Ann is our resident expert on this so I'd go with her advice. I will add that if you do have to remove the plant, as far as I know, you can replant in the spot as long as you are sure you have gotten all of the roots out. The disease is carried by a mite that infects the plant and I don't think it can get it from the soil. But I might even suggest taking some of the soil away to be sure you've gotten all the roots out and adding fresh soil instead. Make sure you dispose of the plant and do not compost it or put it in a yard waste recycle bin. If you can't burn it in your town seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the trash.

I'm going to second what Ann said. Within 2 years, I lost 30 roses to RRD. (out of 500+ roses, not bad) I then figured out the early signs and started removing just the infected branch. I have not had to remove a whole rose in the 6 years since I started watching more closely. I do make a note of which ones had a branch removed, and those are watched with an eagle eye, just in case. Please do not take out roses that don't have any evidence of RRD!!! My 30 sick ones were scattered all over the 10 acres, so it isn't necessarily the case that the rose next to it gets sick! Just look at them carefully as you walk in your garden, and you'll catch the signs early enough to save them.

To be honesty, I think I panicked and I threw out a rose, that would have been ok. One of them had this look and these red shoots. If you post a photo, I can tell you. I know the one did have it, that I returned, but I threw out a few more because I was freaking out, and maybe they would have been fine. But, its not that I don't love roses, it was because I loved them so much I could not bare to risky all of them. I was thinking better to have a few die, then all of them die.

Not sure how to add to my post so I'll add this as a comment. I watched a youtube video from Dr Mark Windom Of Univ of Texas. It was very recent info...so I'm saving the roses and watching them very carefully--all of them. Only those two showed any problems and now that the offending canes are gone they look fine--but I'm on alert. Thanks to all of you for your help. What a scare!!!

It's Dr. Mark Windom of the University of Tennessee. He's had an American Rose Society grant for going on three years to study RRV and his studies are on going. (And he's a friend. You'll also see the name Dr. Alan Windom, his brother over in Nashville and they both are plant pathologists.) You should have seen their eyes light up when they saw my R. multiflora watsoniana.)

Does anyone have a link to that youtube - I'll go search

Go to youtube and search for "Rose Rosette Disease Seminar"--you'll see it showing a 4.9.16 date--I just happened upon it by accident doing a google search for "rose rosette disease" . I live in SE Va by the way, and this is the first time I have ever seen this disease. It seems that every year some new rose pest pops up in my garden, but this seems to be the scariest (so far)!!