I have two climbing roses that were well established when we bought our house five years ago, a yellow and a hot pink. They had no support and had been neglected so I fertilized, pruned and sprayed them, . I got my husband to put up a trellis and the photo below shows how they bloomed last spring. We live in central Arkansas and have had lots of moisture, both snow and rain this winter into spring. I have sprayed the two roses with fungicide when black spot has shown up previously and tried to remove any leaves affected. This spring the canes of one look really sickly and the leaves are showing spots on both of the roses. Should I give up and remove these roses? Are they too far gone? Is there something I can do to revive them?

Would you really remove roses just because of black spot? Almost all of my roses get black spot at the end of our rainy season and I just live with it. It never affects the blooms, and rose blooms are the main reason I grow roses. The leaves get spotty, fall off, and are replaced by lovely spotless leaves.

The sickly canes are another thing, of course. Do you have good drainage? Is it possible that you had too much moisture this winter?

I agree with Zuzu, and they look much too pretty to remove in my opinion. I would add a Clematis to grow among them, and provide some nice green foliage that would hide naked canes that have lost leaves, as well as another season of bloom.

Thanks for the input! I hate to remove the diseased cane as it is the only one remaining off the original yellow rose. I think these roses are quite old and were badly neglected. We had an unusually wet winter and much more snow and ice than we usually get. I also like the suggestion of adding a clematis to the mix so I'll try that. Time to start spraying fungicide again - perhaps a few extra doses won't hurt.

You could also grow Creeping Virginia in there to give some autumn color when the roses stop blooming.

Or you could just move to Colorado where we never get blackspot...

If Creeping Virginia is the same as Virginia Creeper, it may well be invasive in a warm climate.

That's what I was thinking, because it is invasive here. I battle both Virginia creeper and poison ivy, and they camouflage each other, so often I have a handful of poison ivy and didn't even realize it!

Yea, sorry, brain's offline. Virginia Creeper. I wish it was invasive here.. I struggle to get mine to grow.. It's been in the ground for.. 4? 5? years and is barely 6' tall with 2 straggly vines.

I appreciate all the suggestions. Of course I decided to just wait and see, which always works best for me. The roses seem to be doing great with the new spring growth and buds are forming already. I plan to continue to spray with fungicide and hope that they continue to make beautiful roses. Perhaps a little extra TLC for a while will help. We do have so much moisture here during the spring that it's not surprising to get black spot. I am being cautious about adding any additional foliage in the area so the air can circulate better. Thanks again for all the help.

Blackspot continues to live in dropped leaves and mulch and can re-infect the plant. You want to clear away the dropped leaves. Bag or burn them, don't compost them. You may want to add a systemic insecticide like Bayer's product. I use both systemic and spray to fight blackspot.

Keeping the plants healthy with watering and fertilizing will help. Time and TLC are probably the best options. Once the rose starts sending up healthy new canes, you can probably cut the older canes.

I am not sure if you can completely avoid blackspot in damp climates. Some roses, especially some yellow owes, are very susceptible. Care and fungicides help.