Ann is truly a wealth of information---I'm so sorry you lost your roses---that always makes me sad !!!!

Florence

I'm sorry for your lost roses.

However, isn't the internet great for sharing information. I don't think that your local big box garden center would have given you good information...or at least not like what you get here with Very Experienced Gardeners.

RRD sucks, bigtime, but it would suck more to lose more roses and to spread it (unawares) in the process.

Again, sorry for your loss.

I am sorry that it took RRD to get you to de-lurk, thank you for the kind words.
The internet is about sharing and it has made a positive difference in learning about RRD.
Every time I dig out a rose with RRD I keep repeating to myself that knowing is better than not knowing.

Please don't be a stranger.
Ann

I'm so sorry about your losing 3 roses. I know how bad I would feel, was hoping that is one scourge I can avoid this year, see you are in my zone, so I guess it's not a southern rose thing. If I lose any plant like the nice zinnia specimen I had today, got knocked over and broken, it makes me sad; my neighbor sprayed my nice violets through a fence which made some pleasing, healthy summer foliage where nothing else will grow. I know he didn't do it for spite, but I will have to figure out how to head off that problem again if it can be done.

I did see the photos of rrd and other plagues (much appreciated) and hope I would have sense enough to recognize it if confronted with it.

Let's see so far it's been slugs, then learned about those too late here, big bites (leafhoppes, rabbits, what?), malaise, a few spider mites (can live with that) and now the Japanese Beetles which, knock on wood, have been manageable so far. If it weren't for this forum, I wouldn't have been prepared for those, was right on that when the first ones appeared, it will be a long month and couple weeks into August until they are "supposed" to go underground to lay eggs, ugh.

I am beginning to see the virtues of once-bloomers. They bloom early enough to avoid the summer ailments except for leaf damage.

I so hope you will be able to replace your roses, I don't know if you should plant in the same ground where that has surfaced or not. I did save a lot about it though. For some reason, it really creeps me out, worse than the JB's.

To clarify something I said on another thread and without starting a new one, I thought Pickering had sent me a mislabelled rose instead of Pat Austin. Not so. That is one of my two roses that are languishing the most; the other is one of the Gruss, the other Gruss is putting out new growth all over the place. Pat put out his first true bloom, but I don't know if that rose will pull through or not, very small, wilted today so I had to quick water, perked up, thought once every 2 days should be enough. Not so for some.

Every day it is some darn new thing to deal with. But my first stargazer burst into bloom today, and it makes the disappointing setbacks seem worthwhile.

Some of my roses are not blooming true at all. The first bloom on the Pat Austin looked like a yellow with white outer petals then fizzled. One I posted some photos on, Hyde Hall, is now blooming crazy quilt colors, I don't get it. The best performers as of now are my two Charlotte's (they get the most sun and in spite of the JB's, good repeat) and Dark Lady, she does well in a quite shaded spot. The second flush blooms on the other roses, some are deformed and smaller.

Thanks for the kind words. I've gardened for ten years,roses for 4 years. Always felt so badly when others lost roses and feared the day it would come. A question any relation between pm and rrd? Powdery mildew is what brought close attention to these roses. I know it doesn't cause rrd, but as the rose became infected was it more prone to pm. They had never been diseased before so began the daily attention didn't take long for the ugly growth to start. Thanks again, Pat

Pat,
You have a good eye!
PM and RRD don't necessarily have any relationship. Often in my garden a rose will get RRD with NO PM precursor.
BUT, and this is a biggie, the professors at Iowa State who encouraged the spread of RRD did put in one of their referreed articles that multiflora with RRD would also show PM; multiflora in the wild seldom, hardly ever has PM.
And when we were watching the roses in the garden at Lincoln Memorial University get sick and die of RRD (because nobody would do anything to remove the RRD infected multiflora in the field immediately upwind) on three or four roses we say PM in the middle of summer (which is unseasonal PM in our part of the world) and those roses later in the fall came down with RRD.
So....PM isn't a dependable indicator, but sometimes it is.
I had a lot of PM this spring on roses that had never had PM before. So far, they don't show RRD symptoms. But I watch them very closely, right now.
No easy answers, but we keep collecting observations.
Ann

I had 2 roses that had RRD, but I didn't know what it was and I also noticed a lot of PM on them. And I thought that was what was causing the problems. I eventually SP the two plants when they came back in the spring with the same problems.

