Judy, me too

Dormant-strength lime sulfur will kill the leaves and it is also a fungicide with about the same effectiveness as regular sulfur. It also helps reduce canker, but it will wash off in a few rains. Lime sulfur is caustic and stinky-- can cause serious skin or eye damage.

In my garden, it takes two applications of dormant strength Lime Sulphur to knock off the leaves at the 'right' time in winter.
DH does the whole protective clothing, serious eye and respirator and hair protection, but it's winter, and we have farming neighbors who understand.
The right time for me is when the leaf growth is nil, but before the leaf buds have begun to swell for the next year. Here (colder than you in GA) that's often the first three weeks in January. After that the bud eyes are swelling and I don't spray them dormant strength. Some years I don't spray because I miss the window of opportunity. Some folks on the piedmont of the Carolinas spray as early as mid December.

I would like to spray such that the leaf drop slows the too-early-spring-leaf-break by two or three weeks, so that they don't leaf out in late Jan/early Feb when we often get warm temps (that don't do any good for keeping the plants dormant for the freeze that will come in Feb or March.

There are times I wish we lived on an island without the temp swings that we are plagued with.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Ann you had responded to my question about it last year and thought my good time would be around mid December. I can not find a dormant spray though that says its for disease, it all says for insects. Can I use the one for insects and it work on disease too???? Thanks, Judy

Judy, if you want to do what you say you want to do, then you need the chemical lime sulfur. (Not plain sulfur, lime sulfur.)

Sooooooo..... is lime sulfur the same thing as a dormant spray??? Do I need to look for a bottle saying lime sulfur instead of one saying dormant spray? It sounds kinda scary to use so not sure if I want to use it. Yes I am very new to roses, can't cha tell!! lol, Judy

To further what Michael wrote, in winter some folks use a mix of Horticultural Oil and LimeSulphur.
The oil would work to smother any resident insects, insect eggs, acarids, etc. The down side of Hort Oil is that beneficial insects, acarids, will also be killed as will their eggs. There's a published scientific study that talks about beneficial mites in mint crops and how leaving a bed of "old mint with beneficials" is more effective when replanting mint crops that just total replacement of the entire field with new mint.
Lime Sulphur you should be able to find in orchard supply stores and at some farmers' supply stores. It is what we use to try to clean up fungal problems.

Last weekend I was at a Carolina District meeting and that is where the mid December date for spraying in your part of the world got reinforced. Science works.

Thanks Michael and Ann, I will look for lime sulphur and spray mid Dec. Thanks for your help, Judy

petals, it might be labeled 'dormant spray' but it's lime sulfur. I bought it last year in Pikes. They used to sell plain old lime sulphur, but I guess the chemical like name turned off people so now it's 'dormant' spray. Just check the ingredients on the label. It may not be on the shelves until after Christmas. I usually try to do the dormant spray in January.

Okay..I don't want to kill insects. I want to kill fungus and BS..what do I use?

Arrgh!! I don't want to kill insects either. This is my first year going sprayless for insects and I don't want to blow it now. What did I miss?? I only want to control the diseases. It sounds like the horticulural oil is what killed the insects not the lime sulfur. I need it explained to me in simple, simple words. Sorry for being such a pain. Thanks a bunch, Judy

Meant to tell Buford thanks. I frequent Pikes quite often so I will probably check there. Judy

Wait, oil sprays may be labeled for dormant use. All pest control products have the active ingredients on the label. Read the label-- lime sulfur or oil? Pretty simple.

Another option is to don leather gloves and strip off the leaves in December when blooming is finished. Or do nothing.

Stripping the leaves kills the fungus? Mich, you guys try..but at times I need more of an explanation. SO..if you want to kill fungus..or attempt to kill fungus..use sulfur..or that lime-sulfur mix...Wilt Pruf? Use..it when exactly? How early in the fall?

No, stripping the leaves does not kill the fungus. It removes infected leaves that hold blackspot spores that will overwinter. Removing the leaves reduces the blackspot spores. But it does not kill them.

Lime sulfur is used as a dormant spray to kill overwintering blackspot spores. Sulfur alone is used as a fungicide by some growers who do not want to use synthetic fungicides. Sulfur is on the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) list.

Wilt Pruf will smother bugs, just like oil. I'm just saying.

If you don't want to ues fungicides (natural or synthetic) then you have to grow disease resistant roses.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sulfur info at Extoxnet

Also there may be some confusion here about whether we are talking about controlling canker or controlling blackspot.

Removing the leaves removes one source of blackspot spores to restart the disease next spring. However there are also blackspot bodies inside the green bark of canes and in dead rose leaves in the mulch.

Sulfur and lime sulfur do not kill the fungal bodies nor the dormant spores. As long as they stay in place, they reduce the successful germination of spores into new fungal bodies. However, they wash off in a few rains.

Dormant spray of lime sulfur is used to kill old leaves and reduce the frequency of canker and spider mites.

I was mostly interested in controlling blackspot but if it also works to help control canker then thats great too. I was planning on raking away the leaf trash around the roses after I use the dormant spray to hopefully get them off to a great start in the spring. Just wanted to make sure nooooo good bugs were harmed in the process. If so I would just pick off as many leaves that stayed and just spray regular fungicide spray. Thanks everyone for helping! Judy