Question
I'm pretty sure this is the disease my garden is dying from. I have at least 80 roses, some of them new this year, that are dying from rose rosette. They have and/or have had the symptoms described. Probably the few remaining 15-20 healthy looking plants have it, too, but it's not evident yet: Betty Boop, Freedom Hedge Rose, New Dawn & Marmalade Skies (maybe) seem to still be healthy. We're in Louisiana and it's very hot already so the prospect of digging out scores of roses is not appealing. I followed all the spraying instructions last summer but did not correctly identify the disease until just now, reading on this site, so there are probably dead canes and infected bushes everywhere.

I'm a little inclined just to let it dessimate the remainder of my roses and clean out every one of them next spring. I really won't be able to tell who might be infected but not showing it yet, will I? I'm sickened at the prospect but this summer is no better than last and it's obvious no rose is "coming back" from this. Any suggestions you can give will be helpful.
Thank you,
Marilynn

Answer
Rose Rosett is the most horrible of all the rose diseases. It is carried on the air by a mite and if you have one bush with the problem it is very possible that you will have all the roses infected. Don't wait until the rose are infected, dig the roses up and burn them now. Even though a rose may look healthy the disease will be in it's sap. Also because the disease is in the sap, if a tiny portion of the root was left in the soil and you planted a new rose, it too could get Rose Rosette. Now, I am not certain of that so here is the top authority on Rose Rosette. Don't be afraid to get in touch with Ann as she would be very interested in answering your questions and helping you . Certainly much better than I can.
http://www.rosegeeks.com/