Rose Rosette Disease (RRD) is a devastating disease of roses that causes abnormal growth of plant tissue, including witches’ broom, excessive thorns, enlarged canes, and malformed leaves and flowers. RRD has been reported since the early 1940s but only in 2011 did research demonstrate its cause was the virus Emaravirus rosae, aptly named the Rose Rosette Virus (RRV). In 2014, the USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative program granted funding to research this disease with the goal of developing roses resistant to RRD. In 2022, the Sustainable Roses project was initiated with a long-term goal to develop sustainable rose landscapes based on cultivars resistant to Rose Rosette and rose black spot diseases.