I will keep the shovel pruning in reserve, depending on how things go this year. I'm just not willing to give up first thing on bushes that may well be as old as I am. (Actually, I have no idea, but the stock is *old*. And the house was built in '47, so they can have been here close to that long.) Although it may be a sustained battle I'm in for -- all of the bushes in question are yellow-pink in color, and I see that most if not all yellow roses are particularly prone to black spot, owing to a common, susceptible, rosa foetida ancestor.

I don't know that I will spray at all if I don't get in with lime sulfur before the leaves sprout. Last fall I was having pretty good luck with nipping and pruning off infected leaves and canes as I found them, and if we get a dryer summer, that may be enough.