Looks like could be rose rosette..... if so, sorry, think it's pretty bad.

Oh darn. I guess I'll be replacing all of my roses (about 30). Thank you for the info.

Looks more like herbicide drift than RRD. KO with RRD are hyper thorny. Investigate that possibility first.

That was my first thought, actually. And it's definitely a possibility.

If there is an excessive amount of thorns it is rose rosette disease and not herbicide drift. From your picture I am sorry to say it looks like rose rosette disease.

Thanks for the feedback and the thread. It seems to only be affecting (so far) the original roses planted in my yard and not any of the double knockout roses. I'm hoping it stays that way!!

We had that spread in our area a few years ago. I eventually had to get rid of all our knock out roses. There is no cure once they get it and the horticulturists urged folks around here not to replace with knock out roses. There are still some around that are doing ok but you don't see nearly as many of them anymore. Hope your knock out roses make it. Good luck.

I went to look at my knockouts and none of them with the exception of the double pink have any like new buds on them. And yet the Sunny one does that I bought for the fellah. My red knockout is about 20 inches high so I cut back to 12 inches high? The canes are brownish white inside and the only part that is green is on the outside. I live in Ontario, Canada. The Queen Elizabeth rose is doing the same thing as is the Always and Forever. Are they just slow to show them? I have an At last rose that has leaves on it and a shield rose and my drift roses are going great guns as is the double pink knockout but they are all below 5 inches high. The Rainbow knockout one is like the red and the sunny. No new leaves, no new buds. Cut back on the red and the sunny and the rainbow. Any suggestions? I am the only one here that is growing them.

I found a lot of people had the same issue due to the winter so cut it back more and was elated to see that there are new shoots forming near the base of it and further up the canes. So maybe cutting it back further will give it more incentive to grow more:)

No ideas for your climate, but happy to hear that you are seeing signs of life!

In my area we traditionally trim our roses on Valentine's day.

I just dug up all of the plants showing any signs of the disease. Heartbreaking.

I am happy that you were able to know they needed to be removed. But sad for the loss of your roses. I only clicked on this to let you know that the Knockouts positively had rrd. If you ever have another question about your roses please come to the rose forum. Everyone would gladly help. Once again sorry for the lose of your roses.

I thought the condition asked about here was hyper-virulent rose rosette also. This problem is a Frankenstein, created in a lab to kill off nuisance Rosa multiflora in forest lands. That is why it is so destructive.

So sorry about your roses, OP.

It has hit our area hard. We went to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden right after all of the extensive rose gardens were dug up. It looked like a bomb went off there, so sad to see the beautiful, historic roses gone. Now they’re planting roses among other plants, so that hopefully if RRD hits again, it won’t take out such large areas ... maybe be better controlled. I miss how it was all of my life.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article27534709.html

We dug up and tossed our two knockouts. I had been watching them closely when they started to look a bit odd, and sure enough they began showing the textbook signs. I took a cutting to the nursery where I bought them in late March, but the manager didn't seem to want to confirm or deny the dreaded rose rosette. Didn't really matter -- when mine started producing the profusion of thorns and shoots of witch's broom, I knew with certainty. We replaced ours with a couple of different yucca varieties. My rose growing days were shortlived.

Oh Miz_G, I'm so sorry to hear about the rose gardens at the Fort Worth botanic gardens!! We moved away from Fort Worth over six years ago after having lived there about a decade. My children and I have many fond memories of afternoons spent at the botanic gardens, and family photos taken in the rose gardens. I have faith that they will make it beautiful again, but how heartbreaking to lose what it was!
And now I think I know what is going on with a rose bush in my own yard that can't seem to limp along very well this year. What a shame. I will be on the lookout for it as I also have a few knock out roses that just haven't come back well this year. What a shame!

It showed up on our knockouts in the front. I aggressively cut them back and fertilized them. They've grown back beautifully. I now have the problem in the backyard and hope the same measures work for them.

rose rosette disease Put a plastic bag over the bush, and remove it

Dan Former ARS Q&A Man

HU-208707970 You're a little late, the OP was from four years ago. Hope you stick around to answer more rose questions.