I'm at a loss for words. I opened this because I have never experienced problems with gophers, and wondered what kind of damage they could do. Wow, I would never have thought it would be that horrible! I'm so very sorry for you!

oh man!!!

So Sorry! Our gopher seems to have mostly dug holes around and under the roses that caused some stress, but only two had to be moved and might not make it.

I am sorry to say that I have seen this many times.
Heartbreaking, isn't it???

At least own-root roses CAN be brought back. Budded ones -- I doubt it. This is why I HATE GOPHERS.

Jeri In Gopher-Land

I am so sorry about your beautiful Angel Face. She is one of my favorite roses, just exquisite. I lost my first Young Lycidas, barely a year old, earlier this season to a stinking gopher. He met the same awful fate as your Angel Face. There wasn't even a tiny thread holding him into the ground. Gophers are the lowest of the low. Go badgers, those great gopher hunters. Diane

OMG. That is horrid. Get some feral cats!

That's heartbreaking. Yours was probably the most beautiful Angel Face I've ever seen, and this is awful. I well remember when I was able to just lift up the whole bush of Duchesse de Brabant off the ground. I just recently removed Yves Piaget because two years after a gopher attack it still had not recovered. Naturally it was in a prominent spot near the front door. I loved its flowers when the bush was healthy but this year they were pitiful and wilted immediately. Gophers are a terrible nuisance and sometimes I feel such rage - then I have to tell myself they don't understand, but it doesn't help a whole let. Again, so sorry.

Ingrid

That's about the nicest Angel Face I've seen. Stupid gophers. Hate them.

Grrrr.
So sorry.
Renee

Oh, that's so awful! I'd be doing some big time gopher hunting if it were me.

Thanks for the sympathy/empathy. I was so proud going into my 3rd year of rose gardening with no rose losses. This is my 3rd rose loss to gophers in 2 weeks. I think they've just found my roses, I live in the country and we are completely overrun. It's a losing battle.

I set traps, haven't caught a single gopher in the traps. I set off bombs - 1/2 the time they burn out before going off. And I won't poison because it would kill me if one of my dogs got ahold of a poisoned gopher - that is the definitive reason on that one.

I bought a 3' x 50' roll of chicken wire mesh and it's sitting on the ground. I've dug up 3 roses (one - Ingrid Bergman only had a fraction of her roots left, and her survival looks tentative) and put in mesh and replanted. I plan to do that with about 15 that were new bareroots this year, and in the area where the other 3 were killed. It's tough in 100 degree heat - for the roses. It looks like a war zone here, with dying roses, and holes everywhere (me and dogs). I'm not sure what to do with my 2 & 3 year old roses - that's going to be a lot of digging, and a terrible amount of stress on the older roses in mid summer...

On the one hand I feel heartsick - I have put so much work and emotional commitment into my garden. On the other hand I try to do a reality check - they are flowers. They are replaceable. It's hard not to dwell on the former.

Hi Harmonyp - sorry to see that, but I have experienced this many time. What I do to save the rose is to stick the bush in a bucket of water...all the way up to the graft union. Keep in shade. You will have great leaf lost due to stress, but it will recover. In a couple of weeks pot it up but still keep it in the shade. Good luck.

Kasie

In the meantime, now that you see the tunnel, put down your traps.

Harmonyp, you might want to return the chicken wire and get real gopher wire. It is a slightly thicker gauge; otherwise they can chew through it. Also be sure it is 3/4"; gophers can go right through regular 1" chicken wire.

I have bought and used several hundred-foot rolls of 2' and 3' gopher wire over the last three years as I dig up all of the old rose (probably 150 when I started the project) and replant them in gopher wire, and plant everything new in baskets.

Last week I had to dig up a 6' dogwood tree, whose roots looked much like that Angel Face that started this thread. It's the pits, but it's either gopher baskets or "pave paradise and put up a parking lot"

Whoops, sorry, I went back and re-read your post more closely and see that you were already using what you called "chicken wire". I apologize.

I use the 3' when I dig up older mature roses, trees, etc. I have found that the 2' works fine for smaller plants (bands and gallons).

Three years ago we dug up two apple trees -- a Fuji and a Pink Lady -- that were both leaning over as a result of gopher damage. Both of them have huge crops of beautiful apples this year.

There is hope !! Lots of work, but ....worth it.

Wow - Call 911! I think my heart skipped a beat!
Then it sunk into my stomach!
And then I got a sickening stomach ache!

I'm so sorry!

I wonder if we have gophers here (Maryland) ? I've not heard it so far.

Miss Mary

Landlady - I bought Poultry Netting - 1" mesh, 20 gauge. Sounds like you are saying I need to go back and buy 3/4" and a heavier gauge. They really will chew / get through this? I better know now, because I just dug up and replanted two day, and now is the time for me to have the correct material.

Harmonyp, 20 gauge is good, but I think you will need the 3/4" openings rather than 1". The big fat grownups can't get through the 1", but it would be easy enough for them to send the young'uns in for lunch....

I use a square of the gopher wire for each basket, so a 100' roll will turn into 30 3' baskets. I use more of the 2' wire, though, which yields about 50 baskets from a 100' roll. These days everything -- except daylilies or things I really don't care about and am willing to risk -- gets planted in a basket

Knowledge is power, and I am so appreciative of this forum, as always. Ran back to the hardware store, they didn't have 3/4" so I bought 1/2" hardware cloth, 20 gauge. I like the 3' width - makes me feel like I'm giving the potential for lots of root length away from the gophers. Then I'll use up my remaining 1" - doubled up, so it doesn't go to waste.

With the small this-year's bareroots the effort goes pretty fast. About 15-20 minutes per rose. Thank you for your very kind words of support and sympathy - it really helps one go through the mourning period! Now I'm done licking my wounds - there's a solution, it's not hopeless.

And HA, I found a Belinda's Dream at the hardware store, and brought her home with me. Feels good to know that no gophers will be getting at her roots.

For any newbies starting to plant in known gopher territory - it's a lot easier to originally plant with wire, than to dig up later and replant with wire! If you don't know if you have gophers, go talk to any neighbors who have had gardens for a handful of years - they should know.

Wise words, Harmony!

Jeri-In-Gopher-Land

Two thoughts; Cat or Rat Terrier. Either will solve the issue.

Wow!!! I've never seen gopher damage before...looks like he made a chew toy out of your poor rose :(

Tammy

Not enough cats or terriers in the world to take care of our gopher problems, but Deja, the rat terrier next door, has done a bang-up job of chewing up the wires and hoses of truck engines trying to get to cornered ground squirrels. Deja is a cutie though, and they're not my trucks.

It's a lot of work planting roses in wire. I feel for you.

Renee

Planting the roses in the baskets isn't hard. Making the baskets is a bit too hard for my arthritic hands, so I have to pay someone else to make them.

Digging up old roses and putting them into baskets is hard; digging up and moving roses that have been put into baskets turns out to be easier than digging up roses that are not yet in baskets.

Watching tunnels appear around the perimeter of the baskets protecting roses makes it clear that the effort was worth it. And seeing a rose which has been languishing suddenly thrive a year after being dug up and replanted in a basket explains....a lot.

Don't throw this away! I've had this just as bad on my Pope John Paul, so have made hardware cloth baskets for almost everything EXCEPT roses. Moved him to a spot three years where they haven't mined and he has grown right back into full leaf and flower. Actually I moved him twice since being gnawed down and he took off both times. Good luck!

takcate1 - are you saying don't throw the nubben left of angel face away - and that I can get roots back? I didn't think that was possible. Is it?

I'm so sorry you have this problem. I'm so glad that I do not!! We do have gophers here, but in my yard I only have moles, and they don't eat the plants, thank heavens! They make messes, but they have never damaged any of my roses. I work at the local Ace Hardware store, and we sell a lot of 1/2" hardware cloth and aviary wire for gopher problems. Aviary wire, if you can find it, is 1/2" chicken wire. It's usually a little cheaper than hardware cloth. We just started carrying the plant cages again, and they sell out almost every week. I remember many yrs ago one of our customers told me she had planted a long bed of a couple hundred dollars worth of irises in the fall. Then in the spring, one day she was out looking at them, and suddenly they started moving. She watched in horror and disbelief, as one by one they disappeared as if they were just sucked down into the ground!

Good luck! I hope you can stop any further destruction!

Yes, Harmonyp, you may well be able to save that nub if the remaining roots are Angel Face's "own roots". (I know nothing about grafted roses, so someone else will have to answer you if that's what you have.)

I saved a JacTan that looked very similar. Put it in a pot, trim it way back, keep it damp and.....wait....

I'm on 2 acres and have gopher problem like you. So this is not new to me. I have thrown away quiet a few rose bushes in the past, but not any more. Like I've already suggested, use the trap, it works.

Your rose appears to be grafted and yes it can be saved. You can do as landlady suggested or you can sink the bush in a bucket of water to keep it from dehydrating and keep it in a shaded area. In time the root stock will begin to form roots. You can then plant in pot or back into the ground. If this is a rose that can be had locally and not worth the time then toss it, but if it's one of those hard to find and you must order on line...then perhaps it may be worth trying to save it. Good luck to you Harmony.

Kasie

Kasie - I've tried the traps. I bought 2, and have set them each about 20x. Not one single gopher. I have found the "giant destroyer" brand bombs that seemed to be working, so I'm not giving up on gassing. The putzy red and black ones they've been stocking at HD and Lowes have been useless - I end up digging them up, un detonated.

If (when...sigh...) this happens again, I will try to see if I can get rootstock to again produce roots - mostly as an experiment. I've tossed 2 of my losses: Angel Face - WILL replace, Tantalizing Red - will not replace, then Pink Peace had some tiny straggling roots left, and I chopped her down to about the relative size of her remaining roots leaving all the low leaves I could, and replanted her and am soaking her daily. She isn't dead yet...

Caged 3 more roses last night after coming home from work - Bolero (missing all but a few feeder roots), Young Lycidas (whoppee - roots intact), and Intrigue (most roots intact). That now makes a total of 8 now caged. Just about 70 something to go. It's a good start. !

Harmony - PJP came back the first time, did well, so don't see why your grafted Angel won't do same. Maybe try in pail first before transplanting to gopher-free area. If in doubt they have gotten their visa for more traveling, get some 1/4" hardware cloth. Make sure it's tall enough, maybe 2 feet deep and extend above ground about 1". Good luck!

Angel Face has been sitting in the air above ground since the 12th, looking dead as a doornail. I leave her by my front door to motivate me to keep the momentum up to build cages. I can't in my wildest dreams imagine sticking her in water will bring her back to life. She was a $7 body bag, and will be replaced next winter with same. This is definitely a time where I'm glad 80% of my roses have been cheapies!!! 11 roses now caged and protected - just barely got to Elle in time.

Gophers on my property have a visa to every %*(@)*@$ spot. I think they've been working on their tunnels for months, and have now decided they live in an "all you can eat" rose & dahlia buffet.