Fungus on rose bush

by Mel
(South West Alberta, Canada)

White ball.

Our rose bush has some black powdery stuff on one of the stems and a lot of the leaves are turning yellow. The black stuff looks like it came from a white fungus. Some of the leaves are turning brown around the edges and dying.

Doug says that these are a range of probably unrelated problems. Yellowing leaves are "normal" in late fall because of black spot issues (on the vast range of rose plants). You don't say which kind of rose you have so I'm guessing that yellowing leaves are related to late summer and black spot.

Black powdery stuff on one stem isn't an issue unless it spreads like crazy and then it will be some fungal problem (likely without a pic) or canker issue.

The pic (it's kind of fuzzy on my monitor) you attached here looks like it could either be a bit of fungus, an egg mass or spider food source or ?? If this is a single event or a few, I wouldn't worry about it. It appears to be perched up on a thorn and problems for roses tend to be attached to leaves or canes. (I'm betting insect related on this one).