Fast forward - over the past 3 years or so large portions of this rose suddenly died. We investigated (crawling under it to get to the base was a chore), and found that the base of it was covered in horrid large crown galls. My DH took off about 12 of them, then a few weeks later I tried and got another 10 or so. We left it alone to see what happened, and it lasted another three years, but this year half of it died, and I decided that I had to get out of denial and get rid of it. So, today my DH cut it, and took it to the dump (it took up, even cut into little pieces, the entire back of his pickup truck). He left the base to dig up tomorrow.

When he told me today was the day, I took the only cutting I could find with green leaves on it - we had some very cold weather lately, and all of the leaves on most of my roses are dead - I realize this has nothing to do with crown gall, but I needed green leaves on a cutting to try and root it. I am hoping to be able to root it, because this rose was lovely, and lived so long, and was so huge, and bloomed a lot, and I am hoping it is one of those better really old cultivars which need to be saved. Anyway, the cutting is now in a pot inside of an upside down fish tank on our glassed in back porch.

I was very sad to lose this rose, which we think was planted by my DH's great grandfather sometime prior to WWI. The happy news was that my DH called me over from where I was working in the garden (cutting off the old leaves from hellebores - mine are all in full bloom, and I finally got around to doing that). The old CB was growing next to an old wall which it had flopped over. When my DH was cutting the rose down, he discovered that, eight feet away from the base of it, on the other side of the wall, it had tip rooted and there was a new plant! I am SO happy - now I have what looks like a two year old rose at least! I pruned it a bit and cut off the old cane which was still attached from the parent bush and fed it and mulched it.

We will have to see if we need to move it at some point, but with our drought I am not moving anything right now, so it can stay where it is.

So, is there anything else I need to do to the new rose? Also, after my DH digs up the roots of the old rose, I am planning on flooding the area with a dilute bleach dredge, and then flooding it with water, adding new dirt and then leaving it for at least a year before I plant another rose there.

I am going to post pics of the base of the old rose, and the new rose (proud parent!) in subsequent posts.

Jackie

I have been told that once a rose is infected with crown gall, the whole plant is infected. You may be asking for problems if you succeed with your cutting and then plant it out.

Something to think about.

Smiles,
Lyn

Use an antibacterial treatment at the first sight of a canker on another plant. I read that two are marketed under the name of 'Gallex' and 'Galltrol-A' in the US, although I have the suspicion that they should be pricey enough to make their use impractical for the amateur unless we are talking about a plant of very significant cash, sentimental or historical value. The first is an organic chemical which selectively targets infected tissue and as such has no preventive use, the second is a biological agent (another bacterium) which competes with the offending ones and as such it can also be used also for prevention (e.g. for planting in suspect soil). No idea about their availability to amateurs.

Disinfect all your pruning equipment. Household bleach by itself is not very effective, lacking a specialised disinfectant use a weak bleach solution into alcohol. Nik

Thanks for the confirmation.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thank you so much for all of the information - how do you do soil disinfection with steaming? Would pouring boiling water all over the soil work (there are no other plants nearby which I care about)?

Jackie

Soil steaming is done by using special equipment, a bit like the steam cleaners used for household cleaning but larger. Has to be done by professionals. Soil solarization is done by covering damp soil for an extended period (1 to 3 months) with transparent polyethelene sheets. Again if you want to go that way you should seek local expert advice. Both techniques increase soil temperature enough to sterilize it to adequate depth. The particular bacterium is killed if exposed to a temp of approx 60C/140F for an hour. One can lower this time by using a higher temp or deploy a somewhat lower temp and increase the exposure time. You get the additional benefit of getting rid of weeds for a period. Both these methods are commonly used in commercial cultivation, usually under glass.

PS. For a limited area boiled water might do the trick. But I don't know it for a fact and I can't find references. You will need to maintain the heat for some time. Check with a local expert.
PS2. All above methods will destroy the roots of plants so if other plants are nearby, much thought must be given before deploying them. Again, seek the advice of a local expert.
PS3 People have been known to use charcoal fire heat for soil sterilization. The problem with this is that the intense heat may have permanent effects on soil chemical composition plus the heat might not reach adequate depth. Not recommended.
Nik

I recently used "Nogall" as a preventive measure when planting new roses in the cemetery. The company usually works with larger growers but was willing to send me a small quantity. I bare-rooted the roses that I planted using this material.

I plan to use dilute bleach and to solarize the planting spaces where the two diseased roses were. Info about this and about the disease are on the UCD pest note site.

It's so disheartening to lose a rose to this pestilence! We have lost three Excellenz von Schubert to it - all of them from different sources. Either all of these plants are in commerce already diseased, or this is a really susceptible cultivar. We had a magnificent one in our perennial garden, Hamilton Square. It was simply covered in galls at the base.

I hope that your new little plant is clean.
Anita