The bottom picture looks quite normal. The others might just be happy from lots of fertilizer and water, and the cool weather we have been enjoying, but I would keep an eye on that super-vigorous and very thorny growth. Thorns at the bottom of the shoot should harden up after a few days and the bottom leaves on the shoots green up so they resemble other expanded (but fairly young) leaves on the plant. It's OK if the leaves are a little larger than normal. Are there multiple shoots starting from a single site or shoots starting in unlikely places?

I think you are probably OK because the form of the leaves and thorns looks normal.

I'd say a very happy rose bush. of course keep an eye on it and see if the new growth hardens up as michael said.

ok, I was hoping to hear that! I didnt walk out there for a couple of days, and it kind of took me by surprise!

To answer your question Michael, thereis only one shoot coming from each site, and they are in normal places. :)

Thanks for the advice!

Tammy,
There is RRD in your county. Look at some of the old fencelines, the ones that have ten to fifteen foot trees growing up in them. You will find R. multiflora there. Some is healthy, but a lot isn't. Right now, RRD infected multiflora near me is puttingout rather hideous yellow green fast growing canes. Later this fall, the sick growth will probably be vibrant red purple.

I agree with Michael about watching the middle cane, the one with all the small prickles and whose larger thorns aren't recurved the way the other thorns on the rose are.

One clue, for me anyway, based on the RRD cases I have actually seen, is that the RRD growth is also UGLY! So far, none of your new growth looks UGLY in those pics.

Kate

Just looks healthy and happy to me! A lot of roses have very red new growth but those look like normal sized and shaped leaves. Sometimes on the soft wood of new growth the thorns appear closer together but as the cane grows and hardens off you'll notice the thorns seem to spread out some too.

Thanks Seil and Kate, this is definitely what I wanted to hear! Paw Maw is one of my only grandifloras that does well without spraying, and its own root as an extra bonus, so I really didn't want to have to pull it!

Ann, good to know that RRD is in the area. We have a lot of wild roses near the property, but they're all pink (R. Multiflora is white, correct?). Whatever this pink rose is, it roots like a champ...I've been using it for rooting practice this summer. Do you know what it may be? It has tink little pink blooms that resemble a polyanthas, tiny foliage, and tons of tiny thorns...

Tammy

Your photo reminds me of the 2 random canes our Stormy Weather put out, ruffly petals. The rest of the canes are fairly smooth, but those two ruffly ones are thorn central! (in SoCal so not worried about rrd)

Right, some rose varieties routinely break multiple shoots from a site, but typical modern roses don't. People can look at the existing structure of a plant to determine which is which. Tea roses generally, Souvenir de la Malmaison, and Barcelona are some that routinely break all three growth buds at a site.

Tammy, it looks good to me, normal happy growth.

We just had 3 to 4" of rain yesterday, all my roses sprout vigorous canes with reddish young leaves, very much like your normal growth spurt.

BUT the Rose Rosette rose from HomeDepo that I dug up last week have VERY, VERY BRISTLY canes that sprout from the bottom of the bush. The leaves were curly pale and crinkled (witches broom), and not healthy red like yours.

Strawberry, I was thinking about your RRD Rose that was by your mailbox this weekend.

Is it possible that your own letter carrier is delivering you RRD mites? After all they often brush up against shrubs on their routes and depending on neighborhoods, can travel miles. Maybe a mite does not even need the wind if you have a carrier with an infected rose on their route. Might be worth asking your carrier and showing them a photo so they can look on their daily drive (assuming they care about roses or plants of course) A different type of plant might be best at your mail box

TNY, after reading Ann's post. I'm concerned about the third picture, upper right corner--cane section dense with awl-shaped thorns. Are there such thorns anywhere on the older canes?

Hi Kippy: I should had stated more precisely "within walking distance of my mail box". From the mail box, I would walk a strip a lawn, past the sidewalk, then past through a bunch shrubs & trees, curve right and walk to the center of the island where the Rose Rosette rose from Home Depot is. RRD is carried through tiny wingless mite, if it got blown by the wind from the mail truck, the dense shrubs and trees would block its path.

I'm pretty sure it's from Home Depot parking lot, where hundreds of roses, including Knock-outs are crowded together. I don't know what's my RRD Easy Elegance rose is grafted on, but it has multiflora parentage. It was sick and pale last year, and gave me only 3 blooms. I was about to return it within a month of purchase but got lazy. It was $18, not cheap - that was before I know about healthy mail-order roses for $8 Roses Unlimited gallon summer sale, or $10 Burlington and LongAgoRoses band size, or $12 gallon size from Chamblee's (this is bigger than Home Depot's gallon)... plus they are delivered to my house.

