No, not normally. It can weaken a rose so it may struggle to survive a severe winter though. Usually the symptoms of RMV only appear when the rose is already stressed for some other reason like high heat or lack of or too much water. The rose becomes weakened by those situations first and then the RMV symptoms show up. Otherwise, if your roses are healthy, you may never know you have it.
Hmm...thank you. I see it on brand new bushes, like on the new DD I got from Home Depot. But it looks extra bad on a few of my older bushes. Do you know if there is more than one strain of it? Sometimes I see it more white/cream colored, and on others where it is more severe, yellow-orange. So if a rose is super healthy, it can have it but not show it? And then as it ages and maybe becomes less healthy, it shows up? Does it spread in the garden from one rosebush to another?
On a new bush you have no idea what stresses it may have been through before it got to your garden so it may be visible then. Yes, if an older bush is growing weaker it could manifest itself. But I have to tell you that I have a 65 year old Pinocchio rose that only rarely shows any signs of it and only in extreme conditions. Yes, there are different symptoms that present themselves. It is rare for a very vigorous, healthy rose to show the signs but I guess it could happen. I have always read and been told that it does not spread from rose to rose in the garden or by contact with tools. There are a few who say otherwise but so far I've seen no definitive proof of that.
The best thing you can do about it is to stop worrying about it. Keep your roses healthy and they will live long, beautiful lives. If you buy grafted roses I can almost assure you that they are infected. Even some own root roses will be if the cuttings were taken from an infected mother plant. If it worries you that much the only other thing you can do is make sure that all the roses you buy are certified as "virus free". And those tend to be a lot more expensive. In your zone it really should not be a big problem. If you're seeing a lot of it please post some pictures of the leaves with the symptoms you are seeing so we can evaluate them.
Thank you, Seil, for responding. I have never worried about it until this new season, because for the first time I am seeing new leaves that are speckled dying and falling off, but I am starting to think it's not from the virus but from an underlying severe deficiency. such as a lack of nitrogen. I plan to give the bushes a good dose of fish emulsion and see if that helps.
The first two are from an older Double Delight, the next two from a Chrysler Imperial which actually had plaid-like red roses last season from the areas affect, and the last from the new DD still in a peat pot.
FWIW -- One of the first roses we acquired was 'Reine des Violettes'. I learned a lot from that rose.
It grew here for 20 years, and during that time, we, and others, would stand and look at it, and marvel at the fact that it had NEVER shown a sign of RMV. (This was long before testing for it . . . )
Finally, it's 20th winter passed, and it got so cold that plants in the area actually froze. It set low-temp records. and RdV actually fell into dormancy.
When it leafed out again in the spring, it looked like a paisley scarf. There wasn't a single leaf that was not marked.
By that time, I'd learned that most roses with a significant Multiflora background don't fare at all well here, in our alkaline conditions --
And, yes. I know I can adjust that with the addition of various supplements ... but the alkalinity of our water dictates that the supplements must be applied over and over to remain effectives, and I just don't care to do that -- over and over.
Thank you, Seil, for responding. I have never worried about it until this new season, because for the first time I am seeing new leaves that are speckled dying and falling off, but I am starting to think it's not from the virus but from an underlying severe deficiency. such as a lack of nitrogen. I plan to give the bushes a good dose of fish emulsion and see if that helps.
Name: Mike Stewart Lower Hudson Valley, New York (Zone 6b)
I agree with Seil; that doesn't definitively look like RMV to me. I also doubt you have a nitrogen deficiency, or it would affect the entire plant and all its leaves, not just a few. Honestly, it looks like plain ol' fungi to me.
Well, that last image is RMV, of that I'm sure. If it were me, I'd just more or less assume the others were, but ... it seems odd to see it show up so prominently in such hot conditions.
I think I'd take all those icky leaves off and watch to see what showed up next.
