roses with witches broom?

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SGKentucky Hazard, KY May 31, 2014

I have a large climbing New Dawn rose which has suffered from something strongly resembling witches broom for 3 or 4 years now. I looked it up, and it seems to be an incurable virus infection, spread by mites. BUT: the 'infection', if that's what it really is, is very spotty, and the same cane can produce normal growth as well as distorted growth. I've tried cutting off the affected canes far back toward the base, and subsequent growth can be perfectly normal, then suddenly produce lots of new, distorted growth.

After a severe pruning last fall in an attempt to rid the plant of all affected canes, it has put out several new canes from the base - all appearing normal. But some of the canes left from last year are showing some distorted growth again. The plant is blooming profusely, as usual, by the way - though it never repeat bloomed since I first got it. Do I really need to destroy the plant, or is there some other possible cause for the symptoms? (I use a time-release combination fertilizer/fungicide/pesticide on all my roses, but this is the only one with this problem, and its mate on the other side of the gate, planted at the same time, seems fine.)

Does anyone else have any experience with this? Any ideas on what I can do?

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JasperDale Long Beach, CA(Zone 10a) Jun 01, 2014

It sounds like your rose has the dreaded Rose Rosette Disease.
From what I've read about it ( no actual hands on experience) it's a fatal malady.
Do some research via google and compare what you read with what is going on with your particular rose.

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