Incurable plant disease threatens U.S. rose business

American-grown roses are becoming a bit less rosy, with the spread of an incurable virus that’s causing major damage to the nation’s $250-million-a-year rose business.

Background

A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing or trailing with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds.

Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and north-western Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant.

The US flower and ornamental plant market was valued at wholesale by USDA at USD $4.3bn in 2015, showing a 4% increase on year on year basis. California is the leading state followed by Florida (together they comprise 49% of the industry). Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio follow in importance. These 5 sates take up 69% of the total.

Analysis

U.S. rose bush producers account for the bulk of that business and face a growing challenge from rose rosette disease, which can kill roses within three years. Its many symptoms include super-thorny stems and clusters of stems called rosettes or witches’ brooms.

One producer spent $1 million getting rid of rose rosette disease and some smaller nurseries have had to destroy 10,000 plants, said Dr. David Byrne of Texas A&M University, leader of a $4.6 million multistate project to study the virus and the mite that spreads it, and to find resistant rose varieties.

“It moves really easily and it’s hard to detect initially. … That’s really scary for someone in production,” Byrne said. “If it gets in their pots in their production areas, they’ve got to eliminate thousands of plants. Even then they don’t know if they’ve got rid of it.” He also said, “I think we’re seeing it in more areas now than 10 years ago.”

The virus, spread by wind-blown mites about half the length of a grain of salt, has been found in at least 30 states. In Texas, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden had to replace its entire rose collection. The virus recently was found to have spread in northwest Louisiana, including the home city of the American Rose Society and its gardens — the largest U.S. park devoted to the national flower.

Rose rosette has been known since the early 1940s — and was once hailed as a possible way to eradicate an invasive plant.

The disease was first identified on wild multiflora roses in California, the Rocky Mountains and Manitoba, Canada. In the 1990s and even the early 2000s, scientists considered it a possible way to control those invasive plants. It became recognized as a problem for cultivated roses only in the last decade or so, Byrne said.

It’s the latest blow to the business. South American competition forced most U.S. growers out of the cut flower market over the past several decades. That market has withered from $200 million in 1990 to $22 million in 2015.

This virus threatens the rose bush business, valued at more than $200 million in 2015. It appears to be a growing issue as more and more cultivated roses are used in landscapes, according to a website created by a coalition of rose producers and scientists.

In Louisiana, where rose rosette disease was first detected in 2015, it’s spreading at an alarming rate in commercial and residential plantings.

The centre’s 40 acres (16.2 hectares) with rose gardens are free of the disease so far, said the society’s executive director, Laura Seabaugh.

Unless an infected bush is removed, experts say, mites will spread the virus throughout a garden and beyond.

Assessment

Our assessment is that the US Department of Agriculture will issue a handbook for the careful removal and disposal of infected rose bushes. Rose exports represent a significant market for American farmers and it is valued at $250million. We believe that the there will be a temporary spike in the wholesale price of Roses while the USDA helps in eradicating the mites. We also feel that the US may look to import more roses from Ethiopia and India to temporarily cover the supply gap.