Allegra, Thanks for all the valuable information! The links you provided in
separtate posts to me and Dave both contain a lot of good information on galls.

Things are looking up tho. The back beds are almost
done and our friend Paul Barden has given me a couple
of gorgeous roses he has created to study which makes
my days all the more pleasant out in the garden..

If Paul's roses are half as good as his photos, you will have some beauties
there! Every time I visit his sight, I find more roses to put on my "wish
list." You'll have to keep up posted on how they perform and if any of them
are introduced. Your lucky to consider him a friend.

I agree with you about leaving the rose be. Once I heard
an old rosarian in Scotland say that when a rose "knows"
she is going to die she blooms to exhaustion and then she
goes. It may be the case with yours, and she may give you
a year or so of good blooms still. The problem with gall is
that eventually, literally it chokes the plant to death. It girdles
the canes till no auxin signals can be found anywhere within
the tissue and naturally the plant dies.

I've heard the same thing through the years and not just about roses. One
other thing I noticed on this rose this year, are the number of hips. Sure
it's had hips before, but nothing like this. I know there have been more
blooms, so there should be more hips, but it seems every bloom ends in a hip
now. And big nice ones they are too. It certainly fits with the old saying.
I guess we'll know soon enough if this is the last great stand. Whatever the
outcome I'm determined to enjoy the rose as long as it lasts.

Some people have found that Agri-strep or a copper
compound like Kocide can help if you can get rid of the
gall early enough, but in your case if it is so far gone
I will do what you are doing. That said, I will try and
clean the soil as much as possible where the rose is
planted. The bacteria has been known to have a life
span of two to four years, and if you do anything to
the rose, buy a cheap set of secateurs to do it with
and leave your normal pruners out of the mix.

The reason I am suggesting this is because the bacteria can be
transmitted when using contaminated pruners as a vector
to your healthy roses. I have found that having to continually
clean the Felcos with Clorox renders them dull and flat. I
assume it would do the same to any other tool.

That's a great idea! I already have an old pair I can use just for this rose.
They were my favorites for a long time, but finally could no longer be made
sharp enough for regular use. But since I liked them so well, I couldn't bear
to discard them. This will be a good final use for them. Perhaps when the
rose goes I can finally bury the pruners with it.

For that reason I am suggesting just in case you forget where
your pruners have been to get one and keep it by the palm
tree somewhere hidden there to use only with that rose.
What a pity! and what a waste...But you are wise not to
plant another rose there. In our group we had a discussion
not too long ago when I described getting our two New Dawns
back into the fence after the fence was re-stained and I compared
it with wrestling alligators in the nude. That was a couple of weeks
ago and I still have the scars to prove it!

I feel your pain! g And I have felt it more than once with this rose. It's
a good thing it's so beautiful and I'm so stubborn or it would never have
reached the top of the tree. Saying this rose has thorns is an understatement.
And all the long canes growing out every where only make the job worse. Maybe
the galls are the roses revenge, just when I thought it was under control, it
has to prove I am not the controller of the universe.

Will the bacteria travel through 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.

This has been a matter of discussion and/or dissent ever
since I started growing roses. There are those who swear
that it does, and others who swear that it doesn't.
That the transmission is only effected by manual vectoring.
I have a tendency to believe that it stays within a radius of
10 feet from the affected rose. Nothing scientific here, but
I dealt with a bad case years ago where a gorgeous Anna
de Diesbach got it badly. She sat rather regally in the middle
of that bed, and only the closest to her ended showing symptoms.
Both ends of the bed were clean, never a problem, nothing shown.

It may have been a fluke, but only four other roses began to
show the problem and so I ended cutting the galls, painting the
whole thing with Clorox and washing the roots (the galls were
only on the canes, none on the roots) uprooted every rose in
that bed, and disposed of the soil in a non-planting area after
dousing it consistently with Clorox six or seven times in one
week. I guess it was the cleanest, safest pile of dirt in the entire
West Coast for at least that week ;)

That's good news. After I decided to leave it alone, I did worry about the
spread. There isn't a rose within 10', the closest is maybe 15' away. And it
is one of the few remaining HTs, a good choice for the experiment. If it
galls, I wouldn't mind loosing this one much at all. But I will be watching
the other roses more closely.
I like your idea of "clean dirt." What would the neighbors think, when the
reply to "What are you doing?" is "Cleaning the dirt." g

Good luck my dear; I am sure your rose was a thing of beauty.
There is something so romantic and wild about a rose climbing
a tree! Our E. Veyrat Hermanos is now approaching the old
12 foot stump from the upper deck. Next summer I am sure it
will descend like a curtain of petals to our delight and that of
the hummingbirds that feed right next to it.

I will send you a photo when it happens, I promise.

Please do remember that photo. Your description of E. Veyrat Hermanos and the
photos I found put him on my wish list. A beautiful rose!

Thanks again for the all the advice and helpful suggestions.

Julie