No, I have always found some evidence even when wabbits ate them....

I've had two different instances where a rose bush wass found, rootless, away from where it was growing. Both times there were vole tunnels, where the little blighters had eaten all of the roots and turned the tops into 'footloose tumble weeds'. We've had lots of foxes in the yard this winter, so I'm hoping they've kept the vole population under control. Now if I could just get the deer out of the garden!

It's so ironic that DIGGERdave doesn't have voles and moles.
Similar to Jim, I've gone out in spring and not been able to find a rose. Voles are often the reason. I've had some dead ones that pull out way too easily and on the base of the pulled out part, there are the teeth marks of voles. Even worse is a dastardly duo of voles + rabbits. Voles do in the bigger roots and what's left of the rose, in desparation puts up one or more delicate stems (that are all there is energy for, instead of full fledged canes) only to have rabbits come by and take those stems off.

Any chance it was theft?
I had a garage sale years ago and a lady who stopped by wanted me to dig up one of the roses in my front yard and sell it to her. I was aghast and of course said no. It never went missing, but I've heard of other people who have gotten plants taken even if they were growing in the ground instead of containers.

I have known people who have had blooms stolen from their gardens.
We live on a rather obscure little dead-end lane, but we were nonetheless
plagued for a while by someone who cut roses in the night.
That stopped when DH got up early to run a dog, and caught the thief red-handed.
We've had several roses stolen from the local municipal rose garden. That amazes me.

Jeri

One day I had a rose growing in a particular spot and if memory serves me right it was about 4'tall. The next morning I looked out and the whole bush was gone. I went outside down to where it was and found one leaflet lying next to the hole in the ground. It wasn't dug up either, just where the canes had been, were no longer. I had this image in my mind from the cartoons where the critters drag the hole plant down through the hole. I had a rail fence near by, the top didn't go anywhere it simply was gone.

I had planted star jasmine started in front of a retaining wall, about 6 plants one gal size, one day they were there and the next they were gone. My house was a steep drive and the cabins around me were lower on the level with this bed. The cabin across the street had a door about 30 feet from my wall and I even asked them if they saw someone steal the plants. The neighbor hadn't seen anyone, person or animal. I planted another bunch, same thing. I gave up and switched to periwinkle, no one bothered that:) Apparently the critters taste didn't run to that plant.

Then I got my cats and never had another occurrence:)

Now here in town my subdivision entrance had about 30 Sunsprites planted at each entrance. Someone came through during the night and ripped all but 3 away. Didn't do a careful job of it. I guess someone really wanted those roses, it was spring and they had just been pruned. I had images of them at a flea market for sale.

YES, ME TOO!

Last year I planted a nice cottage rose and fussed over it for a week or so then one morning...Poof...the whole thing was gone. No hole where it had been ripped out, no leaves on the ground, no roots left in the soil just smooth dirt.

Never did figure that one out.

Also one time the same thing happened to some sage I had growing, blammed that one on the deer or moose.

Yes, people do steal flowers. Once when I was getting a ride home from the driver of our local car dealership because they had my car for the day. The driver spotted my neighbor's bed of flowers next to the road in front of her stone wall. The driver made the comment "I'll have to remember to tell my wife those are there, she LOVES to dig flowers along the road side." I told him good luck to her and I hope she doesn't get caught! because that old girl is a dead-on shot with her shot gun... I also asked him what made him think it was ok to steal someone's flowers? His reply was they are growing along the side of the road. MY answer to him was yes, they are, but that property and flowers belong to someone other than him and his wife. He just couldn't get it. I also told him all he had to do was stop at the woman's house and ask her about the flowers, I KNOW she would be happy to share.

Sure enough 2 days later ALL her iris, coneflower and day lilies were gone, nothing left but shovel marks in the dirt! Can't imagine what happened to those...and don't you think I didn't tell her about the conversation. I did bring her down some of mine and we replanted them and put up a sign, THANKS for not stealing the silverware while you were stealing my flowers...

-Karyn

I had several pots of roses disappear from my yard. I put it down to theft.

When my roses are eaten to the ground by the wascally wabbits, I usually find evidence, like Digger.

So sorry for the loss of your flowers.

No I haven't lost a rose yet. The few that have died always have a couple old black canes sticking up out of the ground to remind me of all the work I did amending the soil and digging to plant it in that spot.

I had a one-time problem with voles eating some dahlia roots but so far they have left my roses alone. No rabbits here, or deer, thank goodness.

No, but I did have $75 tree peony that has came up missing this pre-spring. I have either forgot where it is planted or something ate it. It makes me sick.

I have. Thought I was going out of my mind. Turned out the neighbor's property line was not where I thought it was- totally my fault and his "service" mowed all my babies away. One Honorine de Brabant survives. My neighbor alerted his crew to just leave it alone. His wife likes the flowers!

Trish

In cases of theft, I just don't understand where people come off thinking they have a right to something that belongs to someone else, just because they want it. It makes me extremely angry.

Sandy

My Aunt came home once from a vacation to find several plant dug out of her yard. Not just in front but in back too! She was heart sick as some of them had come from her mothers garden and were not replaceable.

