Buford's photos could both be herbicide damage. At present there is not a simple field test to determine if a rose has RRV or does not have RRV. Excessive thorns is thought to be a good indicator of RRV infection but lack of excessive thorns does not rule out RRV. Buford's photos do not show excessive thorns, and the one that he feels is RRV is similar to one posted for herbicide damage by Plant Pathology Department Extension Service at the University of Arkansas. http://plantpathology.uark.edu/Number5-2009.pdf From Ann Peck's web book: "There are no laboratory tests to confirm a diagnosis of RRD; graft transmission tests can confirm the disease when the recipient plant (R. multiflora) develops RRD. A lack of transmission does not prove lack of the disease, just lack of transmission. Dr. Jim Amrine (personnal communication) suggests that graft transmission tests are more often successful in spring than in other seasons. This, to me, corresponds to the time that multiflora puts on most of its new growth (when its growth isn't affected by RRD)." -------------------------------- H. Kuska comment: Until a simple lab test is developed, we simply do not know from a single field examination in some/many cases. There are too many variables: type of herbicide, concentration of herbicide, rose variety, weather, etc. to say for certain from a single observarion in all cases this plant definitely has RRV, this one definitely has herbicide damage. Here is a link that might be useful: Ann Peck's chapter Recognizing Rose Rosette

Oh, Ann. I would wish all your roses immunity from now until forever, especially the most treasured ones. They are much more than garden plants. The sneaky relentlessness of this contagion is enough to make a rose gardener stark raving mad! Here's hoping for our friend science to point toward a light in the tunnel and for everyone in horticultural and agricultural fields to recognize and act on this very real and voracious threat. Thank you so much for all your contributions to our learning on this forum! Erasmus, I applaud your method and thoughts on RRD spread. I think you are spot on about vigilance. Wildfires start with a cigarette, firecracker or downed power line. Identifying and properly removing and disposing of the first spark can go a long way toward containment as we work toward eradication. Any large monoculture planting can cause huge ecological problems, and a swathe of roses which potentially hosts RRD can become one of the ugliest of ornamental disasters! No plant is maintenance free, but installing roses--Knockouts or any other "disease resistant" variety--in an unsupervised area is especially foolhardy. The marketing implication "plant, water, whack and ignore" can produce devastating consequences for the entire community and far beyond. Genetics may eventually unlock extremely useful information for future breeding and cultivation, but it's not going to alter the current course of this disease. Installing plantings of roses without continuous educated oversight and care is just asking for trouble. Even individual roses strung across private gardens can creat pathways of infection. Residential gardeners, along with every landscaping company and nursery, need to receive four alarm information about RRD. And then there are the unaddressed fields of "wild roses" which are not closely monitored by the highway or agricultural depts. In order to truly contain and eliminate this epidemic, we need to treat it like the plague it is. Observation, containment, elimination, eradication. Carol

The papers did not give the authors affiliation. From other papers by some of the authors it appears that at least some of them are located at the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA. and some are from USDA-ARS Horticultural Crops Research Lab. Corvallis, OR, 97330, USA. see the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: link for other work by same authors.

I'm new to roses (planted my first rose garden in 2011) and, thus far, they're all healthy, but I do read a lot and want to be educated and ready to remove plants if it becomes necessary. I saw my first RRD rose at my local independent nursery a few days ago. A landscaper had brought in a branch and blooms. The horticulturist on staff at the nursery was kind enough to gather a few of us around and point out what to look for. In all honesty, it looked really different in person than what I had here-to-then seen online and read in descriptions of the virus. It was really helpful to see the "witch's broom"-like growth, the blooms that looked like it was grown at a leaking nuclear plant, and the weird thorniness that were like thorn-hair. This particular afflicted plant was off a Knockout variety but I know it can affect all roses, so I'm watching everything at my house, praying that I don't have to "euthanize" any. Pretty scary. Wish there was something we could do to avoid it. Makes you feel so helpless. . .