I noticed that on some of my roses, the lower leaves have fallen off. Most of them are on the ground. The upper half seems to still be ok and the blooms are still ok. I was wondering if this could be because its getting colder here in Vancouver, Canada? Thank you for any replies.
Hmm. I don't see any spots but drought stress might be plausible although I water them on a regular basis.
I live in Coquitlam, some of our roses are doing the same, as are some of those in our neighbourhood. It's not just black spot. Drought stress probably, but our roses watering are well controlled since we have a drip system set to a timer. The weather did surprise us with very warm temperatures and intense sun over the last two weeks, following a period of cooler temperatures. I wonder if that may have played a part in this phenomenon. I mentioned that not all our roses are unhappy. In fact, some are doing exceptional things of late. For example 'Antike 89' and Eden has thrown out huge, long canes. One particular cane on Antike measured 12 feet as of yesterday. Unfortunately, they probably won't have time to harden enough to survive the winter.