It's a little hard to see clearly but I THINK that looks like normal new growth. Many roses will start out with that red new growth that turns green as it matures. I don't see any distortion of the leaves and hyper-thorniness. Watch to see if it greens up as it matures. If it's RRD it will stay reddish and the leaves will not grow out to look normal in shape or size.

I don't really know. Somehow it doesn't look quite "normal"--but it doesn't quite look like RRD either. Has anyone been spraying Round-up or other herbicide anywhere in the general vicinity? If a passing breeze tossed a whiff of it over on the rose, that might account for the not-quite-normal looking appearance.

Kate

Seil and Kate, thank you for your quick responses. Kate, you summarized my thoughts exactly. I pass by my roses with new growth and don't think anything of it usually but this one made me stop and think something doesn't look right. It's the unusual number of thin leaves I think although Seil may be right and they will develop fine. We haven't been spraying herbicide and the closest neighbor's yard is a little bit of a distance but it is possible. I am going to try to take some clearer pictures later in the evening when the light shifts a little. Thank you again so much for your quick and knowledgeable responses.

Is it possible that the bottom part has been grazed by some animal? Can't see clearly enough in the pictures, but the roses in my garden which look like that have been torn at by deer, who of course only want to eat the new growth. Picture of one of my culprits attached.

Jackie

Jackie,
We have deer everywhere and they're constantly chomping something down so that could be it.

I put some cardboard around it so it stands out more. I think it is much easier to see the distorted leaves I think I am seeing:

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Thank you for all of your help!

This post was edited by Karolina11 on Sun, Jun 29, 14 at 15:33

My first glance at the picture, is that it's healthy. But looking closer, it would raise a flag that something is going on. Weather related? Insect? Hopefully, not RRD. Keep us posted. I'm rooting that it is OK.

Those strap-like leaves certainly don't look normal. Did this odd growth pop out suddenly all over the plant--and after it had grown out normally in spring with the normal green leaves that are visible? That would point toward herbicide, because RRD isn't suddenly all over the plant. It starts on one cane and takes a while to spread to a second cane or become systemic throughout the plant. So if you inspect your roses frequently and didn't see it on just one cane a month ago, I would suspect it is somehow a herbicide victim.

looks like rose slugs on the bottom, but I would also check if it is getting enough water! I would wait a bit, but I may be totally wrong!

It doesn't scream RRD to me, but those sepals are weird. Ann Peck is the expert.

I have kind of the same thing with a store bought "tornement of roses" rose.and I doubt it had rrd or caught one with the other ones untouched.the new leaves look strange,but then I saw some other roses with the same kind of growth.the flowers look fine.i would also wait and see.from what I read,the thing with rrd is that it doesn't change color fro red to green.while yours look green-ish

Karolina, I want to let you know that a few of my roses have been doing the exact same thing this year--I think it's the extreme dry heat we've been getting all spring. When spring started, the roses threw out nice long canes to try to bloom, I took off most buds, after that, they began to grow these short candelabra canes with flower buds on top. I'm pretty sure it's not a disease, I think probably just less than ideal growing condition/environment, I'm hoping we will get a cool and wet fall/winter so the roses can get a break from being constantly pushed to grow and bloom, poor things. Anyways if you go to the webpage I'm attaching here, you can see the leaves on that obviously very healthy rose's candelabra canes are different from the big leaves, I don't think it's anything to worry about. Same with the masses of thorns.

Deer damage can also cause candelabra growth, it happened to my Martina Mondadori.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning Candelabras