Rose Rosette Disease—What Is It, and What Can You Do About It?

If you ’ve been on some of the rose forums , attend rose lecture , or even just speak roses with friends on Facebook , you ’ve likely heard of rose rosette disease , or RRD . While it ’s been around a while , I ’ve noticed it ’s starting to show up on the radar screen of more and more general nurseryman . So I thought it ’s time we spill the beans about it .

First , what is it ? It is a disease that is carried by a very specific spider mite , Phyllocoptes fructiphilus . An septic jot drift on the wind , come into your garden , land on your rose , and then injects the disease into the blush wine when it starts to tip . Or a noninfected mite country on a rosebush that already has it , pick it up , and then is blown by the wind to another rose , which it carry on to infect .

You know you ’ve get it when your roses set about to bedevil off unusual growth that is purplish in color and most noticeably has “ foliage ” in the form of what is called “ witch Scots heather ” ( see photograph ) . It actually look a lot like Roundup damage .

An septic cane . Notice the strange witches - ling - similar emergence . pic : Paul Zimmerman rose wine

Another view . photograph : Paul Zimmerman rose

It is particularly lethal to the speciesR. multifloraand in fact has been mention as a potential biological ascendancy method for it . R. multifloraspreads like crazy , and in much of the eastern United States it ’s classified as a noxious weed . In their seek to control it , some government official in reality facilitated the bed cover of RRD by purposely infecting stands of multiflora rose . They take there was no scientific validation RRD infect ornamental roses , the variety you and I grow in our garden .

Well , gauge what ? They were flat out wrong ! RRD does affect decorative rosebush , although some more than others . And that is enough about how it got here . Since this is a how - to article , we now want to do the head : What the heck can you do about it ?

First , let ’s talk about what you’re able to do to trim down the likelihood of it beget into your garden . Since it hitsR. multifloraquickly , check over in your surface area for stands of that species . R. multifloraonly bloom in spring with small ashen efflorescence that have five or so petals each . That ’s the prosperous metre to spot it . When it ’s not in bloom , the leafage helps . It ’s a lustrous green , and the leaves are elongate . It ’s usually thornless , which really helps . It ’s a rambler and so throws off farsighted canes . Dig it up and get rid of it . That ’s your first pace .

If RRD does happen to infect a rose in your garden , there is no known cure . However , I ’ve noticed in deal with it that there are pace I can take . The first one is understand how it broadcast in a rose . The mites put down on the top of a rosaceous cane , where the young ship’s boat leafage is . They inject RRD into that part of the rose , and from there it lento go down through the cane to the base and then up the other canes . The important word here is tardily .

I ’ve noticed that the symptoms on the infect cane ( the witches broom ) often show up before the rest of the plant is infected . So the minute I see the witches broom , I come after that cane to the base of the industrial plant and cut it off at the base . I put it in a garbage base and get free of it so I do n’t accidentally shake any mites onto another rosiness . finally the sheer - off cane is supercede by a new one , and it ’s as if nothing ever happened .

However , if the disease appears to have spread into another section of the pink wine , you have no choice but to fag the entire arise up and either demolish it or get rid of it via the pliant scraps bag . I ’ve lost a twosome , and I cognize others who have lost more . But once they sympathise what was happening and how to grapple with it , the incidents became less .

So does this mean you should simply stop growing rose ? Of of course not ! RRD is a bummer when you first get it , but by experience how to deal with it , you may trim back it to another part of normal garden criminal maintenance . Just keep an heart out for it , and act quickly .

For further reading , gibe outAnn Peck ’s awesome websiteon RRD .

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An infected cane. Notice the strange witches-broom-like growth.Photo: Paul Zimmerman Roses

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