Rose Rosette was an ugly sight and a pain to clean up.

Also looks like very normal growth on a happy rose to me. You mentioned that it is own root, and planted in 2011. It can take own root roses a year or two before they really take off - looks like that is what yours is doing right now! Maturing roses can often put out new basil canes that do not necessarily have identical thorns to the ones growing before - they can look very different. I would just put it down to the fact that your own root rose is becoming mature, and is very happy.

I realize that RRD is a horrible blight, but it is important not to interpret every new burst of growth on a rose as a problem - that is what they are supposed to do!

Jackie

Jackie

Thanks for clearing that up Strawberry and glad you found the source of your rrd, the shopping center flowers where Home Depot is located.

I would be very cautious using that Home Depot if I where you, you could bring the mites home with you. Guessing there is no magic that would keep them from infecting your own roses at home, no matter the source of the rose.

Not sure that I would trust a stand of trees or bushes to protect your yard either.

Thanks for all the input! Having read so many bad things about RRD, I think (like Jackie pointed out), that I tended to panic when all of the red growth and new leaves appeared from seemingly out of the blue!

Michael, I went and looked at the other canes after work, and only a couple of the new canes seem to have the non-reflexed thorns? I'm going to keep an eye on it to make sure that as the canes age, they begin to resemble the older canes. I'll post pics in a few days...

Tammy

With regard to my RRD rose from Home Depot that I trashed last week: it has to to with the recent TIME and the PLACE that rose came from. It might be more susceptible due to its multiflora parentage. I bought 3 Flower-Carpet roses 7 years ago from Home Depot, and those are fine.

I also bought 2 Knock-Out roses 7 years ago from Lowe's and they are fine. I bought 2 Knock-out roses from Walmart 6 years ago, and they are fine. One Walmart Knock-out was at the same spot as the RRD rose for 5 years, until I moved it to partial shade last year, and put in the RRD bought from Home Depot. The distance from that RRD rose to the mailbox is about 70 feet, with dense shrubs and trees in between. I don't think that the mail truck is the cause.

A friend recently bought 10 Knock-outs from Walmart, and they are fine. Walmart' rose supply is much smaller than Home Depot, and carries mostly Knock-outs.

Mikchae, I have to disagree. Dick Clark, Red Intuition, Falling in Love and Veterans' Honor are all newer HTs and every one of them routinely breaks multiple canes from a single point for me. And there are probably others I just couldn't think of off the top of my head.

Yup seil, I hate these things that people come out with, like they are facts. I had visions of somebody reading this and going and burning perfectly good plants just because they are doing well. I also cringed a bit at people saying the new growth should harden off in a few days or should green up in a few days. I have no experience of this rose, but a lot of mine stay red for a couple of weeks when it is new growth. Munstead wood at the moment is green with about a foot of red all round it. That's just what it does lol.

i have the same question as the original poster of this message. My very first rose (a knock out) is giving reddish new growth and looks thorny to me, but I've never actually seen RRD (although I know infected roses near me).

Is this healthy or sick?

Thanks so much in advance.

Here's another angle showing the thorns.

Ela,
That is Rose Rosette. Take that cane off as close to the base of the plant; you have a chance to save the bush.

For the rest who might question:

Healthy buds have simple un-feathery sepals; these are the overgrown that are typical of RRD.

Look at the hyperthorny bases of the buds, below the receptacles. Again, KOs don't have this.

Leaves: some are asymmetric and, as well, have irregular margins. Again symptoms.

I've spent hours watching KOs in mass plantings and this is the beginning of a problem.

I do know someone over in NC who saw RRD early on a single cane last year (October) and he took off the cane immediately> That rose has come back healthy this spring and early summer, so it's worth taking one cane off, in my opinion.

Thanks so much for your quick response! I'll cut the cane and hope for the best.

Followup to my original post:

Almost a yeat later, Paw Maw went on to become my healthiest hybrid tea :)

Thank you, Tammy, for the posting! The growths in the pictures you posted looks EXACTLY like those on a pink Hybrid Tea I rooted last year. I saw it last Sunday, and my heart sank as i thought it was RRD. I almost yanked the poor thing out of the ground right there before deciding I should learn a bit more on RRD before removing it.

RRD seems fairly bad near where I live. You saw lots of diseased multiflora along the road side. The rose garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden has a sign that says that they have to replace their roses due to RRD. This scared me a bit as they are in the middle of Brooklyn (thus far fewer multiforas) and can presumably contro/eradicate l the mutifloria in area sourounding their rose garden. If they have to contend with RRD, imagine what gardeners in subaburns/rural ereas have to do.... Fingers crossed.