Apparently my photos did not work the first time, sorry!

Hi Elizabeth. Welcome to the rose forums. Don't worry about asking any rose related question. That's one of the forum's main purposes.

I will say that if you intended to post a photo, it didn't load. Sometimes you need to post a photo in the comments in order to get it to appear. Houzz has some major technical issues that never seem to get addressed. But if you can upload a photo we'll do our best to help.

John

My first guess is yes.

Thank you very much for the welcome! I think I got my photos to work by adding them in a comment, are they visible now?

Looks like RRD to me. Sorry.

I'm sure it's RRD. Can you remove this roadside rose because that's what needs to be done? Diane

Thank you all for the confirmation! Unfortunately I don't think I can legally go remove those roses myself, and I am not quite sure who owns the property. I am going to try to find out though. I thought of calling the county extension office to see if there's anything they can do, but I don't know if they handle rose rosette or have any connections to get that kind of thing done. There are unattended knockout roses all over the place here, so I don't think rose rosette disease is really in public consciousness in my area. I really don't want to lose my own roses so I'll do my very best to find someone with the authority to take care of these!

I see RRD everywhere in Richmond VA, several big stores had all the roses infected in the parking lot and its been that way for years now. The landscapers just cut it short and probably use the same tools on some other properties effectively spreading it. I have a bad case of RRD in my own yard, even though The plant is removed as soon as I find out..its still spreading

111 - so discouraging. I'm sorry.

Looks like a commercial establishment. I think you could at least cut off the infected branches without worry. Up to you. Not trying to be pushy.

It really looks like every branch on that rose is infected, so I don't think that would be a good solution, it would be very temporary anyway. I also don't want to disguise the issue if I can get hold of someone who can actually take those out. There is a long line of roses there, and they probably all need to be watched for several years. I did at least make a report at the roserosette.org website, and I found out who used to own the property, (a brick and tile company, the roses border a quarry) though they have recently gone out of business. (I was wrong about his apparently, the land is just for sale) Someone is still taking care of that land, the grass is well kept, so I just need to find out who.

Update, I was able to make contact with the land owner and let him know about the infected roses. He hadn't heard of rose rosette before, but he said he'd look into it. I did stress that removal of the sick ones is the best course of action to save the others, since further down the line the bushes appear healthy, at least at the moment. I'll keep an eye out while driving past that spot in future though. I think that's probably all I can actually do in this situation, fingers crossed it leads to the removal of the infected plants! I am also very much hoping the others stay healthy, there's been roses there ever since I was a kid, and the area would feel weird without them.

E C I hope that guy follows through and does something about the mess he owns. And you're to be congratulated for not giving up until you reached him. You might want to contact your county extension agent and ask about the legalities of not removing plants with a contagious plant disease that may cause problems for other plants, not just roses. Diane

Thanks! I do still plan to call the extension office next week, I tried this week but they seem to be busy at the moment. I think the legalities in my area about diseased plants are only about very specific crops, but I can ask. The land owner seemed to take what I said seriously when I called though, so I am hopeful something will actually be done. I don't think any neglect was intentional at all, rose rosette just isn't well known in my area, so it's not recognized that it's a problem. The land there is taken care of otherwise.

Good follow through! I really hope that the owner does what is needed. :)

Every time I tell people about their roses infected with RRD and specifically say that removing affected branches does not help, owners end up just pruning their roses anyway. The worst facepalm was when I saw our HOA landscapers using their hedge saw trimmer, making the pieces of diseased canes fly in the sky in a 100 foot radius. The only exception was our Arboretum, their worker thanked me and removed the plant the same day. But typically it is not worth the stress.

Ugh.

Double ugh. Diane