The wild rose is probably Rosa multiflora and most often the blooms are white, although there's a naturally happening light pink sport that shows up every so often. (Rosa caninda, the dog rose, has larger pink blooms and can be a more elegant rose, holding itself up in a vase shape.) Can you talk your husband into bushhogging this weekend? IF your temperatures are not yet in the 70s, burn them (with proper permits). Multiflora isn't supposed to be red at this time of the year nor are you supposed to be able to see that something is wrong from a distance. Please read my e-book. Come back here with questions. And could you tell us which county you live in? Ann

Some suggestions for zone 5: Don't cut roses back in the Fall; cut them back to perfectly healthy wood (white centers on the cut surface of the cane) just before growth begins in the spring. Not doing this is one major cause of failure with roses in cold climates. Second cause of failure is planting on low ground where water collects from melting snow in the winter. Are your roses planted on the higher parts of a sloping site? If you don't think either improper pruning or poor drainage is the problem, then you might try more winter hardy roses, such as any of the Canadian Explorer series (see link). Here is a link that might be useful: Canadian Hardy Roses

Spring of this year I had a Mary Rose. When she began to leaf out the growth could only be described as rrd [leaf nodes with as many as five stems growing from them, long thin leaves, so many thorns it barely had a cane, many buds all twisted and shriveled up. I took the rose out that night. Than the same thing on midnight blue and easy going, I carefully removed them. Several weeks passed before three more roses began showing the same growth usually on just one or two canes. I can't begin to tell you how sick I felt. Well against all wisdom I had to try some thing. I did not remove the rose or the cane. Believe me, I know this was not a good thing to do. Yet something wasn't right so I had to try. I thought things were so bad at this point I needed to know for sure. I cut the roses back to healthy growth and waited, knowing if it was rrd the returning growth wouldn't get better. A month has passed now and all the growth on Heritage, Perdita and Fragrant Masterpiece has been fine. Please, I'm not saying any one should do this. These roses all had three or more symtoms of rrd, they all looked like pictures of rrd. I know it wasn't herbicide damage. I have more questions then [Hines has pickles]. Maybe, if its your fist time seeing suspected rrd and it's only on one cane, removing that cane and observing new growth wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm certainly no expert but I have a feeling I'm not the only person who has had this problem and maybe it wasn't rrd. If I were to ask every question I have now it would read like a book. I really hope your rose is not sick. Don't know about you but my garden is my peace in life. Yet, hummmm aphids,rose slugs, jb's, pm, bs, rmv, rrd, ect ect. Did I say peace? Good luck to you. Pat

RRD is a disease of aberrant and excessive growth. Often when a non-sick cane on the same bush is putting on two inches of new growth, the cane with RRD may put out twelve inches, or it may have new growth coming from every available leaf axil. Some of the wierdest canes of Double Delight I've ever seen were sick with RRD and were transported curled up as if they were rope. They had grown so fast that they hadn't hardened and become inflexible. And they were four feet long. (That caused me to check and in my garden HTs' new basals start getting stiff at their bases when they are six to nine inches long.) If you're not getting growth, could it be a soil fungus? Can your county extension agent tell you what soil problems might be more common in your part of the world?