Is it one plant or a bigger job? If it is one plant, maybe you could save the neighborhood by removing it yourself with permission.

Its probably about four large plants.

I told the manager and he was extremely insincere and said he would take care of it.. Smiling like.. yeah yeah, whatever.

Called the city and the operator sent me to code inforcement and I spoke to someone about it who sounded curious and serious. He took my info and said he would follow up on it.

Good for you for talking to people about it. There was a bank in town that had RRD infected plants. I printed out some pictures and info for them. They removed the plants but planted more roses in their places. I did the same with a funeral home and they removed them promptly. I think I did the same with CVS in a nearby town. Don't remember. A neighbor was very cooperative and couldn't have been nicer. I think having pictures and a printout helps. It could be useful if everyone in RRD country wrote up a short article about it and submitted it to their local newspaper and/or tv station. They are probably always looking for subject matter. But I haven't done it myself.

Good find, and good job taking action. If you are in the USA, I'd contact your local extension office, they are affiliated with the state universities and have agricultural agents on staff.

A local agricultural extension office?

@Echo_Texas_zone9a yes, also known as cooperative extension. While the services will vary based on individual offices, they generally offer agricultural assistance and expertise for farms (crops, livestock), soil testing, pests and disease, and for home growers as well, including the Master Gardener training and volunteer program.

I called Texas A&M Agrilife Extension for the county I live in. She sounded bewildered why I would be bothering her. She said they can’t ”enforce” anything and they are an educational group and this is on private land etc

@Echo_Texas_zone9a while I wouldn't expect the agent to actually remove it, I would expect the agent to help find resources for you, or help to educate the business owner about why it should be removed. But, some agents are more engaged with their community than others. I guess contact the parks department and hope they have someone on staff who is knowledgeable about such things, especially if code enforcement doesn't come through.

Code in Texas highly unlikely to cover RRD. Here in NJ in my town: poison ivy yes; rrd no. This doesn’t necessarily mean an interested code enforcement agent could not persuade business owner to take definitive action.

I agree with the extension agent to the extent that that Elf didn’t think it through

Consider nocturnal hairspray/glyphosate. Sequentially.

@rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ) I'm not sure what part I didn't think through, but in my jurisdiction, code enforcement only cares about the height of weeds, not the type and certainly not any diseases specific to plants.

Hi Elf:

When I commented about you ”not thinking it through”, I had not seen your response (even though it appears here now just before mine) to Echo reporting that the ext. agent was bewildered.

Is that cross-posting? (not to be confused with Robin Williams observation about Armani). I erred in not considering that you envisioned the ext. agent would find “resources” for Echo to get the roses removed. More education for the business manager was unlikely to work, a la Upton Sinclair.

I see Echo has rejected the no-dig solution.

@Echo_Texas_zone9a I think you're right - when everyone is passing the buck (business owner doesn't care, extension agent acts bewildered (that's crazy!), code compliance likely isn't the right resource, etc) there is little you can do unless you want to escalate this to the next layer of authority, or take it to county commission/city council. It's not a battle I'd fight to that extent, but based on your location and the Texas A&M rose disease programs, I'd probably fire off an email to a few key people.

I personally wouldn’t use chemicals on a plant that wasn’t on my personal property without explicit consent by the property owner. Also, just logistically, I would have to bring my medically fragile child with me at night to apply nocturnal hairspray / glyphosate behind a business. It’s just not gonna happen for me.

Maybe the business manager you talked to just seemed insincere. Maybe he meant what he said and will take care of it. How long ago did he say he'd do it?

Good point. I just noticed it this morning and mentioned it to him at that time. I’ll check in a couple days to see if he took action.

Looks pretty scary !

Update, theyre all over my entire city.

Goodness, Echo, that sounds bad. I had started our with "t will never happen to me" and I am 99% sure it did, and I took them out, then I heard someone in the area saying she had it...so I wonder if this is spreading over much larger regions than we realize.

Terrible.

Maybe they should do something else for commercial areas where no one is available to keep a keen eye on them.

Kudos to you for going above and beyond! One thing that comes to mind is that if this were adjacent to a residential subdivision (and it sounds like it may be), is to see if that neighborhood has an HOA willing to take up the cause. HOAs can be pretty tenacious about protecting curb appeal (ie, they would hate to see a gorgeous, front yard rosebush in the neighborhood get infected!), and they might have connections within the city that can expedite removal. The city might alao know if that subdivision has an HOA.

The HOA board where I live is *very* active and they take complaints of this nature very seriously, even though they don't collect any fees to operate.

Just a thought. Do keep us posted on the outcome!

I drove past these roses a day or so ago and of course the business manager didnt do anything. They are still there.

I emailed two small local newspapers about it. I emailed my HOA and the HOA across the road that has RRv infected KO’s. My subdivison has some KO’s that are NOT infected but surely being trimmed with landscape shears that are not sanitized. They are spindly and under large trees with no adequate sunlight and one has already died. its in close proximity to my house so i am petitioning to get them proactively removed.

Trying to notify HOA’s eoth clearly infected plants one by one. copy / paste is my friend

Like that agent said, on private land there's no force of law. I think very few people take it seriously. In a corporate chain situation, nobody with budget is likely to care. If you could get RRD infected roses declared a noxious weed, then maybe you could get a citation. Run for office on that issue?