Not-so-rosy future
By Kathy Van Mullekom
Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
Carole and Wiley Waters are longtime rose growers who fear roses are unfairly getting a bad reputation.
“Roses have gotten a bad rap because of Rose Rosette Disease, but we have seen very little to none of it,” says Wiley of Yorktown, Va. “We hate to see people give up on growing roses.”
Rose Rosette Disease has been spreading through much of the wild rose population in the Midwestern, Southern and Eastern United States for years, according to research by Chuan Hong, a plant pathologist with Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Recently, it’s been confirmed in cultivated roses — Knock Out, Drift and Flower Carpet roses, to name a few popular types — in many states.
Even so, Wiley thinks roses still belong in the home garden.
Now a retired educator, Wiley Waters grew up with roses. Members of the Virginia Peninsula Rose Society, the couple cared for the rose garden at Huntington Park in Newport News, Va., for 10 years, and now have their own rose-care business — Waters Rose Care Service that helps homeowners with rose needs. Their own small yard is home to 82 roses — hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas, shrubs, climbers, miniatures and tree forms.
His favorite among all those is the hybrid tea Mister Lincoln, which has been around since 1965.
“The classic red blooms have an intense damask fragrance on strong long stems,” he says.
“When people see a rose, they automatically expect it to smell good, and this number one rose never disappoints that expectation.”
Mark Windham, a professor in the entomology and plant pathology department at the University of Tennessee, has done extensive research on Rose Rosette Disease, which he heard about in the early 1990s and now studies through a grant from the American Rose Society. He’s also rose advisor for the Beall Family Rose Garden at the University Tennessee Gardens in Knoxville.
“We live with Rose Rosette Disease every day,” he says of the garden’s 200 plants.
“We are constantly vigilant for symptomatic plants. Someone inspects each plant at least five days a week, and any rose that becomes symptomatic is immediately removed and destroyed. Roses next to the diseased rose are tagged and monitored the rest of the season. We lose four to eight plants each year to Rose Rosette Disease.”
Even though the short-term future for roses looks scary, Windham is confident the rose industry and researchers will eventually identify sources for breeding resistance into new cultivars. There are no known controls for the virus, he says.
“The key is constant vigilance for symptoms of the disease and not trying to ‘save’ any rose that is symptomatic.”