Are these old leaves from last season? If so you want to remove them when you prune and you should do that soon. If it is a fungal disease you don't want it to spread. The new growth at the top looks good.

It looks like a mixture of blackspot and powdery mildew.
The brown areas looks like some leaf scorch. Did you have a hot and humid summer?

Here is a link that might be useful: Mildew on Rose Leaves

Good heavens -- it's old, worn out foliage, on a plant that has presumably had a lapse in care. Remove those leaves, and prune away dead or damaged growth. Give the plant good water, and feed it.

I don't know how disease-resistant (or not) Baccara is, but in this season, old leaves are going to look bad, and are doing the plant no good.

Jeri

Those are just cruddy old foliage, Scott. Expect it on old leaves where you are, it's completely common. Particularly on that variety. It is a cut flower prima donna which is FAR more successful grown under glass and sprayed within an inch of its life. Been there, done it. I'm in similar conditions to yours and have grown that rose at my sister's house since it was introduced. She HAD to have it, but I knew better so it never came home with me. SOMETIMES, it provides one of "those blooms", but usually not.

The white you see is likely calcium deposits from our wonderful water. You'll also find it on your house and car windows; house walls; any hardscape the sprinklers or hose hit; fences and retaining walls and anything else which gets wet from your irrigation. Sun scald or sun burn is something you will definitely deal with on many of your plants. Frost burn would require some very drastic, dramatic climate changes. It won't get cold enough where you are to frost rose growth, otherwise. Kim

Okay, so it's okay to remove last year's foliage? What about old leaves that appear healthy?

Another question, at the base of the dead flower stalks is sort of a mass of new buds leafing out in a bunch. I assume that is not good either.
Thanks for your input!

It's always OK to remove anything dead or obviously diseased. In this climate, providing shade against the intense sun is a great thing. If the foliage is too disgusting for you to endure or if it is diseased and will fall anyway, just pull it off. Old foliage which is still green and healthy appearing, leave alone. As long as it's green and normal appearing, it's providing shade against the sun and generating food for the plant, the two things Nature created it to do. Why inhibit the success of the organism by removing it?

The new growth at the base of a spent flower is what will produce the new canes and flowers. Some will tell you to thin that so only the best few are permitted to grow. That's OK. Some varieties are going to do that every chance they get. Thin them to the strongest, or don't, it's your choice and in the end, here, won't make a whole lot of difference to the overall success of the plant. Heretical? Yes. But, you find what works for the particular rose, where it grows and what you can live with and that is what you do. Kim

Thanks a lot Kim!
Don't surprised to see me on here more often seeking your advice as I have recently adopted a rose garden.

Cheers, Scott

You're welcome Scott. Bring it on! I don't know everything, thankfully! But, I've killed more than my fair share so I have some idea what works here and what doesn't. Jeri, Black Bacarra is infamous for its black florist blooms (WHEN grown under glass). Outdoors, in many places here, it is addicted to mildew and rust with a healthy dose of black spot where that pressure is high. Otherwise, it's the "perfect rose for all Southern California gardens"...remember hearing that? LOL! Just like Leonidas...Kim

Kim, Black Bacarra is just the sort of rose I no longer grow.

Give me "Grandmother's Hat" any day -- or 'Niles Cochet' -- or 'Mme. Berkeley' -- roses that will just grow and bloom, and not make unreasonable demands upon my aching knees.

:-)

AND, you ARE welcome, Scott!

Jeri

Something you can do for them is to find some free aged horse manure and put that down and then cover that with a layer of mulch to preserve water in the soil. If the roses had diseases last year, covering the soil will also help them stay healthier. Every year that you do this will improve the soil that much more. You will need to add more mulch in summer because it breaks down so fast but that's a good thing too because it is making food for the roses.