I'm so sorry about the loss of your rose. The very same thing happened to me some years ago with Duchesse de Brabant. It's very disconcerting to be able to pick up a whole rose bush that was solidly connected to the ground a short while ago. Fortunately where I live now the gopher problem isn't nearly as severe and we've been able to control them with gopher bait. We did lose half of Julia Child and it took a while for her to recover but at least she's still with us.

I'm afraid you've been remiss in your duty to us when you said you had ordered roses and did not say what they were. You should know by now that we're hopelessly nosy about what everyone is putting into their garden. You will however be given a second chance.

Ingrid

A few years back, gopher activity declined here -- and we thought we could put roses into the ground directly.

So we did, and everything was fine for a while.
But construction on neighboring properties seemed to drive hordes of gophers our way, and last spring they hit Lady Ann Kidwell, Leonie Lamesch and a couple of other things.

Those first two survived, but have been in decline ever since.
They got two Jeri Jennings, but we managed to save both of those.
They got a beautiful found Orleans Rose. That's a goner.

It's very depressing.

Jeri

I remember standing around kibitzing with my neighbors about gophers. One had just moved in and I had seen the ground undulate as he sucked one under. I went and got the hose, our soil is only 18 inches before you hit the landfill which is rock hard.I stuffed the hose into the animals hole and ran the water, waiting grimly shovel in hand. It was an El Nino year so the water was not a problem. It took about 20 minutes before a small drunken figure emerged from the burrow, staggering. Ireturned him to his ancestors and have not missed him nor his partner who came looking a few days later. They have not returned and it has been several years and I have never regretted it. When something matters to you, you take care of it. Good job on the fruit and vegetables, Paula. One aside, I have my 5th Gertrude Jeykyll. They all went their separate ways, I just can't do without that scent.
{{gwi:269339}}
In memoriam

Tradescant is gone now, too. I harvested cuttings but I may have found it a bit too late. I've been hydrating them in water but they still look desiccated.

Between the two dogs romping through the gardens (rough on small plants) and the gophers eating roots from underground (rough on everything), my garden looks pretty desolate these days. It is a discouraging time for me.
Just right now, I'm taking little pleasure in my garden.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly - sorry you are feeling discouraged right now. Gophers are sooo hard to get rid of and can do much damage. My cats, I think, help contol mine.

Hope you feel better seeing your winter vegetable garden growing, and when you new baby roses arrive.

"Many of my older plantings are completely vulnerable. I took cuttings, soaked them in water to rehydrate, and planted them in a pot in the ground to see if I can root them."

I mentioned this once elsewhere, but will mention it again as it goes contrary to what one would think and might be a vluable lesson to someone else...

The same thing happened to me over the winter, Rosefolly, Falstaf starting dying back and, not knowing any better, I thought it might be winter damage...until it dawned on me that dieback was continuing as it warmed up! Touched it and the whole bush came up in my hand! !#$%!#$%

What to do? Well, procrastination is always the first thing on my list, so I cut all the dead branches off and put the base in in a bucket with enough water to cover most of the crown. Now, bear in mind, the crown was about 4-5" wide and there was but *one* stringy little root, the rest was chiseled off.

Seque to about a month later when I got serious about cutting shoots off for starts (what's the hurry when the branches were still green, eh?). Sooo, I cut off all I thought that I could start and pulled the base out to toss it. Low and behold, the chiseled bottom of the crown was sporting a handful of little white roots about 3-4" long. Good thing! I put it in the ground and it is making a come back while all my shoots got black and died.

my sympathies Rosefolly

Pacifica is also gopher central. my beautiful Rose de Rescht which had just reached her prime was planted in a wine barrel. the bottom must have rotted because the gophers got in and killed her.

Just got some 15gal squat pots for new plantings.

Diane

Lagomorphmom, I have had some of the same experience. I have had cuttings fail and cuttings succeed. I have had severed plants dry up and die, and have had them come back. I never know how they will turn out, so it is good to try both.

Diane, as for planting in squats, I have done that with some blueberry bushes so that I could control the pH better. It does work. But to really be safe I'd need to plant everything -- perennials, bulbs, roses, trees, shrubs -- in pots in the ground. It would take hundreds, and would not be the look I had in mind. I just bought some gopher traps. It's time to get firm with the wildlife.

Sorry to hear about your Rose de Rescht.

Rosefolly

No gophers here, just armadillos rooting through my garden. So far he/she doesn't eat the roses.

Good luck getting rid of gophers, much like trying to bale the ocean. From all the hills I see in my garden, it's gonna be a bad winter for them.
As much of a culprit here are the voles that travel the mole highways.

You might try gopher traps. We bought the heavy duty stainless steel ones after unsuccessfully trying a hose down the hole and poisen pellets and were rewarded with two gophers in two days. It's a little gruesome but effective and better than just standing by and watching the damage they do to the yard.

Maria

Maria, we have a trapping service, but they just come once a month. I have purchased gopher traps of my own and plan to take over. I think we need regular trapping, maybe even every day in the beginning. We're getting ready to plant native grass seed in the areas between garden beds, so that may be a nice transition time for their traps to go and mine to take over.

We also bought a barn owl box. We're going to put it up in a tall pine tree. We have been told that barn owls eat a lot of gophers, so if one will come and make his home with us, and perhaps bring his wife and have lots of baby barn owls, that will help. There is also a gopher snake somewhere on the property. My husband saw him once last year, but he doesn't seem to be very hungry. We still have plenty of gophers.

Rosefolly