However, that did spur me to begin a regular spray regime, which has allowed me to expand my rose garden.

Aliska, I live in LaSalle county and even though I know rrd is in Illinois there's no wild multiflora any where close. I'm not obsessed but always took the time to check out roses when I find them to be warned of possible rrd. Don't know how the devil mites got here. They rode the winds a long ways to find my garden.
Started spring 2006,happy to see young plant shoot up several inches new growth tons of it. A couple of days latter more buds than I've ever seen. Oh oh the buds are twisted ugly horrible looking things. The growth now so thick you can't see the ground. Enter sick feeling in pit of tummy. I don't use insecticides have adorible preying mantis everywhere honey bees ect. ect. Yet hidden away in basement secret stash of CYGON, just this plant I spray bag and send to dump I,ll never use it again. I felt like I use agent orange.
Right before winter one of my midnight blues and hertitage had area of tiwted buds but roses soon went dormant. What I,m getting to finally is it didn,t look like the image I had of rrd it just wasn't right and I was worried.
Come spring didn't take long for mindnight blue to look bad with twisted buds out she went. Now I now we shouldn't be attached to plants but aaarrrggg I'm ripping my babies up and not even possitive its rrd.
The roses I posted on never really looked good this year. Flowers were dull and subsized,powery mildew hit and whats this sick looking feathery growth. Did a google search of garden web. Found Mary lu's pic of her rrd infected rose. Ann agreed on her diagnosis. This is what in 3 weeks my Heritage and Perdita now looked like,at least I know it was a good thing I didn't wait to take out my other roses.
Ann has new pics on ebook or I still wouldn't know GS was sick no red growth no twisted buds ect. However blooms in spring didn't have the right color or size, leaves no longer round but pointed with very bumpy surface.
Try not to worry,if your roses get sick that one thing that dosn't seem right well quickly become many more. If nothing else has happened they should be fine.
Just before dark took agood look at fragrant masterpiece[sp] who also has pm and has never been diseased. Guess what? Down in the middle of bush 3 giant latterals much thick than the cane cane their growing from. So just how many stupid devil mites can drop it to visit. I've gone out and screamed uncle.I'll be out searching the town for sick roses next weekend. Sorry I was so long winded. Yikes does that saying show my age.
Good Night Pat

Sorry don't know what key I hit that smooshed all my paragraphs together. Chalk it up to a lease than stellar day

I spray every two weeks with bannermax one time bannermax-manzacobe[sp?] the next. I'm assuming the rrd weakend the rose allowing the pm to take hold. These plants had the kind of pm I might see in a cold rainy fall when I've quit spaying for the year. You can bet I'll be looking close when I see pm that shouldn't be there. Pat

I, too, lost Perdida to RRD. I know what a beautiful rose it is. So sorry. Yes, Ann, it is better knowing.

Barbara

Thanks, Patty, I thought I'd risk getting them through the winter, and the ones that survive may perform better next year. They have had a tough time of it.

I was so charmed with multiflora I found growing by the cemetery about a mile away a few years back, I tried to propagate it, luckily that failed after what I have found out since. I really don't want to spray, at least now, and when I'm not sure what to spray for, could stress them even more.

Two new buds have ugly black spots on them on Dark Lady and don't know what the other one is offhand. The leaves don't look diseased, just chewed and some not filling out as much as I would like.

This is a learning experience for me, my soil is good but should have been amended to retain mosture better, will spread some compost in the spring hopefully and hope for the best. The high temps have been stressing some of the baby fill-in perennials even with watering regularly.

To combat the JB's one recommendation of the extension office was to cut all the buds off until they are gone. Also recommended buying one of the sprays. What? Worst case scenario, yes, but I wanted the repeat bloom.

I suppose I'm being too stingy and lazy with mulch. It takes so much of it to do it right.