Looks, like we definitely need a thread for this one (FAQ) since there are not a lot of information out there for Mosaic Virus on desert roses. Too bad i don't know who can make this a sticky topic.

IMPORTANT : If you found this article, chances are you suspect that your desert rose has the mosaic virus. This thread is not scientific and it is just for discussion purposes, and not a professional recommendation. The only way to find out if your desert rose has mosaic virus is to get your desert rose tested. Important to emphasize that "There is no cure for Mosaic Virus at this time. No proof aspirin or any home remedies will cure it. To be safe, if your desert rose has symptoms of mosaic virus, get rid of it (throw in trash including entire pot). Wash hands thoroughly and disinfect all tools to avoid spread of the virus."

Here is a picture courtesy of one of the member of NGA of her desert rose with
Mosaic Virus, link to the original FAQ The thread "Question about mosaic disease, desert rose." in Adeniums forum


I just read an article that a lot of Imported grafted desert roses are infected by "mosaic virus" (Yikes! Most of my new purchases are "grafted".) Then another garden website members said their local nursery where they buy most of their desert roses had mosaic virus outbreak.

Then another article they found mosaic virus on two desert roses in FL nurseries. (Yikes!) Hope my grafted desert roses don't have any.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go...

So far I wasn't aware of any mosaic virus on mine (at least I didn't notice any discoloration On the leaves on any but they have curling of leaves) but I did separate two and pruned two to see if the curling of leaves and deformed buds are just nutritional deficiencies. Here are what they look like today:



I used separate clean paring knife to trim each one. Wash my hands with soap and water after each plant. Discarded the cuttings because they were too young (still green) to grow plus just in case they were not healthy, I didn't want to keep them.

Here is what they looked like when I purchased them. I didn't see any discoloration on the leaves just curling of the leaves. The second type, I think the variety has a natural curl on the leaves. I applied Agro-Thrive and they seemed to have recovered but the leaves are slow growing:



(p.S. I was told by the employee the above desert roses were just stressed but should be fine.)

The buds opened up on the first one but not too healthy looking/poor quality:

The second one the buds keep aborting. Hence the reason for the pruning to see if new growths are healthier. I will keep everyone posted.

This one keeps dropping all leaves and blooming but otherwise my friend said, this is just adjusting to my "late season" repotting. (Keeping my fingers crossed that is the only reason. But hoping she is right!)

I found 2 articles here that discussed mosaic virus but no continuity what happened next, did the vendor:seller refund their money? Did the virus spread to other collections? More questions than answers.

The thread "Question about mosaic disease, desert rose." in Adeniums forum

And this one:
The thread "Curling, marbled leaves" in Adeniums forum

My hope is with this thread, we the buyers, can be aware of the reality of this virus that is more harmful than a root rot and pests since it could affect our entire collection and we could lose our hard earned money plus the time we spent taking care of these beautiful desert roses.

I will not be happy if I brought a mosaic virus desert rose into my garden and have to discard all my plants and pots! Good thing there is a 1 year guarantee on my desert roses in my local big box store!

P.S. if you bought one let us not bash the vendor but maybe just for us buyers to be more careful. Buy from the ones that will refund your money in the event there are issues.

Mosaic Virus

Look for several or combination of symptoms on one plant ....one symptom alone isn't always mosaic virus

symptoms will vary from plant to plant / species to species ....

house plants can infect yard/garden plants ...yard/garden plants can infect house plants ....Insects, pets & you can spread the virus

- symptoms -

leaves with mottled, mosaic or streaks of green & yellow colors (and sometimes white)
+
plants with stunted growth
+
plants with deformities
+
curled, crinkled or wavy leaves
+
Pronounced yellowing in leaf veins

if your plant exhibits 3 or more symptoms - Mosaic Virus is present

There are no cures or remedies - Destroy infected plants ASAP ... do not put infected plants or potting medium in the mulch pile ...wash hands, tools & clothes ....Considering tossing the pot

for this additional info! Don't have pets but definitely trying to let the bees 🐝 cross pollinate my desert roses.

Good article to read although it doesn't specifically state desert roses. Hope this helps...
https://plantophiles.com/plant...

Seeds can be infected too.

Best advice is to buy from a reputable source, and of course that has a good return policy.

Happy growing desert roses without mosaic virus!

I have a lot of flower deformed, some wrinkled leaves, some color changing leaves also... Too worry to validate them

I have two that I suspect have the virus. Of course they are two of my favorites. Grand old cultivars from Asia. One is named Chandra. It's gorgeous.
James is right. I should kill them, but I haven't.

I used to grow Cattleya orchids and many of the old varieties where infected. If you are careful with your tools and physically separate the plants they will grow (poorly) without infecting your collection. One infestation of insects can spread the virus like wild fire. It's a bad deal.

Good idea to create this thread.
Even I have been googling for mosaic virus for past couple of weeks. Saw so many videos too. It's so confusing. I searched like crazy on youtube if I could find any single video on music virus if at all any Indian youtuber has created. I didn't find any video . Being positive may be due to the climate here my adeniums may not get affected. people here have created videos on all aspects of adeniums but not virus. They might be aware of the virus but don't know why they have not created any video.
I saw one video where the guy was showing different types of leaves of adeniums. Plain, flat, curled from the edge setc. All those leaves looked normal to me. I was trying to figure out if i can see any leaf with yellow stripes. Didn't find any.

