Most of the regular miticides are ineffective against this mite. K-State recommends "abamectin (Avid), bifenthrin (Talstar), carbaryl
(Sevin), endosulfan (Thiodan), and/or petroleum-based
horticultural oils"

Sorry to hear your bad news.

I'm so sorry. I hope you are able to beat it back.

Oh no! That is horrible news, Christopher. You've worked like a demon to establish this beautiful garden and it's just so unfair. Am keeping fingers crossed that nothing else will be touched. This is really a bummer.

So sorry.

What awful news. Like Ingrid said, you have worked so hard on your garden, and I've enjoyed your latest photos showing its amazing progress. I hope you're able to nip this scourge before it progresses to other roses. Diane

Sorry to hear that Chris. Hope your other roses are ok. Good luck my friend!

Oh, what a horrible thing to happen! So sorry! I hope this will prove to be a one- off occurrence.

Melodye.

Thanks, everyone. I did some online investigation, and I've decided that my first course of action is to soak everything with a Castile soap solution. John Starnes had a recipe for using a bar type that seemed too involved, and would require a tank sprayer. I thought about using a liquid in a hose-end sprayer, and found a few sprayers that have adjustable settings for dilution. I'll keep up with this for the rest of the season, and keep a sharp eye for ANYTHING that looks suspicious on any other rose. I'm also going to root cuttings of anything no longer available. I'm thinking that if a rose is already infected but asymptomatic, I should be able to see symptoms more quickly in anything I propagate, since that would essentially be "all new growth". This could also provide a backup in case something not infected now becomes so later.

Anyone know the name and address of the person who first decided to use RRD as a biological control of R. multiflora?

ARGH!!!!

:-/

~Christopher

Really sorry about the bad news Christopher

Christopher, I am terribly sorry to hear that RRD has found your garden. I went through that a number of years ago, and remove several plants before it declined. You asked who thought it was a good biological control. I cannot find the source, but I had read years ago that RRD is actually Thought to be a low-grade disease of native American roses that has been there for years, and it did not become widespread until it found multiflora to feed on. It's native status may explain why setigera seems immune to it. I am attaching an article from the state of Ohio that mentions it was known as long ago as 1941. I do think it is unfortunate that the US Department of Agriculture has taken the position for years that it was a good thing because it will kill multiflora and a little has been done to consider the damage to the rose industry and home gardeners. I hope you don't find any more plants with it. Best of luck. Bob

http://bygl.osu.edu/content/twisted-story-rose-rosette-disease-0

So sorry. I have so enjoyed the progress of your beautiful garden.

Ann, thanks for your extensive and well-documented E-book. I'll try to remember my sources next time! Lots of good info! Bob

Christopher, I am sorry to hear that. That is a terrible disappointment. Hopefully., the rest of your garden will remain untouched.

Christopher, I'm so sorry to hear your news; I hope your other roses will remain unaffected, and if that's a forlorn hope, I'll go a step further to hope that if you do lose any others, they'll be ones you aren't crazy about, or that are replaceable.

It's a good idea to propagate anything that you'd have trouble replacing, and if you do get some asymptomatic offspring, I wonder if there's a friend's garden you could "borrow" (preferably one that's rose-free) to store extras of anything you're worried about losing.

Good luck,

Virginia

The following thread brings up the idea of trying to protect your plants against insects by increasing the silicon content of the plants:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1586199/silicon-induced-resistance-against-powdery-mildew-of-roses-caused

Hi Christopher, just to chime in with my sympathy, too. That is a real shame. I do hope you've managed to find the only infected plant and dealt with it. Fingers crossed that your glorious garden will continue to thrive. Now I have to look up RRD because I've never heard of it - perhaps it doesn't exist here in Italy?

Tricia

..whoever gets it in their garden, as a fellow rose grower I'm very sorry to hear this... I think it's heading over this way too, or may be here already...

I'm so sorry Christopher, genuinely, and possibly a little selfishly of me - I've very much enjoyed looking at the progress of your garden.

Marlorena - eeek, where did you hear that?

Oh bummer - massive sympathies, Christopher. What a 'mare.

It has been all over Gardeners World talkback - I think cases in Lincolnshire (just up the road from me and Marlorena)

Oh dear. I confess I find Gardener's World somewhat tediously combative, so I don't go on there much unless I'm looking for advice (or feeling cranky!)

*sigh* One of the downsides of a densely planted island... doubt there's a single garden in my area that doesn't have roses. And I doubt many of them would have the first clue about RRD, I'd never even heard of it before joining here. Is R. Canina suceptible? Might be a (very tiny) upside to the hedgerow decimation.

R. canina is susceptible.

Europe has a similar problem with Blackcurrent Reversion, a similar virus with a similar eriophyid vector. Recent studies are showing that Blackcurrent Reversion is a complex of diseases and one of them is also a Emaravirus, which is the same group as RRV.

I had heard that a paper had been submitted about some rose plants in Europe with similar symptoms, but the paper has not appeared and it's been two years. So there's no way to know what that's about.

Also there was a disease in some greenhouses in Poland (reference is in the Bibliography in my E-book) and that was published as being a phytoplasma caused disease. I don't know of any followup papers to that one.

So very sorry. Wishing you a successful battle.

Ugh, so sorry. It is known to be in central NJ. I hope this is an isolated event.

So discouraging, but I hope you won't find any other infections in your garden. I am on watch here, too, after I discovered what appeared to be RRD in a nearby development. The developer's landscaper must have agreed because he removed 15 plants and reported seeing infections elsewhere in this area.

Lindsey

Grim - |I struggle with blackcurrant reversion (one of the consequences of Big Bud Mite) and have to grow mine on 5 year rotations and have run out of space (although I have moved (clean) cuttings to the wood. Globalisation has a lot to answer for...and I also get freaked out by the apparent uncritical acceptance of bio-controls by people whose heads explode at the mention of chemicals. We are seeing the death of our beloved ladybirds because of an influx of aphid controlling (and cannabilistic) harlequins...and the foolish meddling with more beetles about to be trialled as Japanese Knotweed destroyers (our multiflora moment?) under the arrogant assumption that these beetles will obediently die off once all the knotweed has been destroyed...when we, as gardeners, surely recognise the tenacity and persistence of life. I despair.

What's the latest, Christopher?

I haven't seen anything suspicious so far, and I'm out there looking every day. Now that the main heat of Summer is passing, there's lots of new growth emerging, so sometimes I do a double-take. I'm hoping this was a one-off infection, but from now on I'll be checking daily.

:-)

~Christopher

I'm so paranoid now that I examined every rose at church and the mass plantings in my subdivision. Next thing you know, I will be shopping RRD as an escapee from Plum Island along with Lyme Disease! Every weird looking new growth on a public mass-planted rose freaks me out! Yikes!

So happy to know yours so far is contained to the one bush

I am also in NJ and have about 30 roses; I lost one rose to RRD two years ago and haven't lost any since then. I keep looking out for it, but so far so good. Just letting you know that it doesn't mean that you will lose everything.