If you leave it, don’t hesitate to remove it, if it shows up again. Weigh the risks of keeping it against the risks of leaving it if you don’t want to remove it now.

Can People confirm it is RRD? ...:(

It just breaks my heart. It's huge and blooms its heart off. I simply can't seem to keep roses in this area. Im so upset.😡.

 I will certainly wait for the first flush of blooms... but after that it's going to be summer and the last thing I want to do is to engage in cutting this huge Bush off in Ga heat. I wonder how much damage it can do if I can wait until fall.

From Windham, Windham and Henn (at the ARS site):

“If the plant cannot be removed quickly, pruning of rosette(s) will reduce

vector populations temporarily since mite populations are forty

fold or greater on rosettes than on asymptomatic tissues. However,

removal of rosettes will not ‘cure’ the plant and the plant will still

need to be removed”.

This may or may not be reassuring.

You have my deepest sympathy. Your Double Pink Knock Out is a beauty...huge....4 times bigger than mine. Yours and the Double Red are the best of the Knock Outs, IMHO. The rest...not so hot, no matter the hype on the newer ones. I just took out two Orange Glow Knock Outs....not much glow, blooms too small 2.5-2.75", and too few per flush.....you see lots of leaves and few blooms among them.

I had to remove a venerable, RRD infected Lady Ashe, one of the best climbers around. She repeats all summer long because Lady Ashe is a climbing hybrid tea, not a climbing floribunda as most climbers are. She grew long, straight, upward facing laterials from her horizontally trained canes, suitable for the vase, and her blooms were almost cast iron for durability. The petals felt like plastic, they were so thick. Her fragrance is well documented. The trunk at ground level on my old girl was nearly 4" in diameter, and even with my sawsall, I could not remove the entire crown! Weed killer was applied to the crown until early summer when no new growth emerged at soil level, and Lady Ashe was finally dead. She contracted signs of RRD at summers end of year one, and year two's spring growth confirmed the presence of RRD. She was removed before much spring growth got under way in year two. It was a Herculean task removing her. She was over 12' across growing on a 4' fence. This was 4 years ago.

My advice to you is to bite the bullet and do the deed. The dangers of RRD spreading are too great.

At the same time a venerable, very mature and vigorous Quietness became RRD infected. Quietness was a close neighbor to Lady Ashe but not immediately next to her. The Quietness bush was removed at summers end. No other bushes have shown any signs of RRD and it's been 4 years ago since the initial outbreak.

Lady Ashe and the single Quietness were the only bushes that were originally infected.

I have no clue how the disease entered my garden. No one in my immediate, tightly grouped, old city, townhouse neighborhood, each with postage stamp sized gardens at best, even grows roses. No one.

Moses.

It's just depressing. If all are going to get it at this rate, why even bother with roses...

I look forward to them getting established and gaining some size and just when they do, they get hit.

😢 😭 😿 😢

OP asked if someone could confirm RRD. No one has yet directly confirmed, here, that it is.

I can’t. Having said that: witch’s broom-like rrd growth now, after ”vague sign” (OP’s words) last year, on different (excised) branch, indicates (to me) systemic rrd.

@rifis

Do the pictures look like rrd to you?

Just by chance, any herbicide been used, close or a drift? Hoping Ann will comment. Are you close enough to a County Extension that they could look at what you cut off?

Unless the lawn service people have used something for weeds, I can't think of anything else.

I am not close to a County Extension plus I bagged the branch already.

I am not sure if that is the look of RRD though ... No big thorns at all.

Looks like RRD to me. I am sorry, I have lost 27 mature plants to RRD in the past 6 or 7 years and It is not a good experience. I would remove it and start over. Unless you uave a way getting testing done to rule out RRD the risk isnt worth it.

Dianela, I'm sorry to read about all the roses you have lost to RRD. You must love roses very much to persist in the face of this awful disease. I don't know if I could do it. I hope the RRD risk has lessened for you now. What do things look like in your area? I hope for the best in roses for you. Diane

There's absolutely no other sign on the bush...and in the absence of any thorns I wonder if it can just be new red growth. The thought of removing this perfect large bush in the summer heat (it's already summer here) makes me downright sick. I also have no idea what plants I could put at the mailbox instead. Nothing could compare to this beauty and I don't have a drip system . I can't be watering all the way there in heat and mosquitos, which I'm very allergic too. I step outside and they devastate me in seconds flat. I just wanna cry 😩. Clearly I cannot have any rose that is not a small thing to pull out as soon as this scourge shows up; plus I run out of spaces to replace them in since no new rose can be added for a while.

Not not normal new red growth for sure.

I do not think that is normal growth. You can always cut that cane down to the ground and see if the plant doesn’t show any more signs. It is your garden and you alone can decide what’s worth the risk or not. I hope removing the cane fixes it.

Thank you Diane! I hate it every time I have to dig one up but I also have dug up many due to blackspot so I just move on. I had most of my loses at the original garden where I swear someone must have had infected plants nearby. The lake property only had 2 loses and the new garden fingers crossed 🤞 has not had any. Posting a nee post to show you my possible Abbaye since it changed colors.