Virtually all of my in-ground roses and a few of my potted roses are losing their leaves massively due to black spot. That includes Belinda's Dream (potted) which I thought was supposed to be 'all that' for disease resistance. The one that did best was as Easy Does It (potted too).

I sprayed some, maybe not religiously, but it doesn't seem to help.

Is this expected given my area?

Will I be able to start all over in the Spring, after I will have cleaned up all the leaves later?

This is again very discouraging. I start out in Spring with so much enthusiasm for not giving up roses and by the end of the season, I conclude it's too much trouble for too little overall bloom and too many black-spotted leaves. I also wish more buds would open up at the same time, so I will have more than one bloom sitting there on the bush, on its own.

After 3 years, I had to conclude that without a draconian spraying regimen, roses are out of the question in my area. And yes, I HAVE selected varieties considered highly disease-resistant for my area. Major bummer again. Maybe next season will be better. I do get some joy out of them in Spring, when they are at their best, but come summer and fall, it's constant disappointment.

In the meantime, my sunpatients grew into these massive mounds of tropical gorgeousness that bloomed their heads off without a single moment of break from late spring to now, and they keep going in all of their glory - as if pleading not to be taken out and replaced with fall pansies.

I guess that's just the way it is with roses. :)