Another poster said his city government had decided it was safe to send them to recycling. The real hazard is probably mites escaping from the foliage while it is still green. Spray all top and bottom leaf surfaces with Wilt Pruf or oil before you start taking the canes down.

Please do not recycle them! If you can not burn them bag them in tightly sealed plastic bags and put them in the regular trash. You could just save another unsuspecting rose grower from getting those mites in his yard from your composted canes. Even if you think that's impossible it's better to be safe than sorry.

What seil said, put them in the regular trash. Also do what Michaelg recommends before you start moving the canes.

There is no foliage on these. They are brown, dead canes.

I think you've already gone above and beyond the call of duty in dealing with this. It's the mites you have to worry about, and they have probably fled your dying chopped down bushes already. If the city/county has cleared the disposal of RRD in recycling, I'd do it. I hope I never have to, and I'm probably downwind from you.

Can I ask how do you know the roses are infected with RRD if there is no foliage and the canes are dead?

Telltale signs are witches broom growths, distorted cane branchlets much larger than the cane from which they emerge and extremely strange thorniness covering the canes- quite unlike the other thorns and the spacing seen on other normal parts of the same plant.

We are in the same situation here. Burning is not allowed and you are not allowed to put plant waste in the garbage. I've hidden it in the garbage before but would not like to get caught doing it. Should RRD hit again I'd like to ask for special permission but doubt they would allow it.

What about this? Snip the infected roses into smaller bits over a garbage can to collect in there. Squirt some dishwashing detergent in there, then fill with water. This will drown any mites still living on the canes. If you leave it in there for a few days, things should start decomposing -- or at least softening. If you have a compost pile, the material should be safe at this point for adding to it -- the virus-transmitting mites won't feed on decaying rose canes, and any mites still on the rose canes will be dead, anyway. Cover the stuff well with whatever other material you add to the compost pile.

If you don't have a compost pile, and don't plan on starting one, then just leave the stuff to steep in the soapy water for as long as you can stand it -- it might get stinky after a while -- then pour out the water and send the solids off to wherever the yard waste ends up. Doing so should prevent spreading either the mites or the virus into their compost.

:-)

~Christopher