Rose mosaic virus

Prunus necrotic ringspot & Apple mosaic viruses

Yellow zigzags, rings and watermarks on rose leaves that come with the plant and never leave it. Ugly, mildly weakening, and not going anywhere.

Virus Disfiguring Spread by contact Spreads to neighbors

What you'll see

Bright yellow wavy lines, zigzags, oak-leaf patterns or rings on the leaves, most obvious in spring.
Patterns fading in summer heat and returning on the autumn growth, which is characteristic.
Some cultivars showing a general yellow mottle rather than a pattern.
Slightly reduced vigor, fewer flowers and more winter dieback than a clean plant of the same cultivar.
One plant affected and its neighbors untouched year after year, because it does not spread in the garden.

Why it happens

A pair of viruses that spread only through grafting and propagation — bud wood taken from an infected mother plant onto a clean rootstock, or the reverse. There is no insect vector, it does not move on pruners in practice, and it does not travel through the soil. A rose with it was sold with it.

Entirely a matter of nursery stock. Older cultivars propagated for decades from infected mother blocks carry it widely; roses grown on their own roots from cuttings of clean plants do not have it at all.

Treating it

There is no cure. Decide whether the plant is worth keeping and then keep it or replace it.
Feed, water and mulch a plant you are keeping; good culture masks most of the loss of vigor.
Do not take cuttings or bud wood from an affected plant.
Prune normally; there is no need to disinfect between plants for this particular virus.
Replace with a virus-indexed plant of the same cultivar if the patterning bothers you.

Keeping it away

Buy from nurseries that sell virus-indexed roses, and ask — the good ones will tell you.
Prefer own-root roses, which sidestep the graft route entirely.
Inspect the leaves of a new rose in spring, when the pattern shows most clearly.
Do not propagate from a garden rose showing the pattern, however good the flower.
Accept it on an old established plant that flowers well; this is a cosmetic problem on a rose that is otherwise doing its job.

Who gets it

Roses. The same viruses affect stone fruit and apples, but they do not move between them in a garden.

Rose