That depends upon whose bible you read. My take on it is, if the rose is otherwise healthy and only shows this issue at the extremes of your seasons, it deserves its place. MOST plants will experience health issues when the conditions are extreme enough. If you prefer not to introduce chemicals into your environment as much as possible, don't treat the mildew. If it doesn't "offend your eye", don't treat the mildew. If it offends you sufficiently, determine what is 'green' enough for your ethics and treat it.

Personally, if the foliage is still green, it is working to feed the entire plant. This is the newest growth, the most actively growing and contains the most resources in the plant. It's also the most likely to produce more flowers. In my garden, I leave it alone. Why waste those resources and the plant's energy by amputating it and throwing it away when it's still providing support for the whole plant? If the growth is no longer green, it isn't producing chlorophyll, hence not feeding the plant. That, I would remove, but otherwise useful, functional growth which I have encouraged with my patience, water, fertilizer, etc., I permit the plant to tell me when it's finished with it. The mildew on that plant is not going to "spread" to nor "infect" others. The spores responsible for the infection existed in your environment before your rose contracted the infection. They simply weren't supported by the conditions until your weather changed. Yes, that outbreak will produce more spores, but those will simply be added to the already existing levels of mildew spores on the wind. If other roses in your garden contract mildew, it's more likely it's due to disease pressure from your weather, watering and air flow conditions supporting the infection than "infection" due to the one rose having mildew.

With all of that, my choice in my garden is to ignore it. Just as everything changed to permit the current mildew, they'll change again and it will eventually disappear. If the rose mildews too much for me, I get rid of that rose, given all the other contributing factors have been determined and addressed as well as possible. Kim

Hi Rose, thanks for great explanation. My rose is green for the most part. And is still with plenty buds. Some of those have pm too. The PM seems to be covering about one-third of each of the branches. I'll just leave it as is like you do and will see what it looks like in the spring. This is my first floribunda. Actually, my third rose so I'm still learning. I appreciate your help with this.

I never encountered mildew until we moved to Pasadena and then I discovered that it is the biggest problem here. I thought it would go away after June but it didn't and some roses that were particularly susceptible were literally shriveling up they had it so bad. So I decided to spray with potassium bicarbonate and it does work. It wont help destroyed growth but new growth will be protected. As far as I can tell it is organic and hasn't hurt any bees or other insects. The product is GreenCure fungicide and it is available widely but it is expensive.

Some roses are like that -- at some times of the year, they get a touch of mildew. No biggie.

Some roses have NO resistance, and mildew at the drop of a hat. And the problem is far worse in some areas than in others.

Actually, if you are (like Henry) in an area with fairly high mildew pressure, you have two basic choices . . .

1. Spray regularly.

2. Keep roses that don't mildew.

Our option is 2.
Why mess with roses that frustrate you? Prune 'em with a shovel, and discover a rose that doesn't have that problem.

Jeri