Shasta daisy (many and various varieties) has never liked any of my Michigan gardens either. Until the last few years I have considered them short-lived perennials, if not outright annuals. I believe that it is a drainage issue rather than a cold problem. In my current garden (15 years old) which has the worst clay I have ever seen (I hesitate to use the word soil for what I plant in - despite constant amending) I have found at least a partial solution. Use a sturdy shasta like Becky, in a high part of the yard, preferably near a house wall under the eaves, away from the drainage flows, or between the house and a concrete walk, raise the planting as high as possible, add gravel to the bottom of the planting hole, and in the amended planting clay itself, thinning it well -- and they grow and return and SPREAD (a bit outwards anyway). It's a miracle!

I am so sorry for your massive loss already this year. You are seeing and confirming a lot of the things we've seen here. Where wind hits a wall, and the mites drop out, it's a rough place to be trying to grow roses. "Since the mite most likely moves and infects during hot dry months like July and August, wouldn't any of the RRD I saw this year in May and early June be a result of infection from last year?" The scientific papers that reported on mite populations reported massive populations in Iowa in September. And that is probably still true there. But I think that our spring heat wave which you often share gives an earlier season spike in the mite populations. I think that when the reservoir plants (R. multiflora with RRD and mites) start to feel a pinch in terms of how much water they have, then their mite population disperses. My 2% of my rose garden loss occurred after a ground baking heat wave. I think if your roses had gotten sick last fall, you would have seen the symptoms on growth much earlier this spring, as in March and April. (That's what happened to local gardens here.) I really don't think you missed symptoms; you're already to the place where you are looking past the blooms to what the plant is supposed to be. One friend has saved a climber that had RRD go into the roots, but only to one side of the roots; her husband took a chainsaw to the roots and isolated one side from the other, and dug out the bad side. We've got a sort of save going on right now. Seven Sisters had its second strