Henry (and the rest of us)
From what I've heard during the past two months, these sick roses were found at major distances south of the Georgia-Florida state line.
I know there was going to be an effort to see if they were infected from local RRV plants or if the disease came in with nursery stock. As of two weeks ago, no answers as to this question.

Ann

Wow. Did I read that correctly, no mites? That seems to be a great cause of concern. I thought they were they key to transmission. Surely this isn't due to negligent propagation, but what else could it be?

Again I ask the question - since when has RRD changed to RRV. Are there now two different "viruses" that affect roses. When did it change from Rose Rosette Disease to Rose Rosette Virus?.....Maryl

Maryl, originally it was suspected to be a virus but the virus was not isolated so it was scientifically safest to call it a disease (for example, some thought it was a phytoplasma). Now the virus has been isolated so it is correct to call it a virus.

I'm not really all that surprised. A lot of areas in the USA have seen it. Luckily, I have never seen it in my garden in St. Pete Fl. It could have came from anyplace. We can garden year round. Hopefully, it will stay pretty much an isolated incident. No one can control the way the wind blows. I see zero reason to panic. Know where your plants come from as best you can.
Regards,
Andrew Grover

Ann could you update us on which roses are currently thought to be immune or at least somewhat resistant to RRV? I haven't checked your website in a while, but I'm curious if there has been more research along these lines. I may be in California, but I don't consider my garden safe, at least not forever. So I've added R. bracteata and would like to add others that have shown at least some resistance.

Melissa

Anyone know what three counties it was found in? And I'm like Rene, how with no mites?

There's a big difference between "no mites" ever and no mites when they looked.

There are very few acarologists out there. Acarologists study all the different kinds of mites, FWIW.

It's difficult to see mites 'in the field', instead of a 10x hand lens it takes a 20x lens (those are the ones with the very small field of view.)

Then there's the problem of carrying the plant material into the lab so a thorough examination of the plant can be made (and with incident light, at the right magnification, etc.)

What really becomes a problem is looking for the mites at the wrong time of the year. The population studies (counts on the ends of stems of R. multiflora) show that for most of the years, the populations are very small and only become massive in late summer. How this translates to the deep south with different times that the temps are in that range hasn't been done.

And lest we forget, spider mites love hot weather (which Florida has) and spider mites devour P. fructiphillus as if they were manna.

As to roses with inherent resistance: nobody is looking. Bracteata seems to still be ok, and some of the great planes low growing native roses.....maybe.

What does need more knowing, and what home gardeners can watch for are conditions when long caned roses can be saved by cutting off canes early in their infection> This requires people to actually look past the blooms and watch the bushes for odd growth.

There aren't easy answers; the answers that are going to be available will be for certain well used shrub roses that is being studies now.

Fortunately, one of the mite experts, Marjorie Hoy is in Florida. She is: "eminent scholar and Davies, Fischer and Eckes Professor of Biological Control, Department of Entomology and Nematology, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611". See her article at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to Hoy's article

Thanks for the clarification Henry on the update to RRV from RRD. I was still under the impression that it was a phytoplasma that was the cause. The disease is pretty devastating, and in windy areas such as the state of Oklahoma, the mites are particularly mobile. I have saved about 15% of infected roses by catching it early and cutting off the affected cane down to the crown. However
last year it was horrible here and I managed to save none of my infected roses. Unfortunately, I don't see any easy nor desirable solution in the near future. ........Maryl