Rose Rosette Disease???...

O.K., so this is a post that I didn't want to write. I wanted to talk about something pretty or interesting, like my bog garden or the butterfly on the Buddleia, or how the tomatillos have taken over the hummingbird garden.

{Ballerina - is she o.k.?}

But I am really afraid for my roses and it is weighing heavily upon me. Do they have Rose Rosette Disease? Will they get RRD? Or is the question rather, When will they get RRD? Do I go ahead and pull them all out, not even waiting for the inevitable? Do I plant out the ones still in nursery containers and hope by some odd chance that one of them won't get it?

{Ballerina - healthy cane}

I'm not sure about Ballerina. She normally has very smooth canes, with just a few prickles among the clusters of blooms. But this new cane seems to have many, bright pink prickles. And the cane next to it seems to be almost too red, but no prickles. Am I just paranoid, seeing RRD at every turn?

{Ballerina - these 2 canes are questionable}

Ballerina is the rose that is closest to the multifloras in the field "next door." And straight in the path of the wind that blows the mites that carry the disease. She is in the same bed, mere feet, from where Madame Alfred Carriere was planted. So, what do I do? I don't want to pull her out if she is healthy, but it is almost impossible that she won't get RRD, if she doesn't already have it.

{Ballerina - RRD?}

I am almost positive that Marie Daly has Rose Rosette. She is a little harder to feed in a balanced way because she is in a container and seems to be very sensitive to the slightest imbalance in fertilizer.

{Marie Daly}

So, too often she doesn't look quite right. But I think she looks even more "not quite right" than she normally does. And she lives just a few feet from where the first rose was in my garden that showed RRD.

{Marie Daly}

When she is strong and healthy she is a very charming rose and I have enjoyed her so much. Is all that over now? Do I just go ahead and get it over with?

{Marie Daly}

The orange rose, whose name I don't know because it has been passed from neighbor to neighbor, also shows growth that could be indicative of Rose Rosette Disease. In a way, this is the hardest one to accept having RRD because I don't have a name for it to replace it in the future. Maybe the parent plant at the neighbor's house won't get the disease (ha!) and then I could try again. Its funny how you get attached to something that you weren't sure you liked to begin with.

{orange rose}

Do I go ahead and take them out before I am absolutely sure? Do I wait and see, potentially spreading the disease even more? Do I throw out the roses in the nursery containers even though they don't show symptoms or do I plant them out and hope for the best? And what on earth would I replace my roses with?

{orange rose}

P.S. Have a beautiful day anyway.