Allegra, It's good to see you again. I've missed your posts. I want to thank
you for suggestion to someone else the diagnosis of cersospora. I started
looking and it fits what ails my Pink Pet and White Pet. It isn't the problem
that blackspot is here, but at least now I know the disease. I knew it looked
different, but could quite figure it out.

"Allegra" writes:

No she is not the only one, believe me!
We have been fighting a fierce battle with
a new strain of botrytis, cercospora and
black spot. Other than that...


I guess this hasn't been a good year for any of us! But we must look on the
brightside - I don't have JBs or deer!

We had a gorgeous show for about one week
that tickled the pride and made us forget about
the deer. In one single swoop they cleaned up
the entire beds on the East side and demolished
some once bloomers we were eagerly awaiting
to see. Since some of them were first time
bloomers in our garden and we are keeping
track of performance we had just counted some
of the buds in the newer plants. Some had as
many as thirty and yet they managed to eat
everything, and what they didn't munch
they just broke and left on the ground.


How awful! Especially the once bloomers you haven't even seen. I think I can
understand your hatred. They are beautiful creatures, but so very destructive.
I'm thankful I don't have them to with in this area.

I never thought I will hate any living creature.
I have found differently. Anyway, if what your
rose has is indeed bacterial gall there is little
or nothing you can do to save the plant. However,
that said I have been successful before by cutting
some of the galls with a very sharp Japanese saw
(like the kind used for bonsai) and then used a
brush to brush pure Clorox on the cut. If the
galls are superficial ( I mean not inside the root
system only ) you still can try to do that.

The soil indeed is infected with the bacteria,
but there are many ways to clean it including
replacing the actual soil and laying it fallow
but you don't need to wait five years. Some
of the info available is nearly ten years old
so take it with a grain of salt. In the old days
we used Gallex® but it was discontinued way
back in 1991. I guess it was just as bad as the
bacteria it was trying to get rid of.

Did I miss which rose it is except for being
a climber? How old is it? And why do you
think that cutting some of the galls is out of
the question? At any rate I hope you can
find a solution without having to worry about
the other roses...

I may not have said, it's Reve d'Or that's affected. It's been in the gound
three, maybe four years, and just this year has really started looking great.
It's planted at the base of a palm tree and has grown to the top and cascaded
down the sides. This year it has put on a non-stop show of blooms for the
first time.
I haven't looked at any roots to see if they are also involved, but I must
wonder. The rose still looks really good, but there are so many galls I can
see, I don't know how the roots could not be affected.
I don't think it would be worth even trying to cut out the galls. It would
involve removing several of the main canes very close to the ground. On these
canes the galls are too large and involve to much of the cane to cut out.
There wouldn't be enough cane left to support the growth above. And the work
it would entail to remove all the branches above would not be worthwhile. The
canes are wrapped around the tree, up thru the tree and mixed in with the palm
fronds. I'm sure this rose will more than fill one truck, at least two, maybe
three. It's large, very large. If I start cutting, it will all go. Too much
work, not worth the effort to *maybe* save the rose.
Will the bacteria travel thrugh the ground? Should the rose be removed to
prevent the spread of disese to the other roses? I assumed it was pretty
location specific, but I could be wrong. (Certainly won't be the first or
last time!) If it won't spread I'm going to leave it. Let it decline and then
start working on removal.

Julie