I apologize but I didn't take pictures - i'm a tad paranoid when it comes to rrd and cut the canes down (but not all the way down) - there is no hyper thorniness and the leaf growth is too immature to determine if it isn't symetrical -

Just reddish-purple growth isn't enough.
Compare the leaves on the new growth with older (now green) leaves.
When a rose has RRD, often the edges of the affected leaves have a very different pattern than older leaves, spacing between the leaves on a stem is closer (aka shorter internodal distance) and the stipules at the bottom of the leaves are odd. The whole leaf structure may lack symmetry, abysmally so.
This means that growth is different from one side of the leaf to the other.

That reddish purple color is something we need to make mental notes on; some roses have it in spring and fall; others don't.

I'd hope that someone in your zone who grows Morden Sunrise will come on and tell you that that color is normal at this time of the year.

Anne I forgot to ask about the leaf protrusion from the flower bud...I've never seen that before.

At the center of blooms, leaves (and even flower buds that don't open into 'good' flowers) happen in my part of the country in late spring, when cold conditions overlap with strong spring growth. Does this, perhaps, match your fall conditions? Esp with plenty of Nitrogen?
When I've had RRD and blooms, I haven't gotten the leaves in the center of blooms. BUT at least one source calls for phyllody as a symptom of RRD...phyllody as in phylla as in leaflet-like growth in the blooms and a definite greening of the petals or what replaces them). But I've never seen this and I've seen a lot of RRD; I asked someone about this about a month ago (she has seen it in large quantities) and she hasn't seen it as a symptom either.
With blooms, often the sepals are totally messed up...too many, with no petals inside, or lacking the seed bearing part of the rose, or bad discoloration of the petals.

thanks - our conditions right now are lower temperatures at night (40-50's) with warmer (low to mid 80's) in the day and lots of moisture - thank you so very much it does help greatly!

When I've had the real RRD there hasn't been a doubt in my mind what it is. But it's those other funky growth issues that make me nervous just like you. Weather alone can make for some weird growth patterns. What I've come to rely on is the thorns. I've never had a case (or seen a case of) RRD without the thorn proliferation. Have you Ann? I've had red new growth, green new growth or a mixture of the two on my RRD roses but the thorns always cinched it for me.
The picture below is a case in point. You can see the emergence of the RRD growth right out of the normal cane. This cane is from the 1st of 2 differnt cases I've had this year.
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Mary,
I've had RRD when I didn't let it get to being thorny.
On Rouletti, the stemlets were so loaded with tightly spaced leaves that there was no stem for there to be thorny.
Something similar happened with Rosa canina, and it (RRD) got badly spread three feet along canes before I 'saw' it. (I don't spend a lot of time with my species roses at midsummer.)
When the bush starts making new and totally sick canes, then I have seen hyperthorny at its worse.
I wonder if it's something in the tea/HT lineage that leads to the hyperthorniness. But it comes in from multiflora as well. Same for gallicas. Same for damask/bourbons.

Interesting about the leaves being first noticeable on those you mentioned. My experience personally and from what I've seen around has always been with modern roses (From HT's to miniatures). There, as seen in my picture, the old leaves on the cane appear to be normal. Only when the new growth emerges do the symptoms occur. As you know there is another problem called "spring dwarf" that also causes abnormal leaf growth, but I must admit that I'm not familiar with it.

When you see the new growth appear sick on a cane with older, good =healthy, leaves, that tells you that the infection is of recent origin. Catching the disease when it's in a single leaf node is when I've managed to save a rose bush, by cutting the diseased cane as low as possible.

Rose Spring Dwarf has been found to be (yet another) rose virus that appears on some roses in some growing conditions in spring, and doesn't show in summer or fall. And now that they've got the disease identified, they've tested asymptomatic plants and found it can be a latent virus- one that doesn't show symptoms. (Recent papers now published in Acta Hort for the symposium whose abstracts are linked below detail RSD.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Entry page for Acta Hort 751

This was caught early (thank you, Ann) and you can see there was no hyperthorniness. Just bizarre gobs of leaves all pushing out of one node. The rose is a China.

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Carol

(And minis in the Modern Rose classification are from Chinas)

Good example Carol. Thanks for posting it. I went through some old kodak pictures I had of a miniature of mine that came down with RRD years ago, and although I can't see for sure on the pic, it may indeed not have had the thorn prolif. The main thing I took pictures of were the leaves and distorted blooms, which had left me in no doubt as to what it was. This rose btw, I did manage to save by cutting back the offending cane to the ground. It lived another 10 years without a repeat of RRD(I finally pulled the plant just cuz). I didn't take any pictures of the next mini to succumb so don't remember about it. I know all of my big modern roses have had the thorn prolif. Of course it's not just my roses I've seen with it, but local nurseries and the Tulsa rose garden. I haven't seen an OGR infected, but since I'm thoroughly modern Milly so to speak, I tend to pay little attention to them. Next time I run across it I will make a mental note of the thorns in particular. Is there any rose you've found immune Ann? And I didn't quite understand what you meant when you wrote about other OGR's -Gallicas, Bourbons, damasks etc do or don't have the hyperthorniness?

I was writing from memory of the gallicas, Bourbons and Damasks being hyperthorny. (Mental files downloading getting into the OGRs that I could remember and checking for more thorns than should be there.)

Every time I think I've found an immune rose (often it's a rose growing really close to a sick one that hasn't gotten sick), I'll find in two or three years, that other clones have come down with RRD.

Oddest things so far include a floribunda that had bright purple-red stems, leaves and buds, was hyperthorny with short internodes, odd leaf shapes and margins, distorted stipules AND sepals, but the bloom color was normal. Pink petals surrounded by purple sepals. (So far, only one.)

You know the more I find out about RRD, the more questions I have. The apple tree in Poland and RRD link perked up my ears as I have had both an apple tree and a Crabapple in my yard. In fact there are more of the Malus species around me then the Rosa. But I don't have access to the full paper on that, and doubt I could understand the language if I did. I'm afraid I'll have to stick with observation for now and try and keep up with anything new. As always Ann you are a wealth of information on this subject.