“To have a suspicious growth on one rose can be considered a misfortune; …. ”

If it’s systemic, can the rose transmit the disease without any outward sign of the disease currently (post prune) being present?

IF systemic and not (yet) capable of transmission, then watching it like a hawk sounds reasonable.

I remember reading somewhere, something like: ’with warming weather, mites are released from rosettes’ - or words to that effect.

That may not be the whole story, or may be plain wrong.

There were two new growths on each bush, a shoot of about 5 inches or so - reddish, big thorns, standing out from the rest of the bush, etc. This was late fall (November or so).

I made the mistake of leaving them on the bush for a few more weeks (I was overwhelmed at the time) but at that point the roses had stopped growing. Nothing else changed but I eventually cut those two shoots. The rest of the bush remained normal looking.

At this point I don't know how systemic it is, but I dread digging them out and replacing - mostly because I read it's not enough to clean out the roots really well and leave nothing behind; but one must wait for two years or so before planting another rose in the same place.

Is that true??

That would be really bad because I have no other spots. Can't I just replace them with two other roses now, after cleaning up really well?

Thank you so much!

I heard Gaye Hammond give a presentation on rose rosette disease last October. She included some new information from 2022 in the talk. One of the new things I learned is that waiting years to replant is not necessary. It is important to try to remove all the roots, but if I remember correctly, one only needs to wait 7 - 14 days before replanting.

Gaye's presentation was interesting and very informative, but I did not expect that it would be something that I would have to deal with any time soon. Imagine my surprise when less than two months later, my very large bush of Spice produced one small branch with classic RRD symptoms. I sent photos to Gaye, and she recommended that I have it tested. I sent my small sample to the plant lab, and it did test positive for rose rosette disease.

I received the test results right before I left on a trip, and so I did not have time to remove Spice before leaving. When I returned, there was my large Spice starting another bloom cycle. Except for the small branch I had removed and sent to the plant lab, the rest of the bush seemed to exude good health - but I knew that it was infected systemically and that it needed to be removed. After removing Spice, life got in the way, and it was about a month before I had time to replant another rose in that spot.

I really wish that Gaye's updated presentation was available online, but I can only find an older set of slides. Here is a link if you are interested in seeing her slides from a few years ago.

Pictorial Diagnostic Guide for Rose Rosette Virus compiled by Gaye Hammond

My understanding is: it is systemic, and even if you cut off the infected branch, the rest of the rose bush has infected mites that can and will spread. On the other hand, I've also panicked and shovel pruned roses that I thought had RRD but in retrospect they were probably fine and I should have waited. Mites spread by wind--it there any way to create a windbreak between these roses and the rest of your roses? Between the time they start growing and when there's enough growth to inspect? It'd be ugly but maybe some plywood?

I have also heard that you don't need to wait long before replanting if all the roots are gone.

There are experienced rosarians who cut off infected canes and hope the rest of the plant will be ok, and some say that has worked out for them. I think it's pretty risky, especially if you have a lot of roses or your neighbors do. Almost always I get rid of the plant, but one time when I was in doubt I cut back the plant very severely, to just a few inches, and it came back with healthy new growth and hasn't had any wierd growth since. It was something else that roses can get expecially in spring that looks a lot like RRD. IMO cutting it back severely can reduce the chance of it spreading to other roses while giving you time to observe new growth. I get rid of them if it's obvious but if I am unsure I might cut back severely.

Another thing you can do if you want to hold off on getting rid of them is to spray dormant oil. That's supposed to smother mites. I'm going to spray my entire garden with it as soon as it is not freezing at night and no rain is forecast for a couple of days. That'll be next Tuesday. I saw zero RRD here last year.

IMO it is hard to know if you have gotten all the roots out. So I'd give it a little longer to see if any roots sprout, and if there are any small roots left in the ground most should die and not be able to harbor the virus. I'd give it a few months to a year.

Thank you all so much. I think I will take them out. I kind of wanted to try other roses anyway and these two were not really my favorites.

I've had RRD on about 50 roses over the last 20 or so years. What I do is cut off the infected cane well below where the symptoms show. I can't remember ever having to replace a rose because of RRD. I know what to look for and act quickly. It seems to spread much more readily up a cane than down a cane. I think to make it to the roots, you typically have to have ignored the symptoms for a year or more.

I used to live in fear of RRD, but now I view it similar to black spot or other rose ailments.

