This paper was presented this summer at the VII International Symposium on Rose Research and Cultivation, Angers, France, July 6, 2017. "Session 7 Oral Presentation 3 Title: Testing EDNA-ROSE: a novel in silico approach for detection of rose viruses combining next generation sequencing and bioinformatics. Authors: Lizbeth Peña-Zuñigaa, Andrés Espíndolaa, Patricia Kleinb, Thomas Debenerc, Jasper Reesd, David Byrneb, and Francisco M. Ochoa-Coronaa. Authors affiliations: aOklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA. bTexas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. c Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institute of Plant Genetics, Hannover, Germany dAgricultural Research Council, LNR, Onderstepoort, South Africa *ochoaco@okstate.edu Session: Rose genomics The garden rose production is seriously affected by viral infections in USA. Twenty-four viruses have been reported to infect rose worldwide and numerous are reported in the USA and in Europe. Early viral infections in rose may not be diagnosed until symptoms develop. Currently single-virus assay methods are used in the diagnosis and detection for most of these pathogens. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) can be used as a diagnostic tool because of its ability to amplify multiple unique DNA signatures of infecting viruses. Electronic probe Diagnostic Nucleic acid Analysis (EDNA) was used to detect rose viruses in simulated metagenomics runs (mock sequencing databases, MSDs) containing rose-virus reference sequences as positive controls and rose host genome sequences. MSDs were generated using MetaSim, and were configured simulating Illumina average read length and error rates. Electronic probes (e-probes) with lengths of 20-40 nucleotides were designed by comparing the target viral genome versus all potential co-infecting viral genomes. To avoid false positives, e-probes were curated by BLAST alignments of sequences from published public databases (nt NCBI). Positive MSDs containing only the intended target viral genome were considered positive controls. MSDs mimicking single and multiple infections were also generated. Generated E-probes were tested in silico and in vitro. If compared with other NGS procedures, EDNA is a relatively rapid response methodology that provides the framework for a new sequence-based diagnosis. EDNA-ROSE can also be combined with other diagnostics methods for virus monitoring in microbial forensics, biosecurity and epidemiological studies of rose plants."

Generally, the flowers will appear before the new growth emerges. But sometimes you will see the unopened buds of both flowers and new growth on the plant at the same time. You will get to be able to tell the difference between them with some time and experience :-) They look somewhat similar but are distinct. I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon removing the spent blossoms on the rhodies closest to my entry. I really dislike seeing the old faded flowers....at least on those plants most visible. Others in the garden are far too big to be that meticulous :-) And when removing the spent flowers, you have to be careful that you do not also remove or damage the new growth that appears around the flower trusses. Stems that do not produce flowers generally will extend the new growth a few days to a week or so earlier than those that do produce flowers. I see no signs of flower buds on the plant in the photo. And it is getting a bit late for any flowering on most rhodies.....it is definitely the end of the season up here!!

Unfortunately the link down at the bottom doesn't take me to the top. On one computer there isn't even a way to choose newest or oldest first. All the same problems remain unless I use the Gardenweb backdoor or my one computer that randomly shuts down in the middle of a post. Please, let's not tell them about the backdoor or I'll never be able to use this site from various computers. I've written numerous times about the phone issues so many of us have and they don't nothing to correct any of it. Thank you Jackie for contacting them and fixing it for some platforms. You deserve a medal! Seriously!There is really something wrong with the people making these changes. Why would anyone want to comment at the top?

At the July 22, 2020 meeting of the National Clean Plant Network (NCPN) - roses a paper was presented that compared a new technique High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) with three of the earlier techniques used to detect viruses in roses at the University of California at Davis. https://ucanr.edu/sites/ncpnrose/files/330324.pdf One of the earlier test is called a Multiflora test. On slide 12 it was reported to be correct 77% of the time (17 plants), but gave a false negative 23% of the time (5 plants). Another early test is called a Shirofugen test. On slide 15 it was reported to be correct 23% of the time (5 plants), but gave a false negative 77% of the time (17 plants). See also slide 17 and slide 19. Slide 19 is of particular interest as it indicates that even the relatively modern PCR test can give false negative tests.