Saw one video..
Few takeaways regrading virus though iam a newbie and not expert..😊

1) yellow/white streaks
2) yellow patches in between the veins
3) New leaves will be small as compared to older ones
4) There will be yellow spot and brown spot on this yellow spot.

The lady had monstera and she was telling about her plants, how in a month when she kept all plants in a room because of winters, virus spread to others as well. I don't know whether this is true about adeniums also.

I wish I knew about mosaic virus too before I bought too many desert roses. I can't afford to have any virus that could spread to my plumeria collection, which I've grown for years from seeds, with no issues. I have them in separate locations though but bees or bugs can go everywhere.

That's why I created this thread because it seems to me that there is not a lot of information out there or pictures to create awareness of this mosaic virus on desert roses. Hopefully by sharing information, we can warn others as well.

I feel a little bit of comfort that all my grafted ones came from my local big box store and hopefully, their vendors will not be sending sick plants to them. I don't buy plants online. I have to see plants to buy them.

The problem I think is to be sure that your plants have the virus, they need to be tested. Or like James said and the above articles, if you have 3 or more symptoms on your desert rose or other plants, then air on the side that your plants may have the virus.

Some adeniums have normally curly leaves and deformities on blooms could be a number of reasons. So there could be a nutritional deficiency on your adeniums. Isolate the plant if unsure and treat for nutritional deficiencies. However, if you add leaf discoloration to it, then higher likelihood that your plant/desert rose has mosaic virus and not just nutritional deficiencies.

@Kaktus are you seeing them on your grafted desert roses only? Do you buy your desert roses in local nurseries or online or both? In a different garden website, the members' discussions, (which were over 2 years old) indicated they got their infected desert roses from a reputable local nursery. When they visited the nursery again most of the desert roses were infected with mosaic virus.

@2ManyPlants, good thing you are aware what symptoms to look for and at least keep yours isolated and it has not spread to your other collection.

I am watching 2 mostly because the plants seem to be stressed (has not really produced desirable blooms) compared to others. I have 1 I isolated from the start (curly leaves with long droopy stems and deformed blooms) but no leaf discoloration. The second one has naturally curly leaves but the buds keep falling off. I isolated them thinking they might have bugs that I could not see.

Some discoloration could be spider mites infestation too. But close inspection you can see little holes on the plants leaves.

I'm watching my very first adenium right now that new adult leaves seem to be growing normal but light green not dark green like others but uniform color and no curling. Blooms are normal too and seem healthy blooms.

Then the seedling that I did experimentation with grafting different scions I isolated this morning because new leaves are turning reddish color. Not sure if it is because I tried to graft different colors on its multi-Branch and it is now upset with me.

Has anyone tried or read about using "aspirin" to help boost plants health to fight diseases and viruses? I am thinking of using baby aspirin on my isolated desert roses but in small dilution.

I use them for my cut roses so they stay fresh longer.

After reading all those information, I somehow become less worry, I believe something in the plant / nature will somehow cure it automatically.
If like the information, can spread from insects, tools , pots, human , basically anything can spread the virus, then it is more severe than covid, they will spread into the whole world in no time. Since nothing we can do to prevent it, then we just need to live side by side with it.

All my Adeniums are physically purchased from roadside vendors, but never purchased any new Adeniums for almost 2 years. But almost every 2 weeks I have additional plants purchased online from the whole country. Now I have 300 to 400 succulents including Adeniums at home.

Kaktus said:After reading all those information, I somehow become less worry, I believe something in the plant / nature will somehow cure it automatically.
If like the information, can spread from insects, tools , pots, human , basically anything can spread the virus, then it is more severe than covid, they will spread into the whole world in no time. Since nothing we can do to prevent it, then we just need to live side by side with it.

All my Adeniums are physically purchased from roadside vendors, but never purchased any new Adeniums for almost 2 years. But almost every 2 weeks I have additional plants purchased online from the whole country. Now I have 300 to 400 succulents including Adeniums at home.

Oh wow that is like a full time job now.

I have read that sometimes because of good nutrition and sunlight the effect of the virus reduces. May be mother Nature giving a helping hand.

GigiPlumeria said:

Oh wow that is like a full time job now.

Hahaha, I am very good in finding excuses to reward myself with succulents, but this 2021 has received too many rewards. I got my latest succulents because I managed to " DO NOTHING"

I searched online and some pictures of arabicum and some grafted plants for sale clearly show pictures with curling leaves and some green streaks or lines on leaves but no label that these are variegated. I can only hope that those are healthy plants.

2ManyPlants said:I have two that I suspect have the virus. Of course they are two of my favorites. Grand old cultivars from Asia. One is named Chandra. It's gorgeous.
James is right. I should kill them, but I haven't.

I used to grow Cattleya orchids and many of the old varieties where infected. If you are careful with your tools and physically separate the plants they will grow (poorly) without infecting your collection. One infestation of insects can spread the virus like wild fire. It's a bad deal.

@2Manyplants this new bloom just opened it is similar to your "Chandra"



I bought this one primarily because it is grafted to a scion with a huge caudex.

GigiPlumeria said:
@2Manyplants this new bloom just opened it is similar to your "Chandra"



I bought this one primarily because it is grafted to a scion with a huge caudex.

Very pretty color and flower
Chandra means Moon

Oh, then it should be yellow or orange

Maybe online search has it wrong.