That's interesting, kidhorn. I am not in extreme fear of it either but think acting quickly is essential. In my garden it has not spread like wildfire, and the percentage of roses lost is very small over quite a few years. I know in some gardens it has done much more damage and wiped out lots of plants.

There is an eriophyid mite that causes a rosette disease on echinaceas. Does anyone know if that mite confines itself to echinaceas?

@charles kidder

It sounds like it's not as dire as the Internet makes it out to be. I may take one out - which is one I had kind of been meaning to take out anyway (Dick Clark) and maybe leave Julia Child. If I see anything suspicious this season with hawk-watching, I'll take her out too.

Turns out I may have even bigger problems (bigger fish to fry) but I'll start a new thread for THAT joy.

Good morning,

I am reviving this thread with a few questions, if everyone doesn't mind.

I ended up leaving the two Rosette suspects in the ground for now but I've been watching them like a hawk.

They have leafed out quite bit, growing as usual - and so far, so good. I can't see anything n them like that one growth I saw last fall (large thorns, weird reddish growth).

I cut off that growth back in November (about 4-6 inches long) and since then everything seemed to have gone back to normal with these two bushes.

My question is: if what saw last fall was indeed Rosette Disease and the affliction is still somehow present in these bushes internally, when would I expect to see it rearing its ugly head again?

Should I have seen it with the new growth in spring (now?).

Because right now I can't see anything.

Is it possible that what I saw might have been just the beginning of the disease and by cutting that growth I removed any further damage? Or is this not how it works?

Because I could swear it was Rosette, not just some regular red growth.

The thorns were much larger than on the rest of the bush and the red leaves were witch broom-like. It was textbook.

But then I cut that off and the bush was fine, as it continues to be as of now, with the new leaves this Spring.

If it's still there, would early Spring be too early to tell? Should I expect the damage to reappear later in the summer?

The second as I see that, they will be out because I already have their replacements in pots.

Than you all for your support with this anxiety-producing situation.

If the rose was still infected and you've had new spring growth, you would likely have seen something by now. RRD is like steroids for roses. But, it can manifest in a hundred different ways, so keep an eye out.

@User,

Unfortunately, that was my mistake. I was kind of overwhelmed last fall and did not take a picture although I know I shoud have. In fact, it took a few days until I was able to make myself get out there and cut the growth. Hence the anxiety now. All I can do is to keep an eye on it.

@charles kidder,

In what other ways can it manifest itself other than the big thorns and the witch broom red growth?

I took a picture of the bush now. This is Julia Child.

I honestly don't know what to say...all leaves look fine and no new growth with big thorns. However, the point from which new shoots emerge (axillary bud?) seem to create some thicker and harder than normal green, not sure what you call those two little small pieces that flank a new shoot or leaf.

Please give your opinion and if this image looks in the slightest suspicious to you, I think it's time for Julia and her friend Dick Clark to go. I don't want the smallest chance of them spreading this to the new roses in this bed. I just planted Munstead Wood and Savannah there...so...what you do think?

If I take them out, I won't even plant anything in their spot until Fall.

When I zoom in on my cell phone camera I can almost see microscopic things/tiny dots in this area. I am not sure whether they would be visible but maybe the cell camera has the power to bring them out. You can't quite see them here but on the cell phone camera it's something.

Thank you so much for any opinions! I have a feeling I'll have some shovel pruning to do tomorrow morning.

Apologies for this, but I am just giving this a bump in case anyone cares to opine on the images. I really don't know what to do. The bush overall seems fine but what I saw last fall may have been the very early stages. Now the axillaries seem a bit hard and weird.

What you show isn't obvious RRD, but it might be RRD. Like I said above, it can manifest in 100 different ways. I've had thick super thorny stiff stems and I've also had long thin curvy rubbery looking stems with no thorns. Like one side of the stem grew faster than the other. And every possible weird looking bloom you can imagine.

Not enough information to be diagnostic

Looks more like freeze damage than RRD to me.

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)

I would have gone with this given we did have a freeze a few weeks ago - had I not seen what I saw last fall: textbook RRD.

This one here, on the RRD site, looks less suspicious than what I had (large thorns too).

https://roserosette.org/what-to-look-for/

Unfortunately I never got to take a picture of that growth last fall and didn't do anything about it until now because I was going through some unrelated difficulties at that time. Then winter came, etc.