I was thinking just what Jerijen said, amazed that Knockout roses could be decimated by blackspot. MScaradine, are your Knockouts the original Knockout, or one of the varients bred from it? Second question is: You mentioned your tea roses doing well. Did you actually mean the old garden tea roses or hybrid teas? I have just heard so many people shorten hybrid tea to "tea" that I'm never sure. They are completely separate classes of roses. I wouldn't throw out the Knockouts without giving them a chance to recover, perhaps to next year. I had a Belinda's Dream rose that had significant blackspot when I bought it and for a few months afterwards, but after that it was highly resistant. Thanks, Rosetom, for your information about Banner Maxx. I did not know it is the same class as the tebuconazole. I used that before I ever started with the Bayer stuff, so I still have a supply of it. I have also used manzate occasionally, so I'll remember to give that a turn every so often. I don't much care for the filmy residue the Manzate leaves behind, but that's a minor annoyance and doesn't last long. Anyway, I have not been too diligent this year about spraying, but, knock on wood, so far the blackspot has been easily controlled, so the Bayer tebuconazole is still doing its job. Yea, Modern Miracle, indeed! I think Ingrid has a valid concern about the enivornmental impact. It is easier, though, to avoid blackspot in a drier climate. When you live in the Gulf South, blackspot is a major issue. There are certainly a handful of old garden roses highly resistant to it, but none are immune. Also, there are a lot of old garden roses that I see blackspot here as badly as modern roses. so you have to do your research carefully. I find (selfishly, perhaps) that certain colors and bloom form and size combinations are just simply not available in old garden rose varieties. I am encourage, however, with how much improvement we're seeing, in the overall disease resistance of some select modern varieties. My fingers are crossed that this trend will continue. In the meantime, if we're going to use chemicals in the garden, the labels that say CAUTION are supposed to be less dangerous than the ones that say either WARNING or DANGER. Bayer has a CAUTION label. Mike

Sounds like they could be dead. You said they are just two pots of soil, but if there are branches sticking up, bend a branch to see if it is flexible or snaps. Snapping could be a sign it is dead, but look inside the branch then to see if you see green or brown. (Green=good, brown=bad.) If they literally are two pots of soil with no remaining plant parts above the soil, then I would suggest recycling all that potting soil into another pot with a new live plant in it!

Hello Monica, Pruning when the forsythia blooms is a good guide. I usually prune early to mid April. You can also tell when the roses are ready to by the swelling of the buds on the stems. Hybrid teas and floribundas are usually pruned harder than shrub roses, which you can prune for shape. Your ground cover roses, may not need much pruning. If they were about the height I wanted, I would probably shear them with hedge shears and clean up with pruners. You can remove dead wood from your roses any time of year. If you have roses that are once blooming (June only), do not prune them in spring or you'll cut off the blooms. Once bloomers are pruned right after they finish blooming. I'm in the Utah Rose Society and would like to direct you to the URS website www.utah-rose.com. You can read some info about many rose topics there, and there is contact information for the number of local Consulting Rosarians. If you have specific questions you can call any of them on the phone and they'd be happy to answer your questions. If you email, Jerry and June are the ones that read their email most often. You can also check out Bob Bauer's website. He's a SLC rosarian who also is the URS webmaster, and has his own rose site www.rose-roses.com. Here's a quote from his site on fall pruning. Preventitive Fall Pruning For those areas with true winter seasons, you should get your roses ready for their winter sleep after the first killing frost or BEFORE the first big winter snowstorm. The reason you want to prune at this time is to prevent winter damage to the plant from the breaking off of large canes. Take a look at each bush and lop off all of the large candelabras on the end of tall canes. This is the point at which accumulating snow can breat the whole cane off. Also big crossing branches need to be removed so that they don't saw each other to death during winter wind storms. Any long whiplike canes that could cause damage to itself or other plants should be removed. DO NOT, however do your major pruning at this time. Your roses need to use the stored energy from the canes in order to survive winter in a health fashion. Major Pruning of modern recurrent varieties should only be done in the spring in areas with a true winter. If you find yourself interested in the Society, we meet the third Thursday of every month except January and I would encourage you to come check out a meeting. Here's a link to Bob's Spring pruning page. Barb Here is a link that might be useful: spring pruning

Roses put out mainly two flushes of bloom. Once in the early summer and then later on in the season. They need to be fertilized when they are starting growth in the spring and after the first flush of bloom is over.