Question
Hello.  Thank you for your help.  I have several "Morden" shrub roses, which are excellent for our climate, but I did not notice the extreme blackspot problem the "Hope for Humanity" rose I bought had. It spread to just about everything. I only noticed it after the first frost when I was gathering some seeds from another plant. My question is, do I treat this even though it's pretty cold now and will be very cold soon, or does winter kill blackspot?  I was not sure either, do I cut off the affected branches now and destroy them, or do I do that in spring? Thanks very much, Colleen.  

Answer
Hope for Humanity is known to get black spot so next spring you will have to spray it with a fungicide weekly to keep it clean. In my opinion I would grow something else that doesn't cause any trouble as this rose will always have a disease problem. There are better reds than Hope for Humanity. Adelaide Hoodless is one of the better red ones and is very hardy. I have heard that the Morden roses do get a lot more disease than the Explorers. Black spot can spread to other roses and cause problems so spraying with a fungicide is the only way to keep it unde control.  The spores float around in the air and then land on the rose leaves so it is impossible to cure and you can only keep it under control.  Lynnette