Tag Archives: rose rosette

Upcoming webinars on garden and pest control topics

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Dr. Mengmeng Gu is Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in Horticulture at Texas A&M University and is producing a series of webinars this spring on topics for both professional and amateur gardeners.  I think some of these will be of interest to many of the subscribers to Insect Updates. According to Gu, the seminars are “designed to be no longer than 30 minutes and give you a quick insight look at some of the progress, issues, and problems that we are facing today in the green industry.”  Earlier this… Read More →

New information on rose rosette

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Last July I posted a story about rose rosette disease, which seemed to be on the rise during the summer.  A recent update to the scientific understanding has been posted by Oklahoma State University that supports the theory that RR is a virus-caused disease and preserves the notion that eriophyiid mites may be a prime force behind disease spread. I’m not enough of a virologist to judge the strength of the research, but the story provides a little bit of insight into how scientific knowledge advances.  New knowledge… Read More →

Rose rosette disease transmitted by a mite

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This weekend I regretfully cut down two rose bushes on the side of my home.  Within a relatively short period of time they had begun to show symptoms of rose rosette, a fatal virus disease of roses. I had never heard of rose rosette until a recent sample arrived from the Denton County Extension office.  Horticulture agent Janet Laminack wanted to know if the sample was rose rosette.  The symptoms seen on these rose cuttings, I learned, were classic: excessive thorn production, leaf distortion and excessive branch development,… Read More →