Sharlene ...
No offense taken ... it was that one paragraph that was of interest to me. I had thought that once the spores died, it was a non-issue, and never bothered with the winter clean up.
When I discussed this with Kim and others it seems like the general answer is that the spores are in the air and if the conditions are right and the rose is susceptible, there really is not much you can do to reduce bs infection other than your best garden practices. It always depends on the rose and the location of the rose.
I have had personal experience of hard pruning a rose into susceptibility ..
There are some roses that simply do not like a hard prune and seem to almost sulk and get every disease known to roses, but if left alone are always healthy and happy roses. Can I tell you which ones ? No. That's because our climates and situations are very different.
We already know that stressed roses are more disease prone ... so that's a given, too, but that's not what you are asking.
