22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses

Have you checked upwind for a source of contageon? If a neighbor has a climbing or big rose or a field has a wild rose infected with RRD, the chances are that the vector mites will be dropped in your yard again, and the sad cycle will repeat.
There are places that winds will always drop mites, so long as the mites are sourced upwind.
What you need to do it try to reduce the chances of repetition.
It's not virus in the soil. It's the possibility that there were roots left behind and rose roots to graft onto other roses roots and spread their problems.
County agents? Some are good. Some are the folks who fifteen years ago published that Rose Rosette seldom affects cultivated roses so back then it was no danger.

Michael, haven't yet found any reference saying the nymphs don't pack much of a punch with their stab, so I'll assume the toxin/venom danger does include them as well as the adults.
Karen, couldn't tell with a casual look what was up with my buds & blooms, either. All that rain hadn't affected any other rose blossoms, but just as a precaution, and with that rose being new, thought I'd take a closer look. It went back into isolation. Spied a wheel bug nymph guarding it when watering yesterday. So just one of the original 5 unaccountable - though I suspect many more likely hatched from the large egg case & dispersed in different directions. Excellent photo!
Meredith, what stinging caterpillar do you have? Ann, your wheel bug took his time - wonder if that's typical or related to hunger level? Sources mention the ground beneath wheel bug home base plants littered with corpses that appear undamaged, as one clue to their whereabouts for collection & study.
Only the grandkids enthusiastically share a fascination with Nature. Just one local friend who gardens who's a keen observer - and she's a gem. So nice to pool our observations & curiosity here!
A general visual link: http://tinyurl.com/pa7ttm4.

I forget the name of the stinging guy, but it is mostly white and hairy with small red parts, too. Those popped up a few years ago and make an annual appearance in one bed now.
My young wheelbug is still guarding his mulberry bush :D I'm going to have to name him at this rate!




In Southern California, watering is now problematical. Where possible, I am watering with graywater. Heavy fertilizing is out of the question.
The weather is cool. There is a lot of overcast. I'd say, remove damaged leaves, water as much as you can, and don't feed them anymore, for the present.


They are rose slugs. Lots of roses suffer from them about this time of year. It is a annual event. Most gardeners just squish them and wait patiently for the good predator bugs to show up and eat up the rest of them.
The leaf damage the rose slugs do is rather unsightly at times--after the predator bugs have eaten up the rose slugs. At that point you may want to pluck off some of the most unsightly leaves, and then wait patiently for your rose to produce new leaves--which it will.
Usually that's it--until next spring/early summer when you will have to go through this ritual again, most likely. Happens to many of us. : )
Kate


Alfalfa meal is as if you put alfalfa pellets in a food processor or blender and ground them up almost to a powder. The Dr. Earth alfalfa meal also has added "Pro-Biotics beneficial soil microbes". From my reading, it looks as if the best thing for the roses is to buy pellets, make tea, and use the tea as a foliar spray. I don't want to undertake the making of tea, so will apply pellets and meal instead. I am thinking to put the meal in the amended soil used to fill my planting holes for roses and other things I need to plant soon, and to apply the pellets within and at drip line of established plants.
I bought a 50-lb bag of Arco brand pellets at a local feed store for $18.99. I also ordered the 3-pound box of Dr. Earth alfalfa meal on amazon for $11.71. The 50-pound bag of pellets measures roughly 5x16x24, whereas the 3-pound box of meal measures 7 x 10.75 x 2.375. I could not find much info online about Dr. Earth alfalfa meal, so (in case anyone is interested), I will paste in the notes I made from the Dr. Earth alfalfa meal box:
Dr. Earth #720 Alfalfa Meal 2-1-2, 3-pound box.
2-1-2 NPK or Nitrogen-Phosphate-Potash.
Also contains 7 kinds of non-plant food ingredients, e.g. Bacillus subtilis [a soil bacteria].
Supplies Pro-Biotics beneficial soil microbes.
Store in a cool dry place. Avoid direct exposure to light.
Vegetables, annuals, perennials, bedding plants:
a. New plantings: Mix into your soil amendment: 1 cup per 10 square feet. Till to depth of 4 to 8 inches, and water in.
b. Established: Side dress any time during growing season: 1 cup per 10 square feet of growing area. Work lightly into soil gently, and water well.
When potting up plants, mix 2 T per gallon of potting soil, or 1/2 cup per 1/2 cup cubic foot of potting soil. (1/2 cubic foot of is approx 5 gallons.) Mix soil and alfalfa meal thoroughly. Water well.
Established potted plants: 2 T for 6" container, or 8 T for 12" container. Scratch into soil gently. Add thin layer of mulch if possible.
New plantings of trees and shrubs: 2 cups per half cubic foot or 5 gallons of soil for filling the hole. Water.
Established trees and shrubs: 1 cup per inch of trunk diameter, measuring 4 to 6" above the soil line. Work gently into soil inside the drip line. Water.
May be used as compost starter.


Everything I've read says a minimum of six hours of sun, but you are so far south, that I think it would be OK, I'm in Dallas, and a rose on the back side of my house doesn't get that much, but it's really happy, Late afternoon sun, when it's in the 100s can be brutal,


The canes above the knot look fine. The shoot coming up from the soil next to the plant is probably root stock. I would dig down to where it is connected to the roots and tear it off. I can see three green canes, not one. I think the rose should be fine once you get that sucker out of there.
You could dig out that root stock sucker and plant it if you wanted to. It would take it a few years to mature before it would be big enough to graft another rose on to it.

Thank you all so much. This was a rose that my Mom got from the White House when she worked for the Justice Department. It is the most beautiful and fragrant rose ever. My Mom, Rose, recently passed away and I am just beside myself that I may lose her prized rose as well.
Thanks again all.

Ann, at first I did not understand the significance of your question about excessive thorns.
As you have stated in your e-book: "Hyper thorniness is not a dependable indication of RRD"
I have a copy of the full Chinese paper. In it they state: "WRLRD differs from RRD in the following ways: first, the witches’ broom symptom consists of the proliferation of only small leaves along the canes, instead of both leaves and twigs at the ends of canes; second, the leaves are not distorted and twisted; third, the thorns are not red-tinged or produced in excess."
Thus it appears that the Chinese closterovirus possibility (for the Damask rose infection) can be removed if the claim of excessive thorns in the damask rose is accurate. However, when I look at the picture that they (the damask investigators) provide, I do not see the clear indication of excessive thorns that I have seen in some rose rosette virus pictures. I suggest that we wait for the results of the definitive PCR test before concluding whether the middle East is or is not to be added to the known locations of rose rosette virus. I

Summer, yea I live a few hours away. I have not been to Palatine either. I have yet to order from them too. I rather see the plant in person in general before buying. But I know what you mean. I talk about roses and garden and rave about them at work and my friends, that I am sure they are tired hearing it...lol.

My Elle did exactly what Seil's did. Just this morning I was marveling at the pretty bloom and this afternoon the same bloom is wilted and fried looking. I am in hot and humid Alabama. It is a new plant for me, so I am hoping next year it will get stronger. It bloomed beautifully in the spring, but it does not bloom prolifically at all. But again, it is very young.







If any of you are ever in the Central Florida area on a Saturday you must go visit them. I just got back with 15 roses. I make a trip up to them every now and again and am always impressed. Marilyn Monroe, Chris Evert, Lagerfeld, Neptune, Elina, Barbara Streisand, Love Song, Scentimental, Love's Promise, Let Freedom Ring, Bride's Dream, Marco Polo, Paradise Found, Colorific, and China Doll.
Buford: Where did you hear they were having a sale?
There was a thread on it, do a search.