I’m so sorry to hear this, Ann. I don’t doubt some barriers might lessen the chance of RRD, but I’m sure you already know once it’s in your area you are never really safe. I’ve had a plant infected that was behind an 8 ft solid fence, in the middle of a rose bed. Not the tallest plant either, just the unluckiest, that an infected mite decided to dine on it. I did find that when I removed an infected plant, its neighbors would be fine. When I lived in Texas not a day wen t by that I didn’t look for RRD infection on my plants, or worry about all the infected plantings of neglected Knock Outs around me everywhere.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Ann. That does sound hard to bear. I hope spring is offering compensations in other areas.

Extending my sympathies, having taken out two roses this spring due to high suspicions of an early infection. They're gone now but I will keep an eye on the rest like a hawk.

Is there anything you can do about the multiflora in the larger area?

I am not aware of any in mine so I don't know how my roses would have gotten the infection but it sounds like a terrible thing to deal with so I didn't want to take any chances.

Ah, so sorry to hear about this. As with Melissa, I am sending my sympathies and truly hoping the glorious potential of a new season is lifting your spirits enough to see you through. Sometimes, we can only change our allegiances and look for compensation in other, more fortunate plants. All thoughts going out to anyone doing battle with this most insidious of diseases.

I'm sorry, Ann. Sharing sympathy and hope.

That is awful Stillann, I'm so sorry to hear this. It must be really discouraging. What a dreadful thing RRD is. Like Artist, I wonder if you have any ability to remove the sick multiflora on the hilltop? Or is that off-limits? Can any neighbors who garden help you achieve their removal?

Ann, if misery loves company, just know you aren't alone. Some years it's so disheartening I think I should rip out every rose and just grow kudzu, English ivy, privet, Callery pear, and bamboo with Japanese and Amur honeysuckles thrown in for good measure.

So far I've not seen any *new* signs of RRD this Spring, but the year is young, and it's inevitable.

If you're not TOO discouraged to try a new rose, get in touch with me. I can spare a sprout of Prairie Peace if you still want one. At least with you being local I know I'm not taking a chance of spreading RRD into a new area. Ugh...that I even have to think about such things.

Been battling it for probably close to 2 decades now. I just cut it out when I see it and hope it's only the one cane. It usually is. I hate RRD, but it's not preventing me from growing roses. Just one of the many things to deal with.

Sorry for your troubles Ann! These stinkin roses sure do cause a lot of stress!

I'm so sorry Ann. I have to say . . . I'm pretty sure it would break me. Neither of us, I think, have the physical strength to deal with it. And I know my heart would break.

A couple of things got observed today when you add the temperatures in the teens (F) that hit mid November on top of RRD.

The only climbing vines that seem to have survived November are Virginia Creeper and Poison Ivy.

The massive American Pillar that climbed the black walnut tree immediately down wind of the big barn was over 25 feet tall. All of it that was up in the air is dead. it's coming back from the roots, and the segment that showed RRD got pulled up and burned. Had it spread within the roots? time will tell.

Fortuniana, that taught me so much that was happily climbing the walnut tree about 30 feet from American Pillar ...well, last night I was reviewing things I did yesterday, and I didn't see leaves on Fort. Not a one. Asked Larry, and he hadn't seen any either. Fort had lost a cane to RRD over a decade ago; the growth was a rosette of over ten canes coming off a cane at least 15 feet off the ground. We cut it as low as possible, and no sign of RRD for at least ten years. Not only does Fortuniana appear to be dead to the soil level, the wild grape that has been trying to take over the walnut is ALSO dead to the soil level.

Climbing old Blush survived the late east killing freeze years ago and seems to be hanging on but the climbers have problems. It's as if the nutrients flowing up and down the stem before dormancy happened froze and destroyed the xylem and phloem and would easily have wiped out the sieve elements.

I am so sorry to hear this Ann. I hate to see anyone with a collection like yours lose so much. The past season has taken a toll and a wave of RRD on top of it is a lot to bear. I've also lost a lot of roses to the fall and winter events and not just roses. I've lost shrubs, including natives. My 8'+ camellia is 3/4 defoliated. If I'm looking at a wave of RRD on top of it, I'm not sure what I'll do. I wonder if you, Fig and I are not isolated cases? I wonder how widespread the damage will be?

Ann, please persist. Broken, but not destroyed. You are an inspiration to us all. We need you here on Roses Forum.

I had my first dience with Rose Rosette Disease in 2022. It devastated me. Where it came from, only God knows. My doses are so isolated in my inner city, old Italian neighborhood with tiny gardens and almost no roses but mine in the block, both in front and out back.

I had my first eexperiencexperience with Rose Rosette Disease in 2022. It devastated me. Where it came from, only God knows. My roses are so isolated in my inner city, old Italian neighborhood with tiny gardens and almost no roses but mine in the block, both in front and out back.

It hit my venerable Lady AsheAse, and one approx. 15 yr. old Quietness. This spring may bring new woes regarding RRD, but I am still forging ahead. 12 new bushes are due in soon....and my advancing age sets boundaries too, but life is beautiful especially with roses in it.

God bless you and may He give you super human strength to stay on course, for you and for all of us.

MosesMoses

Sorry for the gremlin.

Ann, your weather comments make me aware of how lucky we are in that respect--and I say that as someone who's living with serious drought and major questions as to the future. Still, for as long as I can, I'll garden!

John, I sometimes think I spend most of my gardening life fighting back my neighbors' wild clematis, brambles, nettles, etc. I feel for you on the subject of invasive plants.

Im sorry. I felt that way when fuchsia mites were all over my neighborhood and finally got all my plants. 20 years later they are gone because all the local plants finally died but now the summers are too hot and most plants dont survive it. Remembering the past before chilli thrips came here, it was easier to grow flowers......no good to lament the old days passing. We have to do the best we can through droughts, pests, diseases. Would a greenhouse keep them out?

Ann, I'm so sorry. I've recently moved to Little Rock, and looking around I see very few roses other than kockouts and some New Dawns. I thought this was likely because of how badly things black spot here, but now I'm wondering if it is RRD killing off roses en masse here. I've seen diseased knockouts downtown and I have seen multiflora growing wild in the area. What I have not yet seen despite plenty of long walks through the woods is a native wild rose. Again, I wonder how much RRD has already impacted the ecosystem here. I hope that they come up with a decent course of action to combat RRD soon.

Most don't know that it's not just roses that are impacted. Similar viruses vectored by different eriophyid mites are doing horrible things.

The annual pigeonpea crop can be wiped out by pigeonpea virus that affects the development of the peas.

Date palms have a major reduction in date production due to a similar virus that (when tested) affects up to 90% of the date palms tested in the Middle East.

The loss of fuschias won't affect food, but IMO it's a loss of a wonderfully beautiful plant. The wheat and corn crops are where things were first noticed. Plums have a similar problem and in Europe the solution for black current problems.

IF TPTB don't see the need for a solution for food crops, decorative plants won't get their attention either.

Some may notice when the rose gardens planted to honor the victims of 911, but the solution will be to replant,

What this says about the longevity of old cultivars of any of these plants and of the continuation of richness of the genetic pool is not good.

I have been wondering if the introduction of mite predators could be a useful part of the toolkit.

According to the article below, "predatory mites, mite destroyer lady beetles, cecidomyid larvae" are listed as predators of eriophyid mites (the ones that carry RRD). 

https://pnwhandbooks.org/insect/hort/landscape/common/landscape-eriophyid-mite#:~:text=During migration between plant tissues,mites and other natural enemies.

Can deploying these beneficial insects be helpful in any way to help control RRD? There are places online where you can buy boxes of them to release into the garden. I wonder, if a sufficient army of them is built up in the garden, would it useful at all?

The main problem with the any predators is size. The vector mites are the size of a foot on an aphid. Lady'bugs' that eat aphids aren't interested in something that small (

There was a major problem when RRD was first studied in isolation chambers: the vector mites kept jetting eaten by predaceous thrips. )

But to build a population of predaceous thrips, you first need herbacous eating thrips that surge when grasses surge in spring.

This is one reason that Dr. WIndham has interplanted some of his study plots with grasses. I don't think he's put grasses IN the rose beds which is what I am tempted to try.

Very sorry to hear you are going throgh this. Is anyone actually working on a cure?

What a sad story--so many of your wonderful roses destroyed by this terrible disease.

Are others having as much trouble as Ann? I worry that Rose Rosette might come to my garden. About eight years ago, I saw it on Knockouts planted at the entrance of a subdivision next to our property. I reported it immediately and one by one the Knockouts were removed as they became infected. They were planted close together in a wide median strip. One bush survived and still looks healthy today.

Not long ago, however, while walking near houses in the subdivision I noticed that two rose bushes, which had seemed healthy enough last fall and quite beautiful, were brown and leafless this spring although from a distance of 20-30 feet, I thought I might be seeing small leaves or shoots but couldn't be sure. The two bushes next to them were perfectly normal.

A friend who was with me was sure they must have died from RRD during the winter, but I would have thought--perhaps I am wrong--that death would not come so quickly and that obviously diseased growth would have appeared in spring. I don't walk that way now--don't want to risk importing mites on my clothes.

Hoping the situation will begin to improve for you, Ann.

Lindsey

Ann, I'm so very sorry for what you are experiencing. It seems utterly wrong that our efforts to create a little beauty in our lives should be made so difficult, but I hope that you will not give up. Your idea of interplanting with grasses is a good one as it seems that monoculture, whether it be roses or food crops, put plants more at risk, and that may be a lesson that will have to be learned by everyone.

So sorry to hear stillanntn6b....