I am fairly new rose care, so I've been researching a lot (which garden web has been immensely helpful for!) and keep hearing that the new hybrids, etc are known to be very bad for black spot. I did plant my first Austin rose last fall, *before knowing how "magnetizing" they were for fungal problems. So far, pretty good however, the rose came to me with both a bit of black spot and powdery mildew. (yeah I know, why would I buy a plant and put that into my yard right? well, I figured I could brush up on black spot and it'd be ok or tolerable at least - AND the flowers smelled like heaven to me too, of which there were a ton on this plant, even that it was in a pot :)

But why are so many modern roses said to be black spot magnets? Is it the current breeding programs perhaps? Is it that breeders may be breeding in soil that was too N-P-K'd and not biodynamic enough? (seems to me that most of the population is still using chemical fertilizers and npk as their standard)

And does anyone know any rose breeders who are into biodynamics or other such organic / sustainable practices ?