Rose Beads ... uh... Rose Rosette Disease in Texas!
Announcer: What are the names of these companies?
MW: For the sake of responsible journalism, I'd rather not say until we confirm with Texas A & M that this is, in fact, rose rosette disease.
Announcer: Is the disease new to Texas?
MW: Not really. It was first discovered in East Texas in R. multiflora stands about eight years ago. But the first case in a private rose garden here in North Texas was not confirmed by A & M University until this spring. The garden was in Parker County, just west of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex.
Jim McCarty also sent a sample from his garden to A & M for testing this spring, but a report was returned saying it was not Rosette. Jim stated their reasoning was based on the fact they could not find the mite Phyllocoptes fructiphilus, the suspected vector or carrier of this disease, on the sample.
That's why the sample I collected yesterday from our reader is so important. It shows both a normal cane and the "witches broom-like" stem connected to it.
If it is confirmed to be Rose Rosette, we could have wide-spread infestation throughout the Texas rose nursery industry and in many, many rose gardens around North America.
Announcer: What should our readers be on the lookout for, Mark?
MW: Symptoms are red or purplish veins of infected leaves, sometimes bright red lateral shoots, dwarfed and shriveled foliage, and/or abnormal prickly proliferation of lateral stems. The foliage appears much like "witches broom," that is, it's very deformed.
The rose is also very, very weak and it may contract other diseases, as well. One of the infected roses in our reader's garden also had downy mildew.
The disease is not particularly fond of Hybrid Tea roses, but that doesn't mean it cannot be found on them. R. multiflora is frequently used as rootstocks on grafted roses. If infected stocks were used to graft the hybrid, the resulting rose could be infected. One of the infected roses observed yesterday was grafted, most probably to such a root stock.
Rosarians with old garden roses, English roses or Victorian roses (the so-called "antique roses"), even those on their own roots, should particularly be on the lookout for these symptoms - especially if they were mail order from Texas during the past two years.
Announcer: What can our readers do about the disease if they find it?
MW: Rose rosette disease is 100% fatal to the rose. If the disease
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