The ARS is funding a three year study at the University of Tennessee. Objectives include trying to develop an ELISA test and studying the spread within garden conditions of a garden composed solely of a single cultivar (way out in the country where there are no rose gardens down wind). They have as RRD source plants severely infected plants of the same cultivar. I haven't heard the results of the first year, yet. ----------------- re R. rugosa. Early on, in the garden we followed at Lincoln Memorial University, there was also a plantings of many Pink Grootendorsts near a building that had been the Dairy. They did not get sick for several years as the modern roses planted immediately downwind of multiflora-rich field whose plants were at least 30%infected with RRD. At one time we found some strange swellings on the PG canes, and they made the rounds of a number of Plant Pathologists; no idea what their problem was, but it was just the swelling. Then five or six years in, a plant got two canes that were even more thorny, whose new growth spiraled, whose leaf margins were different and whose blooms were messed up badly. Now I wish I had made scans of the canes, but we were busy with other plases of following the disease as it spread. The problem with the declarations that certain roses don't get RRD is that no one has ever taken the spectrum of all roses species and planted them in different USDA zones and left them in high disease pressure areas for a five to seven year period. What I've seen this winter, when where I live is zone 7 low temperatures, is that the plants with RRD have grown through winter....at least the parts with RRD have. The uninfected canes have gone semidormant. There's so much that we don't know. Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Rosette E-book

My retired teacher cousin looked up our family tree years ago. It involved driving to the mid west, Wisconsin, going to public records halls. Her research took several years, more than one trip, of course it was before Internet. she even self-published a book listing her findings. I wish I had a copy, but she has been dead many years and my parents did not want to buy a copy when she first offered it to them.

Thank you Henry, this seems very timely. It hasn't arrived in my part of the US but I'm sure it won't be long.

New link for recorded copy: https://www.starrosesandplants.com/articles/tips-expert/managing-rose-rosette-disease-landscape The email that I received also contained an attachment to a booklet titled: "Rose Rosette Disease: Guidelines for Landscapes". I could not figure out a way to create a link to this attachment to put here. I put the title in quotes and tried Google. It did not find it. I assume that sooner or later they will have a link to it on their web page: https://www.starrosesandplants.com/