Does anybody else’s Gertrude Jekyll rose struggle with black spot?

[Rawfruit]

I have 6 DA roses and GJ is the only one that gets it. I prune it of to the extent there is very little left by winter, prune and feed at correct times and it comes back from the dead with lovely roses again in spring. It just looks so awful for so long though. Wondering if it’s time to get rid although I love it. I don’t use any pesticides.

Its odd as none of the other DA roses struggle like this.

Oh no, I’ve just bought one of these. New to roses so hopefully it’ll be ok!

Pretty much all of my david austin roses suffer with blackspot. I won’t use pesticides either. Have just bought Princess Anne who is supposed to be disease resistant.

I have Olivia, Generous Gardener, Mary Delaney, New Dawn and Albrighton Rambler.

Generous Gardener, Olivia and Mary Delaney had the odd leaf I pruned and it never went any further. Gertrude Jekyll is on a whole different level. 😫

Wondering if I should give in now, dig it up and replace. I underplant with Salvia.

What happens when they get it? Does it kill them or just make them ugly? I think my acer is dying from some fungus thing. Leaves wilting off.

My DA Bathsheba Everdene is bad for it, Damon Wildeve not so much. I don't do anything. My main garden battle is bindweed, not blackspot.

Yes I have this rose and it suffers badly from black spot. I remove infected leaves and don't allow leaf litter to build up around it, keep it pruned so lots of air circulation etc and it still gets covered in it

https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/rose-black-spot

Apparently they lose vigour.

My GJ rose seems ok at the moment. I have two David Austin roses, GJ and Ancient Mariner, AM does not have any sign either. I just know that will change though as all my roses had it last year.

My garden nemesis are bindweed, bamboo and slugs/snails. 😡

Ugh slug and snails too. They’re voracious

Slugs, snails and bindweed here too. Not a lettuce left.😫

I don’t have one any more, but when I did I seem to remember it did get black spot, yes. I blamed the damp climate. I did the usual picking up leaves, stripping off bad ones etc. I don’t use any pesticides either. Tbh there didn’t seem to be much I could do, but I put up with it as long as possible because Gertrude had such a heavenly perfume. She lasted about a decade I think (would have been longer had her pot not disintegrated).

I got a bare root Margaret Merrill at the end of last year, in the spring virtually every leaf had blackspot. I took them all off, picked up the fallen ones and put an extra layer of compost down. It's now get lots of shiny healthy leaves and no sign of blackspot, although Rose sawflies 😠...my pitcher plant, Harry, has been keeping it company.

Another rose I've had for years (and rather neglected) had it bad last year. I pruned it right down, put bark chippings all round and it's also looking very healthy.

This is exactly the case with my GJ but by the end of the season it looks awful. Also worrying about it spreading the black spot or maybe it doesn’t work like that. Tempted to give it one more chance for the sake of the heavenly smell but dont like looking at it struggling this time of year or the leaf free sticks it ends up looking like towards the end of the season.

Mine did, but I underplanted it with salvia Nachtvlinder as recommended by Sarah Raven, it seems to have helped a lot!

My GJ seems ok but it’s its first year. My Dame Judi Dench is really affected though.

Also have four white roses that I’m keeping an eye on.

All of mine are in pots.

I hadn’t realised about picking the affected leaves off and picking up fallen ones. That will be my job for today on all my roses I think.

DH sprayed ours a couple of times but it hasn’t helped.

Also have lots of aphids!

I’ve been feeding mine Westland liquid rose feed every week as I have a DA Summer Song which is an extremely needy rose and I wanted it to do better than its usual 3 flowers and all done for the season.

They all look surprisingly healthy with minimum black spot this year, despite the weather. It really does seem to have helped.

The reason I put mulch down is because, I've been told, the blackspot spores lie in the soil and get splashed onto the leaves when it rains. So, putting something, anything (compost, barkchips, cardboard, patient cats...) down stops that.

The RHS doesn't reckon that spraying helps, the spores get blown in anyway. So keeping the plant as healthy as possible, the mulching and picking off the bad leaves and planting salvia seems the best bet really.

My GJ doesn't get it too badly...

Right will give it one more year. Do you think that rose tonic will help?

Can't hurt.

I do think some roses are just more prone to it. I have other roses in the garden which appear unaffected.

More of a scourge now we have cleaner air. The sulphurous fumes from industry were an effective fungicide.

Just had my rose delivered. Now I’m worried about how much faff it’s gonna be to keep. Just saw another thread about rose blooms flopping down. Roses seem like hard work!

Not really, unless you're planning on entering blooms in a show.

Plant it according to instructions, water it once in a while if dry weather, especially if in a pot.

It will do better if you sometimes feed it and prune it and get rid of blackdpot, but it should survive if you're not totally diligent, as proved by my garden.

The other DA roses are pretty much faff free. You need to feed twice a year and prune at the right time but other than that that’s pretty much it. They’re also slug resistant!!!!