Karen - The article I mentioned should have been in the American Rose Society magazine, but it was not - it was the magazine of AHS (the American Horticultural Society) - I think it is called The American Gardener. At almost the same time as my AHS magazine arrived I did get my ARS magazine in the mail, and it had an amazing article in it - well written by an exhibitor - all about how to compete in exhibiting roses, how to grow them (with pictures of standing rows of roses - no garden), how to spray what poison, how often, how they need meticulous constant attention, etc. etc. It was quite an amazing contrast - seemed as if it was the future of rose growing vs the past - guess which side the ARS was on? The sad part to me is that if anyone who was thinking about growing roses picked up the ARS magazine, they would STILL get the impression that roses are difficult & time consuming to grow, and also hurt the environment. How can this possibly help the ARS's stated goal to get more people to grow roses? It is quite ironic that the wonderful article about how an entire public rose garden was changed over to sustainable rose growing, with great success, had to be published by the American Horticultural Society. Jackie

Phytoplasmas are a 'new' thing as in they've only been recognized by scientists as a separate category for less than two decades. A disease with symptoms similar to RRD has been reported (in juried literature) from greenhouse production of roses in Poland. A series of papers authored by Kaminska (and others) have tied that disease to phytoplasmas. (References to the papers are in the bibliography of my e book) Kaminska has also many, many other papers reporting phytoplasmas in other diseased plants in his part of the world. Another related paper from China talks about witches' broom of roses in a public park and the adjacent Pawlonia Tree that had witches broom symptoms. The phytoplasma that they said was on that stand of Pawlonia matched the material from those particular roses. (For more on phytoplasmas, see their preceeding label MLOs, Micoplasma Like Osomething) The really scarey part of phytoplasmas is that some are readily transmitted by leafhoppers according to Kaminska's greenhouse rose work.

Got curious about compost tea. This is the second time I checked. Early this summer time I spent 1 hour researching but was disappointed. Here's one link from United Kingdom on compost tea (unbiased, NOT sponsored by compost-tea industry): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/11121288/Compost-tea-does-it-really-work.html " What did they find? In a glasshouse study on lavender and choisya, none of the compost teas had any effect on growth or on susceptibility to botrytis (grey mould) or spider mites. Sometimes plants treated with compost tea were taller, sometimes they were shorter, sometimes there was no difference. Sometimes plants treated with compost tea were of higher quality, but often they weren’t, and treated choisya plants at one nursery were significantly worse. In short, the effects of compost teas were “extremely inconsistent”. Other links from U.S.A: http://www.walterreeves.com/landscaping/compost-tea-does-it-work/ From University of New Hampshire: https://extension.unh.edu/articles/Does-compost-tea-really-work From University of Vermont: http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/composttea.html Excerpt from above link: " It’s not clear whether it’s necessary to aerate during compost tea production. Aeration can speed up the production time, but it may also add to equipment cost and complexity. There are claims that aeration helps kill off the organisms that can cause illness. Very few studies have compared aerated and non-aerated compost teas. Some recent research. A 2-year study by the Rodale Institute and Pennsylvania State University evaluated the use of aerated compost tea for disease suppression and crop stimulation in grapes, potatoes, and pumpkins. During year one, approximately 50% suppression of powdery mildew was observed in the compost tea treated grape plots. A slight reduction of gray mold, along with an INCREASE in the level of downy mildew, was observed in the compost tea treated plot during the first year at one of the vineyards. Compost tea failed to suppress powdery mildew on Howden pumpkins in year one, but reduced the number and size of pathogen colonies in year two. Compost tea did not reduce severity of late blight on Superior potatoes when disease was present in year two. " http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/composttea.html *** From Straw: FOR ROSES, just spraying with alkaline tap water alone is enough to suppress mildew, as testified by Roseseek (Kim Rupert) in CA and rosarian Dave Boyd in HMF. For mildew, just plain tap-water spray (alkaline pH over 8) is enough to contain mildew, as rosarian Dave Boyd in a dry climate (only 13" of moisture per year) testified in HMF: http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=3.4748

This is a never ending issue here. Commercial rose growers near me rotate the fields, not returning to the original one for at least 7 years, they replant with new roses in a neighbouring field, but the old one is left to grow other crops, after all the roses have been dug up and sold off.. I have done my own experiments in a small way... I have found that mycorrhizal fungi stops the issue occurring most of the time, without soil replacement, but is not 100 percent guaranteed to solve the problem every time... I have just dug up a rose that I know was suffering despite MF treatment at planting time... David Austins told me it's ok to replant if the old rose had not been growing for more than 2 years,,, my experience is different and agrees with the RHS who say that just a few months is enough to cause a problem between roses.. I have also found that replacing an own root rose with a grafted one, did not affect the new rose, but when I replaced a grafted rose, with an own root, the own root rose suffered and languished - I can tell just by looking at it.. it still hasn't recovered fully.. Another way around it, is to plant a new rose just a couple of feet to the side of the original planting hole, I've got away with that a few times... Last year, I dug out a large 'Mutabilis', that had been growing for some 7 years, and was about 8 foot tall by 10 foot wide... I replanted with a transplanted 'Cornelia' rose using 'MF'... without any soil amendments. This rose has thrived and has been in full bloom already...showing no signs of ill health... you win some, you lose some it seems..