prune off all the leaves? or just leave it what other options do i have and which is best?

I do know that some prune off and dispose all the infected leaves, but I don't do that. Since the spores supposedly are everywhere, my gut instinct is that removing the leaves will be marginally helpful at best.

But I am fairly new to roses, and you will have more informed advice from experts on this forum.

A rosarian on this forum uses the term Madame De La Shovel, which makes me smile. I used to dread parting with any of my roses even if they are sickly and unsuitable for my climate, but after finally picked up my shovel, I have to say De La Shoveling blackspot magnets feels really good.

If you do nothing, the plant is going to decline over time until eventually it will be so worthless you might as well dig it up anyway. There is no physical activity you can do to improve the situation. Perhaps more water and fertilizer might help it "outgrow" the blackspot. Don't waste your time pruning it away or picking up leaves.

Option 1 is the "best", find plants (roses) that grow well according to the way you want to garden.

Option 2 is very effective as long as one doesn't have a religious objection to using chemicals in the yard.

Depending on what you normally do, I'd then spray it with Bayer Advanced disease control. It will stop any new infection. The leaves will grow back.

If you want to keep such roses, you will need to spray every two weeks with Bayer Disease Control or another effective fungicide.. Shrub rose varieties that are more winter hardy can survive and bloom despite defoliation, but they will look bad from late June onward. If you are in the mid-Atlantic or Appalachia, the list of repeat-blooming varieties that will not get severe blackspot is very short. Most of the varieties that catalogs describe as "disease resistant" will not cut it in eastern US zones 5-7.

Even "very" or "exceptionally" disease-resistant is no guarantee that the rose will not get BS. It just means that the odds may be in your favor. Of course, if you live in one of those bs-magnet areas, there is not much you can do except spray a fungicide like Bayer Advanced Garden Disease Control for Roses,FLowers, and Shrubs every 2-3 weeks--though you might experiment during the hot midsummer months--it just might be too hot for much BS and therefore you can take a break for a couple months. And winter may be too cool for BS--so you might get by with just some limited spraying in the spring and fall--maybe.

Definitely start looking for the "very very" disease-resistant roses--BS can still be a problem, but often a much lesser degree problem--and sometimes nearly a cure.

Kate

I don't remove spotty leaves, when they fall off I rake them into the ground to recycle them.

I've found that organic fertilizers build the soil to create an enviroment where roses thrive, even with blackspot present in the garden. The roses' natural strength/resistance enables them to be strong garden plants.

i pruned off all the infected leaves because there's lots of new growth (many more blooms YAY!) and i don't want the new growth to be infected

It's not going to matter. That's not how blackspot works. If the plant is a variety that is suspectible to blackspot it's going to come right back unless other measures are taken.

It will not stop the disease from coming back, though.

Make sure the entire plant is wet and put about a gallon of the solution into the ground.
Works for me every time.

No. I spray once every 2-3 weeks, it takes about 15 minutes, and I don't have blackspot, so by definition, spraying is very productive. I use 2 tablespoons of fungicide every 2-3 weeks for about 80 roses, which I consider a very small amount compared to the amount of lawn chemicals all my neighbors are getting sprayed on their lawn every year, the amount of CO2 emitted by people driving around everywhere instead of riding a bike or walking, acid rain and mercury/lead contamination from coal fired power plants, ground water contamination from fracking, etc, etc. Those are big problems that I worry about. Not a tiny amount of rose fungicide.

I do not tolerate black spot on any of my roses, and I will not let black spot dictate which ones I grow.

Disease-resistant Austin roses like Queen of Sweden and Lady of Shalott and disease-resistant floribundas like Our Lady of Guadalupe and Eutin and even disease-resistant hyrbrid teas like Red Intuition and Elina go through at least 3-4 bloom cycles from spring through fall--probably more cycles in areas with milder temperatures than in my Zone 6. In fact, my Lady of Guadalupe only rests about a week or so between cycles and then starts blooming again very heavily. She repeats that pattern again later in the summer and during the fall also. She may be my heaviest bloomer in the entire garden and I do not spray her--because she does not need spraying.

Kate