I was going to prune my shrub rose and it doesn't look right. Is this the rose rosette disease?

I don't think it is rose rosette. It will look a lot better when you brave those fierce thorns and cut out all the dead wood.

I wasn't sure.

It's pretty normal for some roses to lose a few canes in winter. I'm 2 zones warmer than you and it happens here also.

I normally don't prune mine until I see the new growth in Spring. Guess I should change that practice. This is all from last fall and winter, new growth is all from Spring. My main concern was all of the thorns - seemed excessive this year.

Ginny, I can tell with the number of leaves, that it is not a "modern" shrub rose, thus frequently, they are thorny, but an "older" perhaps "climber" by the height of the canes. Anyway, they are dead, (the brown ones) so prune them out when you get a chance, carefully unless you want to retire from your profession, earlier than you had planned! LOL. What color are the blooms? Cheers!

Frank - I know the older canes are from last year's dead and the green is all new growth this year. The rose is Sunrise Sunset and a shrub rose not a climber. I'm thinking I'll prune them out, bleach all my tools, and see what happens with the new growth before I dig it out and dispose of it. I really hate to lose it if it isn't diseased.

Ginny ...

I looked up the patent on the rose, and checked a couple more sites. I don't think those thorns are normal for this rose.

I'll have to get back to you later as I am headed out.

Thanks Lyn. I'm trying to remember if that's the way it looked last Fall, but I'm assuming it did.

Ginny ...

I can remember which roses are my vampire roses ..

Was this a rose that you hated to prune in spring because it was so thorny ?

I had a thought when I was driving into town. If anyone saw those thorns on a rose, they probably wouldn't buy it.

Altho' I have probably handled more roses than most people, I cannot remember dealing with a rose with thorns like that except on a moss rose.

I don't remember this many thorns before but I do know it was thorny.

Ginny, 2 things would concern me: 1) an increase in of thorns from previous yrs. 2) read this post from Neal:
https://garden.org/thread/view...
"I've read that winter hardiness is diminished by RRD and that is typically what kills the plant".

Please read this article:
https://garden.org/ideas/view/...
As the article suggests , you can send your photos in to determine whether the rose has RRD.

Well when I got into pruning back the dead canes there was no question it's RRD so I dug it out and bagged it up, put bleach water in the hole and bleached my tools and gloves that came in contact with it. it had too much infected to even try to save it. Since I can't put another rose bush there I'll put my church bird house there. It's in the Prayer Garden Thanks everyone.