I was walking along the Potomac at National Harbor in Maryland last week, and saw about a half mile of half dead rugosas. I was wondering if that was from RRD.

I just made a report at roserosette.org

I live just across the river from National Harbor. I will have a look there next time I go and take pictures. At the very least we can report this to roserosette.org

I have battled a lot of RRD in my garden and this kind of mass public planting of RRD is really upsetting.

The Kennedy Center is in the background in some of my pictures. I really can't get over how much RRD there was. The city must employ gardeners. Did none of them think something was wrong with these roses?!?! Just unbelievable.

WOW, that is unbelievable. It is great that you reported to the organization but how could the city mess up so badly. Totally agree with you that they need gardeners who knows about roses and employed them.

I hope they will get rid of it properly. I would also report this to the City and Department of Argiculture before it starts to spread further.

Keep us posted.

Jin

Unfortunately this is a familiar site in my town too. Groves and groves of Double Knock Out have been planted by the city and various businesses and left to grow as RRD incubators. For a rose lover, it is a horror movie come to life. Homeowners do it too, and sometimes when you tell them about RRD, their attitude is , ‘oh, its already paid for and planted, I’ll just let it keep blooming for me until it dies’. I’m glad you contacted the proper authorities and hope they take action. On a larger scale I don’t know when we’ll get to the point where the majority of folks stop doing this!

At least you have a river between you and mites are horrible swimmers :-)

I will keep you posted. I will not give up until these are gone. The Dept. of Agriculture is a good idea. I just wrote to the President of the Potomac Rose Society for more ideas. In my googling I found a program put on at the National Arboretum about RRD with one of the Univ. of TN RRD experts.

https://www.active.com/washington-dc/science/camp/rosette-disease-rrd-workshop-2018

How could the city mess up like this indeed. This RRD is years old I would say. Surely I am not the first rose grower to notice this infestation?!? The pictures do not even convey the full horror. The plantings went on for blocks and blocks.

BenT, what happened when you contacted the city? Did they just ignore you? Incubators are exactly what they are.

The city did remove the groves of infested roses by my block, but there are at least 100 different other groves that are still in place...my city is a RRD Knock Out minefield.

Agree, that infestation you pictured is YEARS in the making. When I see this, I wonder: How did it get to this point without intervention? Am I the only one seeing this? Am I the only one who cares? Has the city staff opened a book in the last decade?

Exactly!! It seems impossible. We have a Rose Society here and a Capitol Hill Garden Club!!

I found this contact info for APHIS (under USDA) "plant health" State Directors. Not easy. I wrote and am posting this link here in case someone can use it to report RRD near them.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/ppq-program-overview/ct_sphd

Contacting the public landscape departments might make a difference. They probably just don't know. I sent a business an email with link to an article with pictures. I told them how rrd will spread and is a huge worry to rose growers, and that business got rid of their plants. If someone says they're just going to grow their sick plants till they die I'd point out that it is a hazard to all the other roses in the area. I think someone needs to go on some tv shows like news shows and do segments about rrd. But contacting someone through email is very easy if you can find an email address .

There is a Facebook group called Combating Rose Rosette I found on the USDA site. I wrote to them too.

A TV segment would be GREAT!!

Not sure that they have any control over DC parks, but you could also try writing the National Arboretum?

I found the e-mail for a DC Parks maintenance request--

DGS@dc.gov

I am listing all the contacts I find in ththis thread in case it helps someone else.

I'll try the Arborerum too. They put on the RRD seminar!

Whenever I hear of a mass bed showing almost uniform infection, I wonder if someone in the garden crew did not spray the bed with weed killer.

My link below is out of date. I should take the time to update it, but that is harder to do in old age.

https://sites.google.com/site/roserosettevirus/home

I'm very near you in Falls Church. Just a few hours ago, taking kids to the park, I walked past my neighbor's house, where a row of knockout roses fronts the lot. Staring me in the face on the first bush in the row were three canes with a flagrant case of RRD. I immediately texted her and told her this needs to be dealt with and I could cut it off for her if she wants to. Three branches were affected but strangely nothing else - and it is a knockout rose hedge with at least a dozen plants quite close to each other.

