Ann generously allowed me to reproduce her posts tome regarding my
incidence of Witches Broom. I thought that the group mightfind this
informative. I'll quote her intital reply to me verbatim and then, in
following posts, I'll break down her two additional replies into
easily digestible chucks, as my posts to her were a little rambling.

"Dave,
It is Rose Rosette. Full Stop.

These symptoms are not the same symptoms that are shared with
herbicide damage which include very skinny green leaves that are
almost fern like. Neem might burn, but doesn't cause major short cuts
in the DNA of the plant- to make those wretchedly distorted buds in
the second picture. I've had similar fall symptoms on a RRD china in
my garden and we use NO herbicides. SImilar symptoms also appeared on
some RRD chinas up in Staunton VA.

To try to save the plant: remove the sick growth and growth right next
to it. Take it down below soil level and take out the roots that
support that part of the plant. (A friend locally saved an own root
modern climber by taking a chain saw to the root and still has half a
healthy plant.)The other side of his roots kept putting up sickly
stems, but he has them isolated as he tries to dig all of them up.
Ron Johnson at Appalachian Rose in Tellico Plains does have CL. Old
Blush if you need to replace yours. I really like the rose and am so
sorry for yours. But, I thank you for sharing the pictures and I'm
going to ask if I may save them for use, with credit, in the future as
your symptoms are different from spring symptoms we saw on Cl. Old
Blush in Atlanta. The winter damage being worse is due to the virus
interfereing with the conversion of sugar to starch- which seems to
vary considerably from cultivar to cultivar. In West Virginia, a
species rose ( canina) survived eight winters with RRD".

Ann