I've had rose Madame Alfred Carriere for 2 years. I've noticed that several of the branches look different, and I'm wondering if this is rose rosette disease, witches-broom?

If it is, this plant will be removed today!

The bottom center of the picture is not too clear and that is what my eyes fixated on. There are times when the flower buds will produce reddish leaf sepal growth due to temp changes in the Fall so those would not necessarily bother me. The witches-like broom is what I was trying to make out but the growth at the bottom of the picture was difficult to make out, which may be bad news; things appeared too jumbled and up close to the camera in there so I could not comment safely.

Can you post a picture of that area from about 3-4" further away.

I know of your concern first hand. My sister mentioned she was having problems and it turned out to be RRD. However, she did not mention it for God, almost a year maybe!?! so by then, I had to tell her to pull the plants out so the other shrubs would not catch it.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/...

http://neilsperry.com/notes/20...

Thanks for responding Luis_pr. Here's a picture of the buds.

Yes, the leaf growth under the bloom has the clumps of out of control leaf growth (one or two opposite leaves is ok but a bunch from the same spot is not normal) so feel free to remove the shrub but here is one thing that you should still rule out: this witches broom can also occur when someone uses some insecticides and harsh chemicals on the bush or nearby. In those cases, the problem goes away or you can prune it off.

Thanks for the info. I haven't used insecticide on this plant. It's in a very large pot. I've moved it away from the other roses and will try pruning and monitoring it. However, if this growth continues, the plant will be destroyed.

Thanks again for all of your help.

As I mentioned before, my sister had to destroy about half a dozen planted nearby each otherin the back plus one in front of the house. The ones on the side of the house are still looking ok.

I'm sorry your sister had to destroy so many plants. I hope her other plants are ok.


I started trimming back the rose and noticed more branches affected that I thought. I'm in the process of cutting it down and discarding the whole plant . I don't want to take any chances with my other roses.

I wish there was a prevention or a cure for this disease. It's unfortunate that plants have to be destroyed.

I too wish they would identify the agent causing the disease so perhaps something can be done to prevent-cure it.

They do know the vector, but from what I have read there is no cure.

You may be interested in reading Ann Peck's e-book. It was written in 2007 and she has done further studies and work on rose rosette since then, but I still think her e-book is a very good starting point in learning both about RRD and about the misleading research that had been published.

http://www.rosegeeks.com/

From what I have read, many of the new studies haven't added anything new to what is known about RRD and is already mentioned in Ann's book.

It's worth a look.

Lyn, thanks for the info and the link.

Annette ...

I have been doing a lot of reading about RRD this last week and so far, I think Ann's book has had the best information.

Hope it helps.

Lyn, this information is very useful. The information she discusses is very interesting. I'm glad I've removed the 2 infected roses. I've bookmarked the link to my favorites. Thanks again for the link.

Annette ....

I am glad you found Ann's book helpful.

I am using the "one strike" method on the rose that I am concerned about in my garden. I had to take out about half of the rose. It's 60 years old and big. If it shows symptoms next spring, I am going to have to hire someone to dig it out.

I couldn't burn the infected canes because we are still in fire season, so I ended up putting the infected material I removed into plastic bags and have stored it under the house.