The iodine isn't a 100 percent test, there is no such thing because the scientists haven't got the disease isolated much less replicated. The iodine will tell if an otherwise invisible symptom is happening. From what I understand, it is a most blatent shade of blue when the sugar doesn't happen at all and I think that's year two or three in colder climates. And when you're getting no sugar stored, that cane will die over winter. (Which is probably a south of zone 5 thing.) Re Idaho. What's your elevation? The two earliest reports of RRD were from near Lander Wyonming (several thousand feet above sealevel) and in north California at a CCC camp. We went to that area in NCal after the HRF meeting and found an old lady who remembered the CCC camp (which changed location continually) but always was several thousand feet above the town. And we have catsrose's report from Santa Fe (about five thousand feet). So out west, I'd be more watchful of growing roses up at elevation, just because. Ya know, we don't know where RRD came from. It just appeared. Some similar diseases have been seen on one crop plant and then (and there IS money to study crop diseases) later, when molecular ids are made, they are found to be close to diseases with somewhat similar diseases on other plants. A recent study of roses in China showed that witches' broom of rose was almost identical to witches broom of the tree Pawlonia growing next to the roses. The diseases in China are assigned to Phytoplasmas and some symptoms are similar to RRD, except the rose/pawlonia problem in China makes rose blooms with green leafy blooms. (Like a similar disease of glass house roses in Poland.) We know so much and at the same time so little. Ann

Thank you for your responses. I don’t think it’s Round Up, but it is possible if my neighbor (down wind) closest to this spot used it. None of my other roses near by show damage. I hadn’t thought about chili thrips. I’ll have to look into it. I saw online that RRD doesn’t always show hyper thorniness, especially if a rose is not normally thorny. I saw this picture, and mine looked similar, which made me concerned. The picture below actually looks like normal growth to me, except for the long skinny red leaves, so I’m really only going by that right now.

The growth looks normal, but what's weird is that all three buds were stimulated to grow. From what I've seen roses do in my time, when this happens, there's something going on within the cane. The "normal" thing to happen is that just the central bud starts to grow, and this growth suppresses the two side buds. But sometimes there's damage to the central bud -- either from Winter, which isn't the case now this late in the season, or possibly midge, or maybe the inside of the cane itself is bad. That damage interrupted the central bud's suppression of the side buds, so they started growing......and then the central bud recovered. Either way, I, personally, don't like having all three buds growing, since I've found that when this happens, neither will reach full potential, and all will likely suffer Winter damage later on. So when I see all three buds growing, I prune down until I see just one -- the central bud -- growing. Try this, and look at the inside of the cane. You'll probably find tan to brown pith inside. I've come to learn that seeing more than one active bud per node is the external sign of internal damage or weakness, and prune it away. If the pith is fine, then perhaps what happened was some damage to the central bud -- maybe midge -- from which it then recovered, but not before the side buds woke up. At my new job in a public garden, I have been going through the roses a few at a time (there are about 3,000 there, from the bedding roses to the big shrubs and ramblers/climbers) and cutting back anything with more than one shoot per node. More than 90% of the time, what I remove has tan to brown pith, and often also noticeable outer damage/disease to the cane. What's left in the end may look scary for a while, but the roots suddenly get less of a signal from active buds, and respond by waking up sleeping buds, resulting in lots of new, strong, undamaged growth. The first one I did this way was on a "pruning day" demonstration in April, a week before I officially started. I saw a bed of 'Julia Child' that had a lot of Winter damage, but was starting to sprout shoots at the tips of some damaged canes. But these were like in your picture -- all three, or sometimes just the outer two, buds. I didn't like that, so I cut them back really hard, until I saw just one active bud -- the central one, which is the "normal" for a rose. Invariably, what I removed had tan to brown pith. What I was left with was just inches of top growth above the mulch line. Most of the others were pruned of just dead, leaving living but weak growth at the tips. Fast-forward a month, and all the others continued having weak growth on those tips, none with any hopes of flowering, but eventually the roses started pushing a few new basals from lower down. But 'Julia Child' was looking (to my eyes) perfect -- every shoot was strong, and there were more basals produced. Fast forward a bit more, and every cane on 'Julia Child' ended in a cluster of blooms. The others had some canes with just foliage, with blooms coming from only the few new basals produced from lower down. Eventually, I made my way through many of the other roses, and while they looked a little gaunt for a bit (because I got to them late in the season), each regrew stronger than before, with every shoot ending in blooms. But to reiterate, what is growing doesn't appear to be showing RRD symptoms. :-) ~Christopher

henry_kuska I am interested in the product that you called wiltproof. I went to there website and read a little about it. I had not heard about it before. Is this product good for roses other than dealing with RDD.... it looks like it is used to keep plants from drying out and to keep the leaves moist..... How would it work in hot drying winds. It says it also made from pine oil..... Here in Florida we have been advised against using oil related products during our summers do to the fact that it can burn leaves. Does this product burn too.... if not since it is oil based can it be used to protect against spider mites.... I know this is off topic but I would like to know more about the product. Thank you Sharon