Well, I'm going to continue chatting off topic here until I see my posts getting deleted.
Today I have a list of 8 more roses I have to dig out because they have Rose Rosette Disease. Our local society is shaking some trees trying to get more researchers working on a cure for this virus. We've aggregated data, now we have to persuade some chemical company that this is a priority. RRD is spreading faster than predicted. The virus has been identified by researchers at Universities in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Surely the larger rose growers are hearing about it from nurseries. One of my local nurserymen told me he won't carry knock outs next year because so many of the knock outs in commercial plantings in town have been devastated by RRD and customers are refusing to buy them. I told him he's wrong on 2 counts: he's not selling his knock outs because his are $30 and box stores have them for $10, and the disease affects every class of rose. They are seeing them on knock outs because that is what has been widely planted in public areas because the color is outstanding and those roses are 99% disease free. The roses we see diseased in medians and around businesses are trimmed with power trimmers. The landscapers just mow along the row, spreading the virus as they go. They then take it to the next job, spreading it rapidly. The businesses refuse to remove the plantings because they still bloom and look nice from a distance.
Now for some good news. I'm waiting for my cutie-pie UPS man to drive up with my NEW CAMERA! I finally took the leap and bought a better one. yay! Maybe I'll be able to post some decent pics in the database.
ok, going outside to work and wait for the brown truck.
hope I can get in at least an hour or two.
