I started spraying with the first leaves this year, but may start even earlier next year. I will also spray my winter protection with fungicide next year. (I used peat in several applications. I also put inverted tomato cages, covered with muslin over some especially tender or new roses. In those, I added crumpled newspaper on top of the peat.)
I am starting to see a bit of blackspot on some roses. The worst offenders are three minis -Lavender Delight, Busy Bee and Scensational (or Pink Sensation, something like that). They were generously covered in mulch. Many had retained their leaves under the mulch, but I am not sure if these were among them. Souvenier de la Malmaison and Wildeve are looking alright so far, they were affected the worst by blackspot last year. I'll keep after it and see how they progress.
As I mentioned before, I tried using only neems oil/soap/baking soda sprays last year. I am using a stronger fungicide this year.
