Looks like Rose Rosette Disease.

It does...Ann will be along and tell you what she thinks...she is one of our authorities on RRD.
Did you just notice it?
I would quickly prune all the odd looking stuff..and watch the plant like a hawk. MAC may sulk but the alternative, is to destroy the plant...I had to do that to one of mine, that had RRD.

I have a friend who keeps MAC pruned to a 5 ft shrub and it is glorious. Noisettes don't mind pruning. That looks like RRD. Have you or anyone sprayed round up near the roses lately? Sometime herbicide damage will look very much like RRD. Ann will know, hopefully she will see this and respond.

Carol

Wait-- don't just cut off the distorted sprouts. Take some better pictures and post them. Then (unless you think you got herbicide on the plant) immediately cut off the whole cane underlying the distorted growth, as far down as you can, and get it off the property. The rose rosette pathogen will circulate down to the crown of the plant and infect the whole thing. It moves with the plant's fluids and is incurable.

Oh, if you haven't sprayed a herbicide in the area (could a neighbor have sprayed anything?), then it is RRD. Anntn6b is the "Ann" referenced above, and her eBook on RRD is linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ann's Rose Rosette Disease eBook

Thank you all for your replies. I did a search on RRD and it does look like it, although this is all new to me.

Melva - I did just notice it. The weird thing is it is right up the middle of the bush. Either side looks ok, which is probably why I hadn't noticed before now. I went outside again and checked over all of my other roses and I found it on the back side of Buff Beauty too!! AACK! Mons. Tillier looks questionable, but now I think I am over paranoid :( Thankfully for now everything else looks fine.

Carol - I bet a shrub form of MAC is glorious. I would love to see that. I'll have to get another and try growing it that way b/c I cant have roses w/o my MAC. We haven't sprayed anything in the back yard - but they are close to the fence line. I hadn't considered my neighbor might have sprayed something, since he isn't able to get outside or get around much but that may be a real good possibility. I'll have to go ask him.

I am going to cross my fingers and pray it is herbicide damage.

I need to emphasize that suspected RRD is an emergency. If not removed, it will spread throughout the rose garden and the neighborhood. It is fatal and incurable. Take a series of good pictures right away and post them for diagnosis. Talk to you neighbor right away (make clear you are not blaming but need a diagnosis).

I agree with Michael, please take some clearer photo's and some close up shots right away and let the experts look at them. Also talk to your neighbor right away. If it is RRD it needs to be gone from your garden as soon as possible and there is a way you do that to minimize spread of the mites. I know, I have had RRD in my garden.

Carol

Michael - thank you for the info - I'll try to get some more pics posted asap. and go speak to my neighbor. I really hope it is not RRD.
The thing is I can see the back side of buff beauty having herbicide damage because it is next to the fence. The thing that has me stumped is why up the middle of MAC. It would seem that the side closest to the fence would show the most damage.

Diane - Thank you so much for the link - ill go check that out now.

Here is some more pics.

Thank you all again for all of your help. Hopefully Ann will see this
Well, off to my neighbor house. Wish me luck :(
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I would cut the effected canes out to the ground like Michaelg says ASAP and then watch like a hawk. If you get more weird growth, I'd get rid of the bushes completely. Please, noone take offense, I am not saying roses are as important as people, but I think of RRD as rose AIDS.

Also, there is an iodine starch test that can confirm the presence of RRD (though it is not 100%). Cut a thin slice across an effected cane, put iodine on it and see what color it turns. Bluey-black=RRD.

Watch for Ann--she is the best RRD resource we have.

Incidentally, herbicide absorbed in fall can show up in spring growth.

If you live near a University with a horticulture dept., call and see if someone would come take a sample. They have the equipment to detect the presence of the erythroid mite that spreads RRD, and someone might also have RRD experience.

I just heard a plant pathologist say a spider mite is to an elephant as an erythroid is to a rabbit, size-wise.

Liz, I cross my fingers and wish luck for you. I am thinking your discovery of the weird growth on Buff Beauty might be a good sign. Hope for herbicide damage!!!! It wouldn't have to be your neighbor. On a windy day, herbicide will drift.

I have not had any experience with RRD. But I know I rec'd a lot of weird growth last fall after the field around my house was sprayed with RoundUp. I was freaking out.

I lost MAC to RRD several years ago. Looked just like your pictures.
Olga

Hi,
I just saw this and we've been onthe road all day. Our laptop types funny and erases what I've written sometimes so this will be brief.
I agree it looks a lot like RRD. I've had it on one tea noisette in my garden and that had a very similar look to it in spring growth.
Two things: please take a shovel and cut a series of vertical cuts six to eight inches down into th e soil. You want to isolate any roots on the problem roses from their nearest rose neighbors.
That newer photo with the lattice in the immeidiate background... please check the yards and wild areas upwind of that fence. to me it looks as if the disease got dropped onto that part of that rose by the immediate drop in windspeed associated with the top of that fence.

when you maked the vertical shovel cuts, you want to make a near continuous circle. You want to make it less possible for the roses to exchange its fluids with adjacent roses.

You have a little wiggle room, temperature wise. The vector mites of RRD become active when temps are in the 70s and 80s.

If you can find an interested plant pathologist with your state ag people, and they want to know more, they might want to contact Dr. Alan Windham with the state of TN ag labs in Nashville or Dr. Mark Windham in Knoxville. Both know RRD and roses and Mark has done some work recently with someone in the MS ag group (and I can't remember the MS guys name right now. It's on a computer at home. I'll try to post it tomorrow night late.)

Ann

I hate to say it, but I don't think that looks like herbicide damage (usually the leaves are even more puny and thin than what those pictures look like, in my experience). So, I'd do as Ann suggests.

--Ron

Update: I did speak to my neighbor about spraying and he did spray roundup down the fence line. I think that in Buff Beauty case that is the culprit. It's more symptomatic of glycophosphate damage.
In the case of MAC I have to say that I agree with everyone that it is RRD esp after reading Ann's ebook.
I did do the iodine test, but it still stayed orange... Also contacted 2 county ext offices to see if they could help me determine if MAC has RRD , but they said they would have to send a sample off on Monday.

Ann - Thank you so much for your help. Fortunately, it isn't in too close of a proximity to my other roses thank goodness. I'll do as you suggested and go around it and try to sever all the roots. I agree that it must have been in the wind which was stopped by the lattice. We had some high winds here a while back and I bet that is what did it.
I guess the best thing is to say my final goodbyes and take it down tomorrow morning before the temps start heating up.

I am so sorry that many of you have had to experience the heartbreak of losing roses to RRD as well. This mess is awful and hopefully they will find a cure soon.

I just heard a plant pathologist say a spider mite is to an elephant as an erythroid is to a rabbit, size-wise.

I identify insects for a living and I can tell you from personal experience that this is very true. Eriophyid mites are somewhere around one order of magnitude smaller than most mites (including spider mites).