An interesting thing I noticed with red cascade is that here in ZA it has ZERO disease when it is neglected.
In my family we call red cascade “Ouma Bettie’s rose” as it grew by my great grandmothers clothes line where it was espaliered on chicken wire. In the decades that rose stood there it was never once trimmed, watered or fertilised and it was spotless, and a bit scraggly with few blooms.
One of my grandmothers took cuttings from it and planted it in a large pot in her garden and again the same thing happened. When it was neglected it grew scraggly but it was never diseased. When she watered it and fertilised it mildew would appear.
I took cuttings from her red cascade for my other grandmother. The cutting pictured below is now about two years old and a bit small as it was neglected, but since I’ve been watering it daily (it’s in a massive pot) and fertilising it, it has mildewed extremely as it started to grow in the new season.
I made some more cuttings of RC this year (planted in the lower part of the pot in the picture below). They are almost totally covered in mildew, and it’s even started to tarnish some of my other cuttings that very rarely or almost never get mildew.
