The last two pics are Dark Desire in my back sun beds. The damaged one is in shade for some of the day in early spring while the other is in sun all day.

The above were late April. The following are recent pics.

These latest pics show the attempts at flowering. Multiple roses are affected almost all in the same are, but the one from the back, Dark Desire, usually gets killed back every winter so its tender. The small cuttings show the same growth pattern. on this plant at least there are a couple of normal-looking leaves. I think this is the only one besides Zaid that has some regular leaves.

So sorry to see this trouble Vapor. I have had Cadenza have weird Spring growth on occasion that reminded me of your trouble. I have never used pesticide, but speculated that some could have been in alfalfa I put around the plant. I wondered about weather. Boron? I really don't know, but attenuated weird growth was not what either of us needed. My plant continues on looking great most of the time. I prune this odd stuff off. I'll try to find a photo.

What I had was spindly blind shoots or buds would dry up. Leaves small and fell off. Photos not the best, but some of these spindly shoots are what happened here.

I got a rose late last year that was dormant when it arrived. It was a band, so only a single cane with a tuft of normal leaves still hanging on at the top. It started growing in March, I think, and it was all that thin wispy growth you pictured above. I had never seen anything like it before.

After doing some googling, the closest thing I could find in pictures were those for herbicide damage, and the articles said it could be from herbicide sprayed the previous year. I figured it must be that since I don't use herbicide. The articles also said as long as the plant is alive, it should eventually outgrow the damage. And, now, starting last week or so, the latest growth is coming in much more normal looking.

But if yours aren't new plants like mine was, and weren't sprayed with herbicide last year--strange. Could it be weather related? We did have an unusually cool spring here, but not really cold, but you never know...roses do weird things sometimes.

My Cadenza has done some of this the last 2-3 Springs. It made me wonder about the Plant tone or composted manure I put on too. I felt the rose looked poisoned.

Honestly, Vapor, I don't like the looks of those, but hopefully AnnTN, BenDallas and Christopher (or several others with lots of experience) will weigh in. I saw a lot of RRD in Dallas while dealing with my parents' house, but others on the forum are the experts. Christopher recommended changing the filter on photos to black and white and then viewing the images again so that RRD characteristics either jump out or don't. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat right beside you with all my fingers crossed and all my best wishes. Carol

I, too, was afraid of RRD, and I'm hoping it's not that for you. But there was no red in my weird growth, and I didn't have any excessively thorny canes coming up either. I didn't take any pictures of the odd growth on mine, but here are some I borrowed to illustrate what I was seeing:

I bet it’s cold and lack of sun. One of my Pope JP looks like this and it’s in a shaded area - lilies from last season kind of draped over it so it was getting pretty much no light. We had an early freeze last fall and a freeze this spring after growth had started.

Fascinating problem, photos and discussion.

Would love for the desired expert opinions to be rendered, here, after viewing just photos, and then again after reviewing history provided by vaporvac. That would be instructive for all of us, the 99+%.

Do I smell case report and review of the literature, with early acceptance for publication in a prestigious high impact plant pathology journal?

I'm so sorry to see all those roses having trouble for you! I had a few do something similar, all of them were at the same stage of just getting baby leaves when we had that last big snowstorm. They didn't seem to make any progress at all and were way behind the others. A couple of weeks ago I gave them each a one-and-a-half dose of nitrogen based fertilizer, and it seems to have kicked them into growing. Most of those little scrawny leaves have filled out over this last weekend to look rather decent (all things considered) and the rest just fell off. Don't know if that was what worked or if it was just the higher temperatures but they look okay now.

Interesting. We have lots of late snowstorms and freezes. I've never seen the weird growth that you have. My bet would be on herbicide damage.

So terribly sorry Vaporvac. Just by looking at the pictures it looks like herbicide damage to me. I spray with roundup here and that is what my damage always looks like. I have a Madama Issac P that has not recovered yet from my last spray in early March. I know you said you have not sprayed, but any possibility a neighbor has? I am not sure how close your neighbors are, but it can travel far on a windy day.

Vaporvac, I have a second, and more upbeat, thought after closer inspection. The growth on your roses does NOT seem to be following the cane by cane pattern of RRD! Your roses' odd growth seems to be presenting with EVERY new sprout. ALL the bursting new growth is affected. That is NOT how RRD usually presents in my (albeit somewhat limited) experience. That IS how exposure can present, though. I also am so sorry you have this headache in your garden! It's always something, right? Sending long distance hugs. Carol

No expert but it could actually be a combination of both the very cold weather we had and some herbicide damage. I had several nights below freezing in mid May too and have noticed a lot of tips looking odd. Not exactly freezer burned but just not right. I've just been snipping them off and waiting for new growth.

Herbicide damage does look an awful lot like RMV in the strange leaf growth but I don't see any of the other symptoms of RMV like over thorny or a larger cane coming from a smaller one. If it is herbicide all you can do is water them a lot and try and flush it out of the soil around the plant. Since some of them are so small yet I hesitate to say to prune off anything.

Yes, BelleGallica. Your photos really got my attention. Thank you. Carol