Black tips in red roses; What causes it?

For rose growers; Black tips in red roses can be caused by sun-burning, disease like Botrytis blight and/or Frost. The black edges do not affect the vase life of the roses at all. Black tips in red roses can be one of the more frustrating things that can happen in rose beds. When growing roses one’s wish is to have a nice big bud or buds to open to a bloom without the black or crispy edged petals.

There are several causes of back tips in red roses.

1) Sunlight; Pigments in red roses are particularly sensitive to sun-burning. To prevent this Keep the rose bushes well watered, watering in the cooler morning hours and rinsing off the foliage as well. Be sure to do so early enough to allow time for the water drops to evaporate. Rinse off the foliage with water, as this helps cool down the bush and washes away dust and some fungal spores.

2) Disease; Botrytis blight in roses is caused by the fungus. This fungus can attack rose blooms but will eventually have more effect upon the entire blooms rather than just blackened petal edges.

3) Frost; More often than not, this condition is caused by either Jack Frost kissing the rose blooms early or late in the season. That frosty kiss creates a burn on those delicate petal edges. There is no way for the rose bush, on its own, to move enough moisture to those extreme petal edges to stop the freeze burn effects, thus resulting in edges of rose petals turning black.

4) Natural Occurrences: This condition is genetic to red, brown and purple rose varieties. Some rose blooms like for Black Magic may have natural black or dark edges. In some growing conditions, this rose will have blooms that have very dark red to black petal edges. However, the petal edges are not cracked and/or crispy but of a natural petal texture.

The black edges do not affect the vase life of the roses at all. The down side is simply the effect on aesthetic appearance