I planted this rose bush in the spring. Lots of new growth and beautiful blooms. Took a closer look at it the other day and discovered Aphids and this cane. Not sure if this is normal new growth, damage from Aphids, or Rose Rosette disease. The new cane growing has a lot of thorns and new growth looks like witches broom. Although pics I've seen of Rosette disease the canes are red... Could it just be damage from the Aphids? I have never dealt with Aphids til this year. Yuck! Wondering if they are causing the curling new growth. Or is this just normal new growth?

Too early for me to guess, but keep an eye on it.

Here are a couple of links:

https://roserosette.org/resour...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I had a cane that looked that way on South Africa last year. It. It even got worse before getting better. Keep your eye on it. Looks like it's okay thou I panicked a bit over mine. Good luck to you!

To my eye, that's not RRD, but rather a new "candelabra" cane emerging. There was some discussion about something similar appearing on 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' on the "other" rose forum, and there were some strong feelings on both sides about whether or not it was RRD or some other infection, or simply nothing to worry about. Compare to the pics from the OP in the thread below -- and then look at the pics from the person who posted later on the thread, who actually had RRD:

https://www.houzz.com/discussi...

:-)

~Christopher

How about this one (Grafin Diana, aka Dark Desire; grafted to multiflora rootstock; from Palatine; planted spring 2016? There are many more thorns, and the color and form of the red growth look like RRD pictures to me. What do you think?











After removing odd-looking red growth:

Carol,

Although I don't see the "witch's broom" symptoms on your rose, I believe the proliferation of thorns and the red coloration seen in the first ten of your 13 photos are indicative of RRD. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings...

Mike

Carol, I agree with Mike -- that's RRD. Keep an eye on the plant for new growth. If you removed the entire cane with those symptoms, down to the base, you might have saved the rose. But judging by the amount of symptomatic growth in the pictures, I don't have high hopes. If that was my plant, I'd remove it entirely. It looks as if the symptomatic growth was appearing on several main canes, indicating the whole plant is infected.

:-(

~Christopher

I agree with Christopher.

Thank you, Mike and Christopher.

Yes, all canes ended in the dreaded telltale thorny red growth.

As soon as those two buds have finished blooming, I will dig up and discard the plant as aseptically as possible. By the way, a second plant of the same cultivar had the same telltale growth and is now dead, ostensibly from winter damage (alternating growth spurts and dieback with the crazy false starts of early spring). I still need to dig up its root.

Thank you so much for confirming the diagnosis. That will help to motivate me to get rid if these plants.

Carol

Carol.....I agree with Christopher and Mike on rrd and that the infection is now systemic. Removal is all that can be done now, except to keep a close eye on any other roses you might have. Perhaps if your lucky it may be caught early next time. I do hope for you that there will not be a next time.

Looks like RRD to me as well.

I thought the red canes were normal growth and it had something to do with protecting new growth from UV rays? Is it the proliferation of thorns coupled with the red growth that indicates RRD?

These are some things I consider when trying to determine if new growth indicates RRD infection:

1) Try and picture it in black-and-white -- many (but not all) roses have red new growth, but if it otherwise looks normal beyond color, that's not RRD. If, however, the questionable new growth was the same color as older growth and would still look strange, then it may be RRD -- or herbicide damage.

2) Look at the quality rather than the quantity of growth -- an abnormal amount of normal growth does not indicate RRD, but rather may result from recent heavy rains and/or feeding. The candelabra shoot in the first post would fall under this -- leaves individually look OK, despite the surprising vigor of the new shoot.

3) Some herbicides can cause similar-looking damage as RRD does, but again there's a difference. Herbicide damage will look abnormal in its parts and stunted overall, whereas RRD will look abnormal in its parts and vigorous overall. Again, differentiate this from normal in its parts and vigorous overall, as seen in the first post here.

:-)

~Christopher

I like the black and white picture technique.

I have had RRV before and it can be a challenge to differentiate it from just abnormal growth due to weather condition. I've developed a simple system. If there is doubt, I use the pick 3 rule. Any 3 of these growth patterns: abnormal speed, abnormal thornage, abnormal shape or abnormal color = out of my garden. I don't just look at the speed of growth or for witches' broom but at the shape of new leaves and flowers and where the new growth appears on the bush. Color is the least important sign for me because not all my virused roses' growth have been that dark red color. On the other hand, some of my normal healthy roses put up dark red growth routinely. It does help to know what normal looks like.

If the abnormal growth hasn't come from the base and seems to be coming from a single cane, I'll isolate the rose, cut that cane back to the base and watch that rose like a hawk. If I see any future abnormal growth, then I'll dispose of the entire rose. This isn't always successful but it has saved several roses. If I couldn't watch roses every day it would be better to just remove it.

No one in our neighborhood sprays clouds of (or any) RoundUp and our homes are not that close together so it's unlikely to be damage from that source. It might be different for you. It pays to learn the difference in growth patterns of RRV and glyphosate-affected roses if you live in an area where individuals, industries or govt. agencies routinely spray because it can drift.

I contacted Palatine Roses, source of my Dark Desire roses that have RRD just to make them aware of the infection and to ask for their experience and/or perspective. They have had only one customer notify them of RRD, and that was just once, several years ago. They sent me the following link, which I found very helpful.

One sentence especially caught my attention because it may explain the death of one Dark Desire rose plant after alternating periods of warm and freezing days, with their accompanying growth spurts and foliage death:

"The disease causes the plant to be exceptionally susceptible to freeze damage."

There are some excellent photos too.

http://www.missouribotanicalga...

From the above article Carol posted:
"The disease causes the plant to be exceptionally susceptible to freeze damage."

From the threads that were posted after Dave posted the following article: "Scientists Seek Public Assistance in Tackling Rose Rosette Disease" https://garden.org/ideas/view/...


Neal stated on 10/28/2017: "I have read that RRD decreases the plants cold hardiness, and that appears to be the case here. In February 2015 we experienced record low temps of -18*F, with some areas reporting temps as low as -32*F. Most of the infected plants in commercial settings around here were killed or damaged to the point that they had to be removed after that. Since then I've seen only a few infected plants in the area."
https://garden.org/thread/view...


Again Neal wrote something similar on 12/5/2017: "I've read that winter hardiness is diminished by RRD and that is typically what kills the plant, but in zone 7 you may not have cold enough winter for that to be the case. I would recommend removing any plants that continue to show symptoms- it is a disease that can eventually spread throughout your garden." https://garden.org/thread/view...

On 10/30/2017 Carol stated; "There are some wild roses in the hedgerows that edge my little farm, but I don't know whether they are multiflora. At least some of them are pink and not fragrant, rather than white and fragrant, like multiflora. I'll need to pay more attention to them next year!" https://garden.org/thread/view...

Carol, have you checked that area recently as a possible source?

I saw a single multiflora rose growing on a neighbor's property about 1,000 yards away, but none in the local hedgerows or along the roadsides.

I remember seeing a lot of multiflora roses in the hedgerows around my little farm in the past ( 8-10 years would be my guess). Now they are gone. RRD?

By the way, at Palatine's urging, I removed and boxed up my infected Dark Desire rose for the dump, even though I didn't get to see its final bloom.