Here is what the American Rose Society says of Black Spot: "Biology High humidity is one factor that helps the spores to germinate. The spores germinate in 9-18 days on a moist leaf at 70-80�F temperatures. The spores can be spread by splashing water and by the Rosarians themselves. The spores are wind-borne only in water drops. The spores can be spread on clothing, tools or even your hands, but the way it is spread most often is by infected leaves that have wintered over in the rose bed." Here is what Purdue University says: "The disease cycle typically begins on fallen leaves or canes that were infected the previous season. Rain or sprinkler irrigation splashes fungal spores from infected leaves that were shed the previous year to the plant�s lower leaves. The spores must remain wet for several hours for infection to occur. Symptoms can become visible within 72 hours after infection during warm, wet weather, and a secondary infection cycle can develop within 10 days after the initial infection. The fungus that causes this disease tolerates a wide range of temperatures, and symptoms can continue to develop all season long if moisture is adequate. The fungus overwinters in infected canes and fallen leaves." You are not going to spread spores with a vacuum cleaner. If you are worried, use as I do, a wet-dry vac. and vacuum them wet. The spores will go nowhere but into the vac. or its filter. If you want Black Spot gone clean, clean, clean. I use Serenade to soak the ground around my roses to kill disease remaining.

whats do you mean Jeri?? more bad news i was watering the rose's today and it looked like the roses were taking a bubble bath :( :( from all the soap mix i applied the other day is it possible the soap might get to the root system and cause serious damage to the plant? i hope not and this dame soap mix burnt enough of my leaves i took a closer look and there are a lot of burnt leaves i wish i had never sprayed them! from now on i';m just gonna do what Katie does spray with a good fungicide "2-3 times in the spring and a couple times in the fall." I live in Canada Ontario Zone 5A i get hit with black spots during spring and fall for anyone that wants to know on this website it says that this rose erotica hybrid tea is resistant to black spot ha! if it were i wouldnt be having this problem AND it says zone 7 to 10 i'm in zone 5a and these roses survived the winter no problem although they do have a few black/brown spots on the stems http://d a ve s ga r de n .com/guides/pf/go/63842/#b

Flowerlillies: I have seen this before. It appears to be scale. Get several Q-tips and a bottle of Isopropyl alcohol. Pour some of the alcohol into the cap of the bottle. Dip the Q-tip into the alcohol. Now, wherever you see those white, powdery patches on the leaves and stems of your plants, rub the Q-tip on them. Make sure all the white patches are dabbed well. If you've already done this and still need help, you will not like my next suggestion. You most likely have them on the roots of your plants which is why you are seeing deformity. They are literally, slowly, eating the plants alive. What I have done in the past is re-plant any and all plants in the affected plants vicinity. I took no chances. I know this is a pain and labor intensive but being on a balcony actually makes this easier to do. If you have a lot of container plants, work them in batches. Unplant 3 or 4 of them. Make sure to do it over a box or trash bag to catch any of the possibly infected soil. get another plastic bag and gently wrap the roots of the plant and carry it over to the sink or bathtub. Submerge the entire plant in luke warm water with a mild dish detergent. Use just a capful of detergent. Dunk the entire plant, count to ten then do it again. Do this with the rest of your plants, again, working in batches of 3 or 4 if you have many. Before you re-plant make sure you use fresh, new soil. Discard any old soil you've had. There is obviously something in there that is attractive to this pest. Also, what I do is take the soil in batches inside a large plastic container and Nuke it in the microwave for at least 1 minute. This will kill nearly anything such as larvae living in the soil. When the soil has come back to a normal temperature, I mix in my fertilizer, perlite and any other additive. But, more importantly, I spray the soil with Neem Oil. Spray liberally and mix it into the new soil. Make sure to wash your containers in hot soapy water. Now you can re-plant. I would spray the plants with Neem oil at least every 7-10 days. Once this infestation is over with, I would still as a preventive measure spray them once a month and lightly spray the top part of the soil as well. Hope this helps, best of luck- NJC

Valkyrie, I think your rose actually looks pretty good, all things considered. Since you are new to roses, I think you should give yourself some time and figure out what your own personal level of bs tolerance is. In my experience, honestly, I don't think you run the risk of killing the rose by not spraying. I grow over 200 roses, and I don't spray. Some of them get bs, some of them don't. As an example, I have had Joasine Hanet for about 10 years. Every year, about this time, she gets bs, but she just keeps growing and blooming - she's a big healthy thing with never a sign of die-back. I think most of them sort of just shake it off. The few who don't, well, if they are weakened enough to die off over a cold winter, then I guess they are just not hardy in my garden (and truly, I have not had a lot of cases where this happens - mainly its when I know I'm kind of pushing things zone-wise). For me personally, spraying isn't worth it. Due to my work, the amount of gardening time I have is pretty limited, and I really don't want to spend it spraying chemicals. I'm far from 100% organic, but I do try to not use chemicals - I don't like touching them, and I worry about our birds and butterflies, rabbits and all the other creatures in the garden (and the humans too!!) I want my garden to be beautiful, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Though for some people, the answer is to only grow very disease resistant roses, for me personally, I deeply love some of the ones (like Joasine, or Mme Isaac Periere, or Zephirine Drouhin) that do get bs - I wouldn't be without them, so I just tolerate the bs. I think those of us who don't garden as a profession are lucky - we don't have to please a client, just ourselves and the people and creatures we share our gardens with. So since I really, really don't think some bs is going to kill your rose, then if I were you, I'd just give it some thought and decide if the bs bothers you too much, in which case, yes, spray (probably not a bad idea to research organic sprays, however, like the milk one people suggested in this thread); or if maybe you can live with it as it is. And I'd also highly recommend getting more roses, lol! That way, the ones that stay healthy and blooming will distract you from the ones that are troubled by bs. Good luck with your rose and your garden!!!