Is This Rosette Disease? - Ask Extension
I have one rose bush that has extremely thorny new growth, terminating in buds. The color is often red, which new growth often is. It hasn't spread to...
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Is This Rosette Disease? #880230
Asked August 05, 2024, 10:29 AM EDT
I have one rose bush that has extremely thorny new growth, terminating in buds. The color is often red, which new growth often is. It hasn't spread to other bushes. I would really like to know soon. I am sending photos.
Prince George's County Maryland
Expert Response
The excessive thorniness is a concerning symptom, and our assessment of the photos is that Rose Rosette infection is likely, unfortunately. If you are uncertain and want to monitor the plant for now, be sure to sanitize any pruning tools used on the plant so they don't contaminate another rose with infected sap. Over time, symptoms of plant viral infections like Rose Rosette will only worsen, not wane, so that can be one way to confirm that this particular disease is likely responsible.
Miri
Miri
Dear Miri, thank you.
I have already dug up the entire bush and root ball. I bagged it and put it in the trash along with my gardening gloves. Is there anything I should do with the soil around the root ball, or to treat any nearby bushes? No others have symptoms at this point.
The infected bush was planted only at the end of May, by the way, so that may give you an idea of how much growth the roots had.
FYI, the variety was a hybrid tea, Maurice Utrillo, purchased at Home Depot from Bell Nursery.
On Mon, Aug 5, 2024 at 12:41 PM, Ask Extension<<personal data hidden>> wrote:
Fabric gardening gloves could just be washed and be fine, but nothing needs to be done to the soil. The virus that causes Rose Rosette Disease is transmitted by mites and otherwise needs to inhabit live rose tissues (roots, branches, etc.) to survive. It doesn't lie dormant in soil, and what few small rose roots might be left behind after shrub removal will not live for long. The virus only infects roses, and there are no cultivars reliably resistant to that pathogen as far as we're aware. The nearly-microscopic mites pick up the virus from infected "wild" roses (usually invasive species, like Multiflora Rose) and blow around on the wind, which is how they can reach roses in garden settings. Therefore, whichever rose(s) in a natural area that has the disease might serve as the source for future infections of any roses remaining in the yard, if it hasn't died from its own infection in the meantime.
Miri
Miri
