Maybe it will also help in rose heat treatments for virus elimination:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4069/is_200405/ai_n9441990/

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

thank you for the links Henry. I have read a few of them. Very interesting.

What from I understand of the process for someone in my climate, zone 5, lots of rain in the fall helps my roses better than anything. A little aspirin in the spring diluted in some water might help the less sturdy roses and a little dose in the middle of summer may help with disease problems.

Next summer if I notice some roses in stress I will give them a dose just to see what happens. can't hurt too much if it isn't mixed too strong. Worth a try.

Valerie

There is a 2009 review in a very prestigious review journal on salicylic acid and plants:

http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.phyto.050908.135202

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

I'll go with Valerie's ideas and add fall aplication to the more tender roses, like noisettes.

If anyone is considering actually trying aspirin for any of the possible benefits, I've read of it being applied as a foliar spray at the rate of 2/3 of a standard tablet in a gallon of water. Although this seems very dilute, aspirin is phytotoxic and should be used with care.

Can't locate the source, but it was an amateur experiment in enhancing disease resistance.

Title: Effects of DICER-like proteins 2, 3 and 4 on cucumber mosaic virus and tobacco mosaic virus infections in salicylic acid-treated plants.

Authors: Lewsey, Mathew G.; Carr, John P.

Authors affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Published in: Journal of General Virology (2009), volumn 90, Issue 12, pages 3010-3014.

Abstract: ""Salicylic acid (SA)-mediated resistance and RNA silencing are both important plant antiviral defense mechanisms. To investigate overlap between these resistance phenomena, we examd. the ability of mutant Arabidopsis thaliana plants lacking DICER-like (DCL) endoribonucleases 2, 3 and 4 to exhibit SA-induced defense. We found that in dcl2/3/4 triple mutant plants, treatment with exogenous SA stimulated resistance to two pos.-sense RNA viruses: cucumber mosaic virus and tobacco mosaic virus. We conclude that DCLs 2, 3 and 4, which are the predominant DCL endoribonucleases involved in silencing of pos.-sense RNA viruses, are not required for effective SA-induced resistance to these viruses. However, the findings do not exclude RNA silencing from making a contribution to SA-mediated resistance in wild-type plants."

I am interested in research papers that investigate the temperature dependence to a plant's ability to fight off virus infections.

The full paper accessed through the link below states:
"Development of symptoms following inoculation of N. tabacum (��Petite Gerard��) with ToRSV was influenced by temperature. At 34�aC, visual symptoms did not develop on the inoculated leaves or on upper, noninoculated leaves and neither viral RNA nor viral-derived siRNAs were detected in samples collected randomly (data not shown). At lower temperatures, lesions developed on the inoculated leaves 2 to 3 days postinoculation (dpi). At 21�aC, lesions were clearly defined and necrotic (Fig. 1A, panel 1)."

This paper titled (Salicylic Acid-Dependent Restriction of Tomato ringspot virus Spread in Tobacco Is Accompanied by a Hypersensitive Response, Local RNA Silencing, and Moderate Systemic Resistance)

ties together the "RNA silencing" type immune system response with the "Salicylic Acid" type immune response.

The following is a key quote from the abstract:
"Lesion size and viral systemic spread were reduced with SA pretreatment but enhanced in NahG transgenic lines deficient in SA accumulation, suggesting that SA-dependent mechanisms play a key role in limiting ToRSV spread in tobacco."
In the full paper the following results should be of interest in this thread:
"The percentage of plants that became systemically infected was also significantly reduced in SA-treated plants (9% �b 6 in SAtreated plants versus 49% �b 15 in control plants; three independent experiments; P

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above, full paper is free

When I see virus in heat stressed roses in my garden I feel like an asprin myself.

The thread linked to below has a discussion of the use of aspirin for rose rosette virus infection.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to thread where aspirin was used with rose rosette virus