Does the American Rose Society have recommendations on rose rosette? I found articles on their website. When contacting the local society, it would appear they believe there are large numbers of herbicide damage being mistaken as rosette, and there is just no way to tell attitude. I was hoping to find someone besides myself, and the local extension to confirm to others that what is present is actually rosette. I thought if there was a rose expert I could recommend to my HOA to consult with maybe they would wake up. I viewed pictures of herbicide damage, and it looks different. The local extension agent knows the difference, and has seen the difference. My fear is others may take the it is just herbicide damage no worries here attitude. Another resident removed diseased bushes, I wanted to cry when I saw it, because I was so happy someone actually paid attention. Anyone know if you can get arrested from taking photos at public places considered private property such as shopping centers?

No, the whole garden will not have been infected with RRD. Maybe a couple more. GreenCure (potassium bicarbonate) is very effective against powdery mildew, not so much against blackspot. Combining it with oil (horticultural spray oil or neem oil, dose as labelled) makes a more effective spray, but the summer months are often too hot for oil--it will burn the foliage. Between the three evils you mention, eastern US, zones 6 and 7, is a really tough area to grow roses, but lots of us do it and enjoy it. For JBs, as long as they are very bad, I recommend just cutting off all the flower buds that are near opening. You will feel better doing that than watching all the flowers get ravaged. The floral scent attracts extra JBs to the garden. If there are no flowers open, you can spray insecticide in good conscience, if you get tired of collecting beetles by hand. You can also protect a few flower buds by tying sections of panty hose or white plastic over them.

Buford's photos could both be herbicide damage. At present there is not a simple field test to determine if a rose has RRV or does not have RRV. Excessive thorns is thought to be a good indicator of RRV infection but lack of excessive thorns does not rule out RRV. Buford's photos do not show excessive thorns, and the one that he feels is RRV is similar to one posted for herbicide damage by Plant Pathology Department Extension Service at the University of Arkansas. http://plantpathology.uark.edu/Number5-2009.pdf From Ann Peck's web book: "There are no laboratory tests to confirm a diagnosis of RRD; graft transmission tests can confirm the disease when the recipient plant (R. multiflora) develops RRD. A lack of transmission does not prove lack of the disease, just lack of transmission. Dr. Jim Amrine (personnal communication) suggests that graft transmission tests are more often successful in spring than in other seasons. This, to me, corresponds to the time that multiflora puts on most of its new growth (when its growth isn't affected by RRD)." -------------------------------- H. Kuska comment: Until a simple lab test is developed, we simply do not know from a single field examination in some/many cases. There are too many variables: type of herbicide, concentration of herbicide, rose variety, weather, etc. to say for certain from a single observarion in all cases this plant definitely has RRV, this one definitely has herbicide damage. Here is a link that might be useful: Ann Peck's chapter Recognizing Rose Rosette

We have an international expert on RRD here in the forum who hopefully will see this (StillAnn), but my rose instincts are to spray that rose with hairspray to keep the mites on it and dig it up and dispose of it. The only reason that might not be a problematic rose is if there have been weed killers sprayed in the area and the rose is responding with abnormal growth. You have a good eye to recognize that this is not normal growth and there are multiple parts of the yard that have what looks like "witches broom" growth that is characteristic of RRD. Having said that, I defer to Ann if she says otherwise. I have had a bout of RRD in my yard last year and I've been posting some suspicious growth on a different thread that was a result of something else. Pruning too much or little shouldn't result in this kind of growth. It can cause a "candelabra" of canes, but this is too densely bunched to my eyes to be that situation. Apparently RRD can affect some roses in a garden but not necessarily neighboring ones, but you want to get the offending rose safely bagged and dug out at the roots to avoid further chances to spread. If this were my rose, I'd dig it out even without Ann's confirmation. For me there are too many troublesome signs on that bush. As for replacing another rose, I don't think the accepted wisdom is to replace immediately though there are mixed reports of whether RRD can be spread by root transmission. I plan to wait at least a season before replacing with another rose, but there are reports of shorter rest intervals. Most of my RRD dug roses are being replaced with some other perennial. Hope this helps Cynthia