I found RRD in a flower carpet rose and Fourth of July in my old house about five years ago. I sent it to VA Tech for verification, so I know what it looks like. I removed both of those roses and sprayed some more on the multifoliate roses near me. They keep coming back. Then last year I found RRD at my new house 15 miles away from the old one. I removed the branches down to the root on Lady Elsie Mae and Living easy growing on separate sides of the house. I watch them carefully, but haven't seen more yet. I have wild backberries nearby and lots of cultivated roese in my neighborhood. It is heart breaking to think that I may have to give up rose growing. I did not take pictures.

The leaves here at the top are slightly elongated, and lighter green than usual:
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I had RRD five years ago. I dug up approximately 16 roses. I did nothing to stop it early as I didn't recognize what it was that was affecting my roses. It appeared around July. I dug up the roses in November.
I replanted the following spring, and the problem did not return. I actually did have a few bad leaves the next two years on some other nearby plants that were not dug out, as they were not nearly as badly affected. I would simply cut the suspicious looking growth out. None of these plants were removed, and are clean of RRD. My garden has been entirely clean of RRD now for about 3 years.

I recommend that such growth be cut out as soon as it is seen, as pruning it out at the top may save the rose. It seems to start at the top and if given time will move into the bottom of the rose and grow into other branches that were not previously affected and then your rose bush is doomed.

The medicine was harsh. I lost some great roses, and didn't really have the money to put toward getting roses of my choosing. I accepted donation replacements, and bought a few own root roses, and my rose garden is not what it had been.

The main symptom was elongated leaves. An individual RRD leaf looked somewhat like a an individual marijuana leaf. ISU Extension Service examined my photos as well as someone else on this forum and both told me they believed it to be RRD. Iowa State University operates Reiman Gardens, which has a very large population of roses. ISU told me they did not know RRD had gotten as far north as where I am located in Iowa. But they contracted RRD that year at Reiman Gardens. They are about 130 miles away, but only about 44 miles to the south of us.

This was Iceberg when infected by RRD. Note the elongated leaves and misshapen flowers. Don't wait to start trimming bad RRD growth out if you are trying to stop RRD's spread:
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Note the elongated leaves:
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Thanks, Mark. Your photos don't show the classic twisted, contorted, congested stem growth that I am accustomed to seeing with RRD ... just elongated leaves, which I have seen as a symptom of herbicide damage. In the case of your roses, are absolutely certain that there is no chance that the condition of your roses could have been caused by any exposure to herbicide? I'm asking because I want to be positive of a diagnosis with any photos I may use in my presentation.

I had another Rose Rosette Disease encounter yesterday. I volunteer to photograph tombstones for a genealogy web site, and I was in a snowy church cemetery yesterday taking photos to fulfill a request. About 10 yards from the grave I was photographing was a large, well cared for rose bush ... dormant and leafless, as one would expect in the snow. The pattern of growth at the end of most of the canes showed symptoms of advanced RRD. I will contact the church office today and suggest that they remove the rose. It wasn't even my rose, and I still felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.

Connie

I am quite sure it was not herbicide. We live in town. Our yard is sprayed in late May/very early June. He stays clear of the roses. These roses were fantastic in their June flush. These roses are next to the sidewalk, and not close to anyone else's yard who might spray.

I recall that we had a few incredibly hot days.

I understand it does not have the thorny growth often characteristic of RRD, but the dx was confirmed through these photos by someone I contacted at Iowa State University, as well as by another person on this forum. Additionally a staff person at Reiman Gardens saw the photos and was suspicious it was RRD before we sent them to someone at the university.

I saw RRD on Iceberg in my friends garden, where herbicides were never used. It did look very similar to Mark's case. Iceberg is basically thornless roses, so this could probably explain the lack of thorny growth on ifected canes.
When My MAC (which is also not so thorny) got RRD the symptoms were similar. A lot of skinny elongated leaves on the top of the canes. I tried to save my MAC first and cut the infected canes down. Next spring I had classical RRD symptoms with red color, thorns, deformation, just everything.
Olga

It seems to me that the wild multiflora will eventually die out, and then if most cultivated gardens eliminate the roses affected by it, won't RRD become a lot less common?
Just seems like it might be self-limiting though that might not happen for decades. I don't know anything about whether it affects other plants such as blackberries. A virus is a virus..seems like other plants might host it perhaps without showing the same symptoms. ?? I still don't understand how only a mite can transmit it. Seems like an aphid could just as easily.

Thanks, Mark. I appreciate your follow up.

As far as multiflora dying out and reducing the source of future infection ... it's a dream, I'm sorry to say. I imagine the overuse of Knock Out in every commercial landscape I see will provide more than enough material for RRD and its vector to feast on for the foreseeable future.