I haven't had a problem but I do worry sometimes. A lot of mine are in pots and since we don't have a fence are visible from the street. We are on a main road that is very well traveled and lit and we also have our own security lights but even so with the way people are now days I doubt they'd do anything even if they saw people walking off with the pots. No one wants to "get involved" anymore. What a sad state of affairs. There's just no respect for anyone or anything now days.

My girlfriend's neighbor's wife --- got it -- dug up a bunch of her plants one day and just put them in her own yard. Turns out, the wife was bipolar and thought the plants were hers. My girlfriend actually called the police to report a theft and when the cops looked into the neighbor's yard, they found all of her plants. I had a beautiful clematis disappear two years ago. All that was left was a hole, where the plant used to be. We have a ton of voles, so I'm sure that's what it was.

Oh Russell, that would make me sick too. I hope it turns up. Is it possible the stalk could have broken from the weight of snow or something else? I planted several tree peonies from J&P last year, and each one grew only about 10" tall, single stalk. So far I can still see them, but could see how easily the stems could break and there'd be nothing. I think they will grow back if cut down, but you'd have to watch for the graft taking over?

Yes, I've had both blooms taken and, thanfully only once--a potted miniflora; right before mother's day, too. What a lovely sentiment for Mom! "Ma, I love you so much, here's a stolen plant as a token of my appreciation for HOW WELL YOU RAISED ME! I've never had a plant stolen out of the ground, but as for varmints, I have had a number of cats lie on top of young plants and break their canes and new basal growth. It aggravates me for sure, but it's never killed the whole plant. I eventually started sticking little verticle jagged bamboo sticks into the soil in the tops of the pots to discourage them. That seems to "mostly" work. What I haven't figured out is how to keep squirrels from diggin holes in the soil. Any suggestions?

Since for the past 8-9 years, I've grown all my roses in pots, after the Mother's Day theft, I started running coated steal cables through holes I've drilled in the pots and connecting all the pots. So someone will either have to plan ahead and bring fairly specialized tools to cut the cables, or break the pots apart and try to carry off the plans sans pot, or bring 3 dozen friends to help them carry all the pots off together, since I lashed the whole garden together, pretty much. That may sound weird, but the way I've arranged it the cables aren't terribly apparent until you try to pick up an individual pot. the cables remain mostly covered in mulch. I know, a determined thief could find a way, but I figure most of the thefts are crimes of convenience (I hope).
what's also quite aggravating is people "tearing" rose stems off the bushes, not even bothering to cut them cleanly. I don't mind sharing occasional blooms if people ask, but how thoughtless to damage the whole plant just because you want a pretty flower for a couple days.

Mostly I have to count my blessings, though, since I have to grow my roses right out in front where passers by have easy access; that's the only part of my yard with full sun. I'm surprised I've had only 1 plant taken. And the stolen blooms are only a very occasional occurrance.

I haven't had a whole rose plant do the disappearing act on me yet. Yes, I have had a few who do not show up come spring. But I usually find evidence of their previous existence - a little shoot of Dr. Huey poking out, a dead stump here and there. But...

One day, in early June, about 4-5 years ago, I found all my roses and other flowers in my front yet neatly deadheaded - prematurely! I had just proundly inspected those promising flower buds the previous day. That fateful day, in June, they were all pruned off. All the prunings were heaped neatly in little piles, at the foot of their plants of origin. It had all the hallmarks of the handiwork of someone who knows gardening, judging by the position of the cuts, etc. And the perpetrator took extraordinary efforts - he/she would have to know when the family goes to bed, the nuances of our dog, etc, and it definitely happened in the middle of the night - most likely in the wee hours of the night.

A jealous gardener, do you think? It was also particularly hard to take because it happened 3 weeks before our big rose show. Coincidence, I hope!

My mother died in 1987, and within 24 hours of her dying, her whole yard had been raided. It looked like a war zone, where people had just come and dug up whatever they wanted.
My sister now lives in a good sized village, and it's the running joke of her neighborhood that you have to plant your "good stuff" behind your fences..it has long been known that a very elderly( 90's ) lady goes around at night and just takes what she wants! No one has turned her in, I guess they all feel bad turning in someone that old. Like a previous poster had said..if she just asked..mosted gardeners are very generous people, especially my mother. It was awful to see a lifetime of work reduced to holes everywhere. Donna

Donna, I'm sorry about what happened in your Mother's garden. That's so sad. People can become like vultures when they figure there's something free to be had. It's a shame they couldn't have shown a little more respect.
Judith

I haven't had problems with people in my rural neighborhood stealing my plants, but what really gripes me is when they walk their dogs and think nothing of letting them do their business around my rose bushes by the mail box and then just nonchantly stroll away. There's only me and my neighbor who even bother to plant perennials and roses (others are lucky to even mow) and a couple people think we plant just so their dogs have somewhere to fertilize. And if it's not the dogs, it's the neighbor's kid emptying his beer cans out of his car and into my hostas and hydrangeas when he comes home at night so his parents' won't find them.

When I was a kid, I got in trouble at home for even walking across someone else's yard without permission.
-t