[boogaloo]

Hi folks

The roses down one side of my garden have been pretty much decimated by blackspot 2 years in a row now. It's a fairly damp side of the garden, and I've heard that poor drainage can cause increased blackspot, but all the same I'd love to have healthy roses for one year at least!

After having tried removing any leaves that are obviously affected at the earliest possible stage, it keeps coming back.

I'm therefore contemplating fairly drastic action this year and was wondering whether to remove all the leaves at this time of year, so that it stands a good chance of growing back through spring.

Is that a bad idea? Can it be the stems themselves that are infected? If so how do I know which stems to remove?

Any advice appreciated. Or am I basically fighting a losing battle?

Many thanks

Boog

[mumofstig]

The RHS says there are lesions on the stems (Black/purple spots) so they should be able to prune them out.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=270
see also
http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/forums/p/7006/7215.aspx

[devonbarmygardener]

I'm not sure about blackspot when it becomes really severe, but I pretty much spray all my roses from the first sign of it with Rose Clear and then I spray them every fortnight and that seems to keep the bug at bay.

[JayG]

I've got several roses, some of which are being grown in slightly unfavourable locations - making sure there is no leaf litter from last year's possibly infected plants is a start, but, like Devonbarmygardener I find that an early spraying with Rose Clear (which controls both the fungus and the aphids which help spread it) is far more effective than later sprayings (by early, I mean as the buds are just starting to open, and spraying the whole plant rather than just the leaves.)

[Sparkyrog]

A winter Tar wash would probably help too .

[boogaloo]

Thank you folks!