I would love to know as well.

I got roses from Oregon and Texas with leaves striped. I have kept them out of the hard sun so they would not get sun burnt.

I live in an area with high BS pressure and so I'm BS-phobic. I prefer stripped foliage to reduce the possibility of introducing yet another strain of BS into my garden.

Let me add to what Cecily said, it's not just blackspot that comes on leaves. I have received rust on leaves from a now-gone nursery in California. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't have sent the plant out with rust showing blatently (and it wasn't rust season out there), my best guess is that the rust spores germinated in their cross country incubation box, and so I got to find them. Fortunately I knew what to do.

The benefit to the plant (AND REST OF THE GARDEN) is to leave behind any problems.

I can understand that too. With all of the pests and diseases already spreading like crazy why take any chances. It is kind of a shock to see those bare canes when you open the box but it's for a good cause.

I've ordered bands from quite a few on-line nurseries for a number of years and had never seen one without leaves until the other day when I received a shipment from Texas without a single leaf. I was puzzled, and I'm glad I read the reason for this. The bushes were beautiful anyway, shipped in large containers, not the usual band size, and each with a large, many branched rose bush that had numerous leaf buds. They are sitting in the shade and hopefully I'll see some leaf growth soon.

Ingrid

Some areas' agricultural rules require not sending or receiving foliage. Removing the foliage does leave many problems behind. MANY are very likely to mildew, black spot and/or rust in the damp, close environment of the sealed box, anyway, even the more resistant types. Foliage is much more likely to rot in damp conditions than canes, so removing it should help improve the success of boxed plants. When I was propagating like a fiend at The Huntington Library many years ago, I would regularly strip anything I brought home and trash what was removed. I generally didn't have disease issues in that garden and found by leaving much of them in the trash before introducing them to my garden, I was more easily able to keep it that way. The new, bare plants were set under a tree where they received filtered sun and a generous mulch of horse manure. They all grew well and never seemed to mind the treatment. I'd prefer receiving rooted plants sans foliage. I don't want to bring other strains of fungi or bugs here any more than anyone else wants mine. Kim

If I had it to do over again I would of stripped the BS-ed and all the other leaves off our Thomas Affleck when it arrived this year...
Its been a nightmare & I probably introduced a new strain of BS into our garden... :-/

Last year I think rose midge came in the potted soil of 2 roses I ordered so I need to do things different now before I plant...

Add spider mites to the list of critters that might hitch a ride on the leaves.

Many of these things will be present on the canes also. With no leaves on there should be no need to shade after arrival, unless there is concern about canes burning.

Thanks for all the input. I'm still having a difficult time with this. If there are disease spores on the plants, they will almost certainly be on the canes also. I find it unbelievable that removing the leaves would remove all disease spores. If disease spread during transit is an issue, wouldn't it be easier to spray the plants with a fungicide, or better yet, an anti-transpirant (which also inhibits disease spread)? Seems like it would be much less labor intensive than stripping leaves.

Oh well, I guess the proof is in the pudding. I'll be planting these guys tomorrow and we'll see how well they root in and grow next year.