Astute observation, Henry:

henry_kuska

Whenever I hear of a mass bed showing almost uniform infection, I wonder if someone in the garden crew did not spray the bed with weed killer.

"mass bed showing almost uniform infection".

The research folks out in Oklahoma were finding it doesn't spread that uniformly at their test site - though the time frame, as I recall, was just a couple of years at most.

Wow, Nadya, that looks awful. I hope your neighbor lets you cut that off way down at the ground level. Grace, the danger is if they do not get all the roots out then the planting area is contaminated.

Henry and rifis, I would bet money this is not roundup damage. The round up damage I have seen causes leaves with wispy, strapy growth and not the very, very thick witches broom areas. This was RRD. I think the uniformity just indicates how very long it has been infected and allowed to grow out of control.

I wondered about that, odyssey3. The detail that might have indicated rrd, specifically, was not provided in your photos; I realize it was nighttime.

Yes, it was nighttime and I only had my cell phone with me. I was just trying to get something documented. I have had much RRD in my own garden so I sadly have experience with seeing it and recognizing it.

Nadya -- I'm trying to work up a flyer on RRD to hand out, since it is going to be showing up here., I'd love to have your photo to include.

Jeri, I love whatever you are doing. I know it is going to be educational about roses. Maybe, we should give one copy for the city...101 for roses..get rid of the roses that are infected before it spread. Phew!! Now, I feel all better :)

Nadya, pls say yes :):)

Jin

Oh! Yes, of course! Take it. Let me know if you need an actual file.

Nadya -- An actual file would be better quality -- and your image is so diagnostic.

I've run into a snare. My propose flyer directs people to call County Dept. of Agcriculture. So, I called them -- to learn that they know nothing, and thought I might contact a Master Gardener <GRRRRRRRRRRRR>
They're supposed to call me back. I'm not holding my breath.

Can you exchange files through the houzz system? If not, please send me a test email and I will respond with the file attachment. My email is nadya dot nikiforova at gmail. no spaces.

And mine is heritage roses @ gmail (No spaces) :-)

I sent a test message.

I'm aghast at what's in those pictures. That looks like an egregious amount of neglect. I can't believe someone isn't paid to oversee all this. I'm glad there are people here who are willing to take responsibility for reporting this disaster which can have such far-reaching consequences.

I have heard back from four of the people I have e-mailed and so far all have said they can't do anything about it. Very frustrating, especially when some are involved in working to stop the spread of RRD (with taxpayer money). I would have thought the first step in getting rid of RRD would be to remove plants infected with RRD.

Unbelievable! So there is a hotbed of infection that causes clear harm but no one wants to do anything.

Let me suggest something. Do you have a facebook or twitter account? If you do and feel comfortable about it, you may want to think about posting something zingy and critical, tagging the agencies you found to be responsible.

One other idea: we can reach out to the gardening reporter at the Washington Post. His name is Adrian Higgins. He can be reached at adrian.higgins@washpost.com. His twitter feed is @adrian_higgins. You can drop him a note with photos of your findings and the responses from the agencies responsible for this mess.

OOOoooh Nadya, what fantastic, fantastic ideas!! I will work on this.

Ugh... A few years ago, I often walked past the Kimpton Rouge Hotel on 16th Street in DC. They had a front bed of KOs all infected with RRD, with giant witches' brooms. I tried to reason with them, begged, emailed with the manager, emailed their corporate HQ -- nothing worked. I was getting the usual run around, "thank you for contacting us, let us know how we can help, blah, blah, blah." The manager said his "landscapers" thought it was fine. It took about two years for all of the shrubs to die but I just stopped walking that way, I was so mad (I still am...).

Please keep sharing ideas on how to approach cases like these -- I have a feeling there will be more!

I live in Baltimore and this is terrifying.

I wrote to Adrian Higgins and encourage everyone to do the same with photos and details. That way he doesn't think that I'm a crazy loner. This is a public issue in that the city looks the other way while a clear hazard grows and multiplies in the properties under its charge.

Another possible source: http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/ 

Washington Gardener https://twitter.com/wdcgardener?lang=en.  Editor is Kathy Jentz.

I e-mailed Adrian Higgins and tweeted at Kathy Jentz. The only result on a google news search was a Q and A segment by Adrian. At least we know now he is familiar with RRD.