What I did was to cut off the diseased growth below the point on the cane that it appeared on. Any new growth from that cane has not shown any more symptoms with the exception of General Cavaignac. It was asymptomatic for a whole year but started showing it again. I cut it off and watered it with more aspirin, and it has been okay. I am suspecting a reinfection rather than a relapse because it is close to the infected Dr. Huey. I have used an aspirin spray. I have used one 325 mg pill per 3 gallons of water, the size of my tank sprayer. I do have to watch it carefully because I have seen foliage burn on some of the plants doing this. There is increased blackspot resistance from this treatment, but again foliage burn can be a risk. I have also been using the harpin material for good blackspot control, but it does not appear to have much influence, if any, over rosette. I think that early detection and treatment is a key help for this problem, like cancer. If it gets too far along, the plant will probably be lost. I am also wondering if an interferon-like material would be a good treatment option if it could be either sprayed or maybe watered into the ground. I hope these observations help this situation somehow.

Mulberry tree is putting out amazing tasty fruit, goldfinger banana is coming back from the freeze as are the plumerias and dragon fruit. Newly planted Rajapuri banana in the back (with 3 pups, which will be replanted) 1 and one half solo papayas planted in the back (dog destroyed one, but it is coming back), new calomodin plant, new Big Jim Loquat, new Strawberry Guava. Room for some more plants, I lost the beautiful papayas that were fruiting at the time of the big freeze...

It's SPRING! And I have zone envy, too. Bill, your photos are wonderful and tempt me to move further south. NHbabs, love the stones and bleeding heart. Mine are in a shady area so I don't think they are as far along as yours. I love forget-me-nots when they bloom but then they get tall and unsightly looking. Should i just clip them? After an internet hunt for Black Chokeberry, we found a nice though small selection at Scenic Nursery in Raymond NH but they were already 6' tall. I wanted something next to a spreading cottoneaster that wouldn't get any taller than 6' and preferable stay shorter. These didn't look like could be pruned back much. Should you check out this nursery, it's in a delightful spot tucked next to a river, be warned that they are not open on Saturdays. I thought their shrub prices were reasonable. I ended up with Halo Dogwood. Our house is white so I think the red stems will look nice in winter and provide some perches for the birds we like to watch/feed. I keep meaning to take photos of my garden. After watching for bloodroot by the side of the road, I discovered I had some in my garden. I must have gotten it at last year's plant swap and it's very happy in my garden (soil on the moist side). The wonderful Viburnum Onandago that had to be moved away from the house was moved to my future wild life sanctuary. The viburnum kept getting taller, even after pruning (I waited a year too long) and was at least 9 feet tall. The pruning caused it to spread, I think. Fortunately, my husband has a backhoe. We only lost a couple of branches. I know this area of our property can be wet but it's wetter than I expected. The next day any holes left from backfilling were filled with water. A wonderful dark purple leafed perennial that doesn't bloom until late summer appears to be invasive. I don't want to remove it entirely but maybe it should be someplace else. It is Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker' (Hairy loosestrife) . Does anyone have experience with this plant and a recommendation about whether or not a should remove it from a medium size bed (about 15' x 4').

Roundup can pass through a connected system. But despite Henry's repeated quotes of various scientific articles (usually related to edible annual herbaceous plants unrelated to roses or seedling growth in farmland) there is no real evidence that any transfer from roots to soil to roots in the sort of application we're talking about, can really harm an adjacent hardwood bush like a rose, not to mention a huge established shrub like the one we are discussing. People have been 'surgically' removing garden plants using roundup for ever. Most of it is bound rapidly to the soil (to the extent that cutting a stub and powdering with a little dirt before 'rounduping' greatly diminishes the efficacy of the herbicide) and what little may or may not end up in the rizosphere from where some may or may not be absorbed by adjacent roots has not shown any harmful effects under field conditions. Now we have discussed this repeatedly before and I'm sure Henry will come up with yet a few obliquely related articles stating that traces of roundup or the results of its decomposition in the soil have mean identified in adjacent plants (and I have no reason not to believe this) but the field experience of millions of gardeners and farmers shows you can roundup a bush with the cut and apply method with no noticeable harmful effects to the adjacent ones. If there was a problem we would know about it through collective knowledge and word of mouth even if we didn't undestand the mechanics of it. I don't challenge what the linked articles are describing, I'm challenging Henry's crude interpetation and his arbitrary chain linking of them, which is grossly exaggerating to say the least. I'm sure Henry understands very well what he's reading but when someone is on a mission anything goes. There, I have vented off. PS I have never ever sprayed roundup or any other herbicide in my garden for weed control and I don't intend to, but I have used roundup on cut stems and stubs of small bushes and large trees repeatedly when it was the only viable solution to get rid of the plant for whatever reason. PS2 In the above I don't mean to recommend the roundup method for the particular RRV suspicion problem at hand. Firstly I have no knowledge or experience of RR disease and secondly I wouldn't do it myself out of fear of passing the herbicide through a possibly connected root system which, even if it doesn't kill the mother plant, it may cause symptoms similar to RRD which, for obvious reasons, would defeat the purpose of the original effort to save the mother plant..... I just commented on the use of roundup to kill individual plants.