Karl is absolutely right on here. This is an unfortunate event and is not infectuous to any other roses in your garden unless they get injured and allow this particular bacteria to enter that wound. I have successfully replanted roses in holes where I had a previous gall infection without incident. I did dispose of all the soil I could when getting rid of an infected rose, replacing it with a mix of good garden soil and native soil in the hole. I have heard that some even treat the spot with a bleach solution, but I think that is a bit extreme and might end up doing more damage to other beneficial organisms in the soil that are necessary for growth of a new rose. John

Melissa, I've successfully stopped crown gall on my roses that have become infected with it by carefully digging up the bush then removing the gall(s) and a thin sliver of wood at the point where it was attached. Because it's a bacteria, I spread some cheap generic antibacterial ointment on the wound. I then mix two cups of bleach in a five gallon (19 liters) bucket of water, and pour this over the soil in the hole from which I removed the bush. After the bleach water drains from the hole, I replant the bush from which the gall was removed. I've never lost a crown gall infected bush when I followed this procedure. After replanting. treat as you would any transplanted rose bush.

Patty - they are not grown at the same farm. Most of the on-line own root nurseries root their own roses then direct stick in bands. They do get some stock from Greenheart at times, but many do their own propagation from stock plants they have on site. We restocked Greenheart with all new cuttings this spring from our stock of Kordes. The reason to do this is to make sure the genetics are still fresh and to make sure we have clean stock every 2 years or so. We and Greenheart spend a lot of time and $ on the project. rifis yes I mean roses. We grow about 5 acres of stock and research roses. We do harvest plants to send to growers that need the genetics, to introduce new varieties and to send for testing and/or to botanical gardens. This is when we are looking for the galls. We also have had materials tested at Oregon State for crown gall in stems too. Patty I do not know how you received so many plants. I am still not clear on where you bought the plants with gall. Sounds like it was pretty variety specific. Please understand that crown gall exists in a very wide range of soils in N. America. The contamination could of happened anywhere in the chain of production. It can also exist in garden soils. It has always been a problem in roses. That said producers need to use the very best clean plant techniques to minimize the problem but I do not believe it can always be 100% prevented.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience Jacqueline, very encouraging to hear your roses survived crown gall. It was a fresh Weeks rose purchased in a peat pot. I’m not looking for money back, I do think the local nursery would refund the money if I had the receipt and showed them the disease. But I’m just sad that it spent the last 5 months growing and blooming so well, and had just grown to the point where I could wrap it around an obelisk. I had spent some good effort wrapping it neatly around the structure when I spotted the crown gall :(