Officials say thousands of rosebushes in North Texas have been affected by a disease that leaves them with puckered leaves, deformed buds and thorn-covered stems.
Fort Worth Botanic Gardens senior horticulturist Steve Huddleston says rose rosette disease arrived in North Texas three years ago. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the disease has no cure and is spread by mites.
Gardeners at the Botanic Gardens have ripped up and replaced hundreds of diseased rosebushes in the Rose Garden. More than 5,400 rosebushes in medians and parks in suburban Southlake have been removed and replaced.
Dallas Arboretum vice president Dave Forehand says that rose rosette is an "epidemic," and that "North Texas is the epicenter."
The Associated Press provided this report.
