I have never had many pink flowers but I am falling for Moonstruck and Gemini!

lovemyhouse said:@Skiekitty @Paul2032

Hey, Toni or Paul, have you ever seen anything like this? Started as a tightly compacted globe of new growth leaves when the rest of the shrub was looking kind of scraggly. Is opening out to an upright chorus of buds. Weird stuff, but cool.

Debra, it looks like it's Rose Rosette Disease, a bad virus, sorry!

http://www.missouribotanicalga...

Paul2032 said:The whole plant of Moonstone....not a good picture.

That is one beautiful specimen Paul!

I think you are right, Sue. Although I've only seen photos of RRD, that is what my first thought was when I saw the photo.

Debra, you have to remove the plant from your garden and dispose of it carefully or your other roses will get infected. Make certain you get all of the roots, too. You cannot save a rose once it is infected by RRD. Also, check every rose in your garden for this kind of odd growth and remove them asap.

The infection may not show up on the other roses in your garden at this time of year, so really check them carefully in spring, too.

Lyn

Debra ...

Here's a link to an article written by Anne Peck. She as also written an e-book about RRD.

http://www.rose.org/wp-content...

Lyn

Want to make sure @lovemyhouse sees the above ASAP.

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/...
Some good photos here.

I thought of Rose Rosette too, but where are the wild thorns? Also it looks as if the leaves recover a more normal form as they age. I think there may be room for doubt.

I can see excessive thorns on that fat stem in the cluster in 3rd pic behind the bloom, as compared to the rest of the rose.
There may be room for doubt, but I'd bet on RRD --playing the odds--and take no chances

Debra - @CindiKS is way more of an expert on RRD than I am. I've seen it only once, and that was enough. Dug up that rose, tossed it & about 10lbs of dirt around it away in the garbage immediately. But when I saw your pix, that was the very first thing I thought of (that and donuts, and cupcakes, and ponies, and squirrels..)

Toni, you are too funny.

Okay, major consensus is bad-bad, get rid of it. Poor Julia. Question, then. If I use my neato-cool Bionic Rose Gauntlet gloves to take it out, do I have to clean the gloves afterward? Meaning, would the mites/whatever causes it remain on the gloves to be transferred to other roses?

Debra - What I did with mine is put a garbage bag over the rose, yanked it up, then shoveled the dirt into another garbage bag & tossed it away. I hate being wasteful like that.. 2 garbage bags in the landfill just for 1 rose! Not to mention the dirt.. but wasn't about to take any chances. We don't have RRD here and I'm planning on keeping my yard free of it.

Toni, I am going to have to lop it in sections. Will use your suggestion and put a bag over the affected cane to get it first, though, thanks.

@lovemyhouse, Debra ...

Think of it as the ebola virus of the rose world. Excess caution is totally warranted. I would dispose of gloves and clean tools and clothing worn while removing the plant. I would avoid any possibility that might spread the virus to other roses. Removing the plants at this time of year when they are less active is a plus, but immediate removal and caution are a part of the process.

I haven't had to deal with it personally because it has not been found in my part of California and there are very few instances of reported findings in my state, but from what I have read and from the experiences shared with me by other rose gardeners who live in areas where RRD is an issue, this is, or can be, a serious problem. The virus can easily spread to all of your other roses.

In one post, @Clintbrown wrote that he is taking every rose out of his garden because he simply does not want to deal with RRD any more. I would do the same. However, there are other gardeners who deal with the problem rose by rose and still plant new roses. It depends on the gardener on whether or not you take Clint's approach or just handle the infected plants.

Lyn

@lovemyhouse, (with apologies to Paul for the sad hijack) that does indeed look like RRD. Just a few weeks ago, I was in the Dallas area touring rose gardens. An "expert" from Texas A & M took us on a personal tour and told us that RRD is still rare in that area. Unfortunately, our touring group is very very familiar with RRD, and we saw it right away in the first display garden he took us to.
The ARS convention had a few seminars on RRD and other problems. Experts from several fields discussed the disease, and I trust their conclusions. (Mainly because they are the same as my conclusions ) Don't worry about your pruners or clothing. Take the afflicted rose out. No need to remove the dirt, but if you want to be overly cautious, you might wait a season before you plant another rose in that exact spot. Keep a close watch on the roses next to that one.
I have had great success by taking out the first branch I see with symptoms and watching that rose closely. If it reappears, the whole rose needs to come out. This requires enough experience to recognize what is RRD growth and what is normal reddish growth. Overspray from 2, 4-D does create some distortion on the plant, but if you compare chemically damaged plants side by side to RRD, you will see the difference.

One RRD researcher is asking for cuttings from plants with the disease. I will try to find his business card to give you the info. He is studying cuttings from all over the country to see if we are dealing with 1 virus or more. He asked me to also send him cuttings from roses that had the disease but survived it because I noticed it soon enough, and removed the first bad cane. Researchers are also looking for info on which roses are most or least susceptible. I have removed 30 or so roses so far, but this year only had 1, and it was a rose that had it before and I thought I had cut the whole roses out, but it regrew. That was Carefree Marvel, and it had sent out 12-15' runners that rooted all over that bed, so that's how I missed some of it.

@CindiKS ....

Thanks for the updated information.

Smiles,
Lyn

Can wash my clothes, but I would rather not dispose of $36 gloves if it isn't necessary. Used Toni's suggestion and bagged that cane without touching it; then I took out the shrub completely, most of the surrounding plants' foliage, and a goodly chunk of the dirt surrounding it. The poor thing wasn't really happy in that spot, anyway. Have a Black Forest rose coming next Spring that I will put in Julia's place. Maybe get another later.


Cindi, the whole thing is in the trash bin, now. How fresh does a cutting have to be for the research? And from what part would he want a cutting--the evidentiary cane or a seemingly unaffected one, or both? I don't see any problems with any of the other roses and this is the first year for it to show. Hoping that will be it for a long time.

Thank you, everyone, for your help! And, Paul, thank you for letting us temporarily hijack the thread. Back to photos of Fall blooming roses, now.

Coral Drift and Plumbago

I have a few nice roses still that weren't too affected by the freeze we had a few days ago. I'll see about taking some pix tomorrow (not really dressed to wander around a rose garden w/2' long lace sleeves on my black velvet dress... I'm dressed as "Fat Morticia" this year )

No, I don't imagine that attire would be compatible with rose photography.

Oh, I think we need a selfie of Morticia and the roses!