Knockout Roses Down for the Count

Here on the farm, Knockout Roses are front and center.  Both our fenced flower garden and the vegetable garden are full of them.  Both entrances have them too.  Many of them are 5 to 6 feet tall.  They have been beautiful...

until now.

The dreaded disease Rose Rosette, aptly called Witch's Broom, has taken hold.  When this happens, there is no treatment and no hope.  {sigh!}

Knockouts are dying all over the place and ours have not been spared.

The symptoms first show as heavily budded shoots that are reddish brown in color.  The flowers don't open all the way but are still pretty.  If you look closely however, (and this is the tell-tale sign) the stems are thick with tiny thorns.  Trust me they are wicked!

This started last summer and went by mostly unnoticed.

This year however, those large very thorny branches died leaving them like this...

and then this...

Looks like something a goolish witch in a fairy tale might sweep with, doesn't it?

The only treatment is to remove them completely, stumps and all, and not replant because the dreaded disease is in the roots.

So this winter, we will remove them from the farm ~ all 28 of them. :(

Psalm 1:1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked...