By now, I've lost about thirty roses to Rose Rosette over eight years.
There are some that are really missed and they are/will be replaced. You just know, down deep, which ones you can't live without.
For me, James Galway is such a rose.
If Parks Tea Scented China hadn't given me such fits getting it to put on size, I'd replace it. But it was (finally) such a large, massive rose, that I worry its replacement would be a mite-vector-trap, so...for now...I won't replace it.
I replaced Mount Shasta, for other HTs, I'd have to go to my list to remember them.
Gloire de Dijon will be replaced, but I need to find a higher windflow location for it.
Carla, you'll know which ones you don't want to live without. Not based on others' photos, but on your own memories.
Trust me on this.
Ann

I agree with Ann. In my opinion, the success of a rose is where it was purchased and where it was planted...and of course cared for with adequate food and water. The ones you liked try to replace with the same rose in the same spot. I have planted two of the same roses in differenc places, and one would grow and the other just sit there. I also have two Crepuscules bought from different venders. They are side by side with different leaves and bloom at different times. The blooms do look the same, but I am going to give that a closer look this spring. I got so many mislabled roses from one of my favorite venders that I don't trust any of their labels anymore, nor are they my favorite vender anymore.

Ann, I don't know if I will ever replace my Archduke Charles that had RRD and I loved that rose. In my mind AC and RRD are synonymous now. I know that is a twisted thought process but when I think of AC, I see that grotesque twisted foliage and remember how horrified I was. Maybe in time that will change or maybe if/when I have other roses develop RRD it will be different. Did you ever feel that way after the first rose? I truly hope I won't always feel this way because I suspect that this wasn't my last run in with RRD.

Carol

Carol,
The first rose of ours with RRD was a big ole multiflora growing immediately downwind of an out building. Before we knew we had RRD on it, we dug it out because of the threat of RRD (I still miss the scent for those wonderful spring days when it was in bloom), and when it came back from the roots, in a drought, one stem had RRD. It wasn't 'that' big a loss.
The second one came hard on the heels of the first. It was the century old plant of R. multiflora platyphylla (the real Seven Sisters) and I had gone into it to clear out the mimosas and other shrub trees that were growing inside of it so I could watch more easily for RRD. I was sitting under it, cleaning out poison ivy and I looked over my right shoulder and saw that tell tale red witches broom, two places next to each other on one stem.
Can you tell I remember/ feel it as if it were yesterday?
That one hurt a lot.
Each time I find RRD, I get that same sick feeling.
But I am taking control and I hope that taking control and spreading the word makes it less painful each time. But it continues to hurt, even when it's not in my garden.

All the roses I lost are worthy of being replaced. It seems that these mites go for my favorites. They must have it in for me.

Mary Rose
Perdida
Wind Chimes
Lavender Pink Parfait

Now as of last fall I am watching Arthusa who had the witches brooms cut to the ground. I'm wondering if I got to this everblooming rose in time.

I have not replaced them yet, but one day probably will.
Barbara

Ann,

I swear that I almost cried reading your words. I had no idea until I experienced this myself how bad it really is to have a rose you love, have nurtured for years and watched grow, and that has made you smile and given you so much pleasure affected by this horrible disease. Words and pictures can't begin to convey the horror of finding this on one of your roses and knowing that it may have spread to the others. I admire your attitude. Maybe sometime soon I will be able to take control. Thank you for sharing that.

Carol

It is a sick feeling and causes future paranoia.
Ann, please explain how you are "taking control."
Would you please tell me when I should spray and if I should spray bushes that are ok, or are these facts in your book?

Thanks,
Carla

I am not sure Ann will remember this but a few years ago after my first episode with RRD, (I think the following spring), I was at a garden nursery and got angry at the owner and the employees there for allowing a multiflora (huge, huge, huge) to continue growing there and got so upset my husband asked me to get in the car and "let's go home," because he was afraid I would turn violent.

I think Ann was the only person here who empathized with me when I told that story here.

Yes, Carol, it bothers me and the reason I have never replaced some that I really loved, i.e., Veilchenblau but I did have a cutting rooted of American Pillar and some days I just don't even want to see it for fear I will see, if not imagine, I see RRD on it. Yes, there were many others, but not Constance Spry, one I would have gladly shoveled pruned due to lack of bloom, which sat right next to Traviata and Erfurt, who were victims, but CS never got RRD but it got SP'd anyway.

There were many others along the way but those are some that just stick out for a reason. I lost a Carefree Sunshine this past year, Veldfire, Medallion, Garden Party, and some others, whose names I cannot recall now, but maybe I will not miss them because I did not need them; that's the only way to look at it.

If you really love it, you should get another. We are lucky that plants can be 'cloned' so easily that they can be replaced with the exact same thing.

I am dealing with two of my cats that are getting older and have various ailments. I know they will not live forever and I can't clone them.

Life is too short to mourn a plant. Especially when you can get another.

Carla, I think you should get another one. I haven't dealt with RRD yet, but what I hear you all saying is that there is pain, not so much the loss of an individual plant, but the threat of losing an entire garden to the disease. And the feeling of being at the mercy of something grotesque.

And so, Ann, what is the best way to prevent it or take control of it, as you alluded to?

Duchesse, I think you understood exactly what we were all trying to express. It's a lot more complicated than just losing one plant and replacing it with another. At least it is for me. Now, I am ever watchful and wondering when/where it will show up next. I'm not sure I want an exact clone of a rose that was susceptible enough, unfortunate enough, or whatever to be infected with that disease. At least not right now. But, again, that is just me and it doesn't have to be logical or make sense to anyone else. It's just the way I feel.

Carol

I have not yet lost a rose to RRD but I can tell you that I love my roses so much I know that I will be crushed. I actually cried for an entire day on the day I dug up my rose standard of The Fairy. That rose tree gave me more joy than about anything in the garden. Rose Gall took that rose from me and I still feel heavy in my heart everytime I think of it.

I think that we wait for 3 years to get some age on our roses and then beyond that many of the OGR just get better and better.....so to me its not so much the loss of the rose....its the starting over.....the waiting.

Carla, I think you should replace it; I think your heart is telling you this by how much its bothering you. Let us know what you decide.

:o)

Ronda

Carla, you should replace Mons. You won't be happy until he's back in your garden again in his spot, blooming. I know exactly how you feel; I felt sick when we had to pull out the two huge Awakenings this year. They looked like a huge bridal wreath over the trellis when they bloomed; just spectacular. I'll miss them.

Ann, I lost almost every Easy Elegance rose last year due to RRD. I'm gun-shy about adding any more because it seems to me they are more prone to infection. Buck roses close by were not infected but QE is on probation. So I will not be adding any more EE roses in the future, even though I really loved them and they did well since they are own-root and hardy in Zone 5.