Anecdotally, sprinkling alfalfa meal or corn meal under the plant is supposed to reduce blackspot, but I've never had enough of a problem to try it. Many of my roses are early once bloomers because they are done blooming before the J beetles arrive. The ones that aren't I've planted in an area that isn't good J beetle territory - a clearing surrounded by much woodland. I'll be spreading Milky Spore desease on the small amount of lawn there as I've had success with that reducing the J beetle population at a previous house/garden. I don't have any neighbors with lawns within J beetle flying distance, and I've heard that this is only successful if all the nearby area is milky spored. Another problem is rose chafers, which are insects about the size of J beetles, but longer, slimmer, and tanner. They emerge a bit earlier than J beetles and chew on the blooms. I don't know of any organic way to prevent them other than hand picking. They are common if you are near fallow agricultural land, which surrounds my current house. I don't have problems with them in the wooded location. I hope this is helpful, and if you want cuttings or have other specific questions, I'll check back here (though maybe not right away as work is busy right now.)