Interesting but I wonder if its temporary fix.

Wouldn't it be great if it works. Any way to follow up on this?

How do we know it wasn't just Round Up damage?

Henry, you posted a new article stating the recommendation of removing the entire plant including the roots or it could transfer to surrounding plants. I hope hoovb is right in thinking this could be just Round up damage, or this man could lose his whole rose garden!

Lastly, I had never heard hydrogen peroxide could rid mites. Does anyone use this as a prevention of mites or just to kill mites they see? Is this safer for the environment than insecticide?

Henry's the chemist.

Can he tell us how bleach becomes systemic to kill the virus itself?

anntn6b, I was surprised to see this proposal that is why I put the question mark. Plants do generate hydrogen peroxide internally for defensive purposes but I could not see how an external application would kill the virus in the plant. Apparently it "could"? generate a hypersensitive response in the plant itself.
(I normally do not use the word bleach for hydrogen peroxide but the dictionary says it can be called that.)

"In spite of the enormous information from research on genetics of plant disease resistance, the question still remains unresolved: what is directly inhibiting or killing pathogens and suppressing symptoms in resistant plants? This is particularly true for resistance to viral infections. Here we show that externally applied reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or ROS-producing (O 2÷â [superoxide] and H2O2) chemical systems infiltrated into tobacco leaves 2 hours after inoculation suppress replication of Tobacco mosaicvirus (TMV) in the susceptible Samsun (nn) cultivar. This was determined by a biological and a real-time PCR method. Infiltration of leaves of the resistant Xanthi (NN) cultivar with the ROS-producing chemicals and H2O2 significantly suppressed local necrotic lesions (i.e. the hypersensitive response) after inoculation of tobacco leaves with TMV. Accordingly, an early accumulation or external application of ROS, such as O 2÷â and H2O2, in tobacco may contribute to the development of resistance to TMV infection."

http://www.akademiai.com/content/q055880253up3p57/

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

Concerning hydrogen peroxide and mites. The following is one link found from a google search using the keywords "hydrogen peroxide" and mite:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Will_hydrogen_peroxide_kill_spider_mites

Other hits were also found.

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

An earlier similar thread:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg121626082791.html

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above

A 2012 Ph.D. Thesis is available that studied hydrogen peroxide's effect against the virus TuMV in the model plant Arabidopsis. I have the Thesis; it is in Spanish so I will link here to a scientific paper based on the Thesis. If one is interested in the thesis, please e-mail me.

"Actually, hydrogen peroxide treatment results in the lowest virus levels observed in the present study (as determined through detection of CP RNA) compared to the other treatments, although in this case, this does not occur through an induction of the PR1 gene. Interestingly, this treatment also leads to induction of the TGA1 and
MPK1 genes, suggesting that these may be more directly involved in the defense mechanism against this virus,"

http://www.omicsonline.org/2157-7471/2157-7471-3-137.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: link for full paper

Is there a way to tell if it RU damage vs. RRD? I have two roses I am watching closely. VERY closely.

The new very good rose rosette article From the University of Florida suggests: "The disease somewhat resembles damage caused by herbicides, so diagnosis by PCR for the virus or by presence of the mites is helpful in discriminating between herbicide damage and RRD. "

For individuals the expense of a PCR test ($25) is probably too high, but looking for the mites is something I do not remember seeing being suggested before. The presence of the mites, of course, is not definite proof either way; but if they are present, I would be very worried.
-------------------------------
My suggestions are (from my link below):

"What to do if one finds a suspect growth?

If noticed early, a number of papers recommend cutting off (at ground level) the "suspected" cane. A success rate of around 50% is sometimes stated in RRV articles. Some/many RRV articles state that the infection is systemic (as if the virus spreads rapidly throughout the whole plant). It used to be thought that plant viruses in general were systemic. However, recent general virus research indicates that this is NOT the case. I could not find any specific RRV-roses research on this point but the fact that the "cut the cane method" does sometimes work is strong evidence that the infection is not rapidly systemic. The rate of spread may depend on the specific variety of rose (I assume based on how good is its immune system), the time of the year (time of slow growth, low temperature or rapid growth, high temperature). I recommend the recent article by Paul Zimmerman as to how to handle possible RRV infections.

http://paulzimmermanroses.com/care/general-care/disease/rose-rosette-disease/

Possible immune system booster. Until controlled scientific studies disprove this "possibility", after cutting off the suspected cane, one could try boosting the immune system of the rose by applying hydrogen peroxide.ÃÂ "
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kuska/rose_rosette_disease_virus.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Floridia article

Susan, there is no universal key to separating RU damage from RRD symptoms. On multiflora rose they can be similar. On modern roses, usually, newish infections of RRD produce overgrowth symptoms, while RU produces stunted, feathery new growth. (By overgrowth I mean fat, thorny shoots with large, often crinkled. often beet-red foliage, and unusual proliferation of shoots.) Old RRD infections of modern roses, as the plant is dying, can produce stunted, feathery growth.

If you post sharp, detailed images of the suspect plants and describe any use of herbicide in your yard, people will advise. Start a new thread for that.

Thank you. Will start new thread.

Another very recent research paper on behavior of immune enhancer hydrogen peroxide on plant virus.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0076090

If you do try the cut the stem to the ground method, it may be worth while trying a H2O2 spray on the rest of the plant and the neighboring plants. If nothing else it should kill the mites, and possibly it may ward off a weak infection. This is just an educated "maybe", but until the scientists give us more to work with, this type of thinking is all we have.

Here is a link that might be useful: the above link