Not being an expert, at first glance I would think RRD. However, the RoundUp use so close to the rose bush makes me pause...with rain/water I would imagine it could travel through the soil. But the question is does the herbicide cause hyperthorniness? I'll be watching for your responses and Ann Peck's expertise. Good luck!

I tend to agree--RRD.

If it is (we'll get some more votes in here), dig up the entire bush, roots and all and dispose in a tightly sealed plastic bag.

Yes, you can plant another rose in the same spot. At least, that is what I've done--and no repeat RRD in that spot.

I don't think I've heard of cases where the roses immediately next to an RRD infected rose also picked up the infection. It is more about the wind picking up the mite that carries the infection and despositing it, willy-nilly, on the other side of your back yard or in the neighbor's yard a block away.

You might want to stroll around your neighborhood and see if any other roses seem to be having problems. If so, educate your neighbors and get them to dispose of the rose--so that the wind doesn't pick up their infected mite and send it back to your yard.

For several years in a row, I had one RRD per year. Then I identified my neighbor's RRD rose and got her to dispose of it. My roses never again suffered from RRD infections. Coincidence? Perhaps. Or not.

I don't want to speak out of turn, but this year I have had no RRD infections at all. (Knock on wood.)

Kate

Edited to add: I meant to also say that I love your border--so attractive. No wonder you are so upset that anything would invade it and try to destroy your roses. I'd be upset also.

This post was edited by dublinbay on Mon, Aug 11, 14 at 14:10

It looks like RRD to me. RU drift usually shows wispy growth, not this type of abnormal growth.

Sorry Pat.

We've kept our sailboat in Decatur and now in Florence, and I've watched wild multiflora near your part of the world. RRD is there and is also in a lot of fields to the north of you in Tennessee. These fast moving thunderstorms that have come barreling through from the north...easy way to move the vector mites.

Lots of RRD symptoms on your rose. Especially look at the diameters of the new excessive stems coming out of significantly thinner pre-existing canes.

You wrote:If it is RRD, then the healthy looking parts of the bush already have the virus, but just aren't showing symptoms yet?
Transmission within a rose bush isn't instantaneous. There may be parts of the bush that don't have the virus in them yet. But you do want to get rid of the roots that supported that hideous cane.

If so, have I been potentially spreading it to other roses when I deadhead spent blooms

Probably not, because the blooms looked good to you. RRD when it's been in a rose for a while totally messes up the parts of the flower and you would see that.

One problem we have is that we grow big healthy roses and it does happen that a cane can grow excessively and not get noticed immediately.

Do cover that bush with a really big trash bag when you dig it out. Take it far from you roses and see if you and/or your husband can isolate the supporting roots of that sick cane by using a wood chisel to remove them. It's a big enough rose that even removing half of it would leave a rather wonderful mass of rose. I wouldn't replant it next to good roses, but somewhere where you can watch it for three or four months and then if it stays clean, replant it come winter.

Ann

I'm so sorry you are likely losing this rose. I just had to compliment your garden, it's just beautiful.

Pat, you have my empathy because I know eventually it's coming my way. I hope you can get this bush isolated and protect your beautiful garden!
Susan

Thanks to everyone for the help, advice and sympathy! I was pretty sure RRD would be the verdict, but was holding out a bit of hope. I’ve been rather naïve thinking RRD couldn’t find me out here away from civilization on my little 100 acre piece of the world. Now I know and will be vigilant in checking for symptoms on my other roses going forward. Hopefully, since none are showing signs now, they haven’t been infected yet. I could replant the RRD rose out in the pasture and watch it for a few months, but since it’s not an irreplaceable one, I think I’m more comfortable with bagging and burning it. I really wasn’t sure if, once an RRD rose was present, the virus could be transmitted to my other roses by means other than the mites themselves. Sounds like that isn’t likely…so good news there. I will venture around this weekend and see if I can find any roses on neighboring farms that might be infected. Population of our town is 400, so not too many flower gardens to check out…lol. But there is a lot of heavily thicketed, unkempt land in the vicinity. I haven’t seen anything that stood out as multiflora in passing by any of those places, but really no telling what plants and creatures those might be harboring…

Pat-Bama,
When you go searching, do look up in trees. Multiflora can climb twenty feet up into trees. Also, as a generalization, the fencelines where multiflora has gotten established in Tennessee and Georgia are along roads that haven't been improved/widened for thirty years or so. Road widening generally wipes out the would-be hedgerows and it takes a while for our woody weeds to reestablish.

This is a hard time of the year to go searching. Later this fall would also be a good time. Healthy multiflora in fall is green- just plain green. Sick multiflora is sometimes a chlorotic yellow green and very often a reddish magenta on the newest sick growth and the reddish magenta stands out in heldgerows.

Thanks again, Ann! You’re right…fall is probably a better time for multiflora searches. I’m going to concentrate on looking for cultivated roses in our area that might be infected for now. Will see if anything looks glaringly obvious in the thicketed areas around town, but those are quite scary this time of the year. Will most likely wait until fall and spring to try to do up close inspections of those.

Had to shovel prune one this week.. Will it affect all the other roses on my gardens?? I have 40 some David Austins.. The rose I shovel pruned looked exactly like this.
Worried also about the eden rose that has all the clusters have 7 leaves...no 3 or 5 and no blooms

welltraveled--just for you, I went out a few minutes ago and checked my Eden. Most of the leaves come in 7 leaf leaflets. I saw none with just 3 leaves. There was an occasional one with only 5 or 6 leaves per leaflet, but overwhelmingly, the leaflets consisted of 7 leaves.

I don't remember why that issue is so important to you, but I remember you posting about it before.

I do remember posting earlier that Eden is not a good bloomer for everybody. I don't remember how old your Eden is, but you may have to wait 3-5 years for it to do much--that is true for a number of climbers. Of course, none of this has anything to do with RRD. Sorry to hear, however, that you lost another rose to RRD. Many of us have had to go through that loss. It's hard to take.

As I said above, the mite that carries the infection gets blown, willy-nilly, around by the wind. It may blow the mite to the other side of your yard or several blocks away. However, there is no reason to panic that nearby roses somehow caught the infection just because they are nearby. Chances are, they did not--unless there is an infected rose somewhere in the neighborhood and the wind keeps blowing the mite carriers into your yard.

Hope that answers some of your concerns.

Kate