Good luck to you Beth. Makes my stomach turn just hearing it. Isn't there a saying that no good deed goes unrewarded or something like that.

It's worth a shot. At least it will relieve your conscience. We may lead a horse to water---I would be finding a new gardener for the neighborhood! What kind of plantsman/woman allows that to go on? Yikes.

Susan

many people have never heard of RRD. I have seen it in public gardens as there is sometimes no public awareness. I saw it on a large rose in an arboretum and pointed it out to one of the volunteers and it has been removed.

That's pitiful.

Beth, You're doing a good deed for your community. Good luck to you and your neighborhood! I have been check out store's parking lot roses too.....neighborhood watch!

Good job. I just saw a roadside median full of KOs with RRD. I sent and email to the DOT.

Yes the days of gardener's proper are long gone. A woman near me charges $40/hr to weed. I'm in the wrong business!

susan

This is why I feel hopeless about RRD. People just don't know what it is, and they let their roses fester and spread the disease.

Also, $40 per hour???? I'll be right over!

Wonder how fast she works. I weed everyday anyway. Wow can I come too.

HA! I don't pay that. But I see her around the neighborhood and she has staff. Go figure.

ARS needs to do a public awareness campaign. Hell, Knockout should sponsor it. Do seminars at the big box stores. Lol.

You know, not a bad idea for rose sellers to spread the word about RRD, Then they could sell replacement plants. Rose sellers, are you reading this??

Make sure that her gardener isn't using a herbicide around the plants. That's usually the first question that I ask, especially if they are paying someone to take care of the gardens.

The problem with public awareness campaigns is that too much of the public then over-reacts, diagnosing herbicide damage as RRD and passing around all sorts of misleading information about various sprays that, in fact, will not "cure" the problem and are a waste of time.

Actually, I'm in favor of public awareness campaigns, but am often discouraged at the amount of mis-information about RRD gets spread around, even on this forum.

Kate

The following was stated: "passing around all sorts of misleading information about various sprays that, in fact, will not "cure" the problem and are a waste of time."

H.Kuska comment: Can anyone be more specific about the above statement? i.e. can anyone document which spray(s) has/have been scientifically tested and scientifically shown to be a waste of time?

I'm going through this on a separate discussion on here, I dug out 16 knock outs from 3 homes in my neighborhood on Saturday. 5 of the bushes were already dead, the rest looked really bad and had at least 50% dead canes. Agreement from the homeowners was very easy to get once I explained it to them - plus as HOA President they listen to me, somewhat!

I think a public campaign is in order. Yes, accidental herbicide sprays can create some BUT NOT ALL of the symptoms. The bushes I dug out this weekend were showing multiple symptoms - witches brooms, very red growth, poor growth and performance, just an overall horrible, unhealthy look, lots of thorns, deformed leaves and sepals - herbicide damage does not result in all these at once.

In my own garden, I've been patient to see multiple symptoms, cut them out all the way to the crown/graft, and if they come back in re-growth, then I consider the bush positive for the virus.

Yesterday afternoon I walked a couple of streets looking at all the roses in the front yards of people and did not see anymore RRD but did see some probable herbicide damage that bears watching.

The HOA sent emails to the members and showed pictures of RRD damage and herbicide damage. It seems we have a couple of master gardners in the subdivision and the HOA has invited them to prepare a presentation for a community meeting.

The HOA is currently removing all KOs in common grounds and replacing them with native plants. It'll be sad to see the loss of all those beautiful blooms all spring and fall but RRD is such a major problem here they feel that is the only way they can arrest it.

The following was stated: "The HOA sent emails to the members and showed pictures of RRD damage and herbicide damage."

H.Kuska comment: "If possible could you post the pictures here."

Thank you.