Rose: dark or black spots on leaves

What it is likely to be on rose

1. Rose black spot

   Candidate 1very common on this plant

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Rose black spot

   Checked 2026-08-13

   Rounded black blotches with a diffuse fringed edge on rose leaves, usually with yellowing spreading out from them, followed by early leaf fall. It is specific to roses — the commonest fungal disease of the genus in Britain — and is not the explanation for a dark spot on anything else.

   Points towards it

   • · black spot makes discrete rounded marks rather than a general browning
   • · the oldest leaves lowest on the bush are infected first and fall first
   • · infection needs hours of leaf wetness, which is an outdoor condition

   Argues against it

   • · a surface film that rubs off is a mildew, and black spot is in the leaf tissue — this rules it out entirely.

   Check this next

   Turn an affected leaf over and look at the underside behind the mark. Black spot shows nothing there — the spot is the same dark mark from both sides, with a fringed edge and yellowing spreading outwards into the green.

   What to do now

   Pick off marked leaves and clear every fallen one from under the bush, because the fungus overwinters on them and reinfects the new growth in spring. Prune to open the centre so leaves dry faster after rain, and water the soil rather than the foliage.

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Rose black spot — control

   Checked 2026-08-13

2. Rust

   Candidate 2common on this plant

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Rose rust

   Checked 2026-08-13

   Raised pustules on the underside of leaves that release orange, brown or dark powder when rubbed, with pale spots visible on the upper surface above them. Rust fungi are highly host-specific — leek rust lives on alliums and rose rust on roses — so the rust on one plant is not a threat to an unrelated one beside it.

   Points towards it

   • · rust erupts as small separate pustules rather than as a spreading patch
   • · the spores are carried on wind and rain between plants outdoors

   Argues against it

   • · soft fuzzy growth on the underside is a downy mildew, not a rust — this rules it out entirely.

   Check this next

   Turn the leaf over and rub the underside with a fingertip. Rust leaves orange powder on your finger from raised pustules, and shows only a faint yellow speck on the upper surface — the reverse of black spot, which is obvious from above and blank underneath.

   What to do now

   Remove affected leaves and the fallen ones beneath, and avoid feeding high-nitrogen fertiliser, which produces soft growth that infects readily. Rust rarely kills an established rose, so removal and airflow are usually the whole response.

   ·source

   Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Rose rust — control

   Checked 2026-08-13

Narrow it down

This page lists everything at once, which is the right shape for reading and the wrong shape for deciding. The interactive tool asks one question at a time, starting with whichever would separate these causes fastest, and stops as soon as further answers would not help.

Opens with the plant and the symptom already set. Nothing you answer is stored or sent anywhere — the answers live in the address bar and nowhere else.

What this does not cover

These are the causes GrowingHQ holds rules for on rose — not every cause there is. Where several problems look alike, the honest answer is often that they cannot be told apart by eye, and a page that named one would be guessing. If none of the above fits, the general dark or black spots on leaves page lists causes across all plants, and the Rose profile lists the problems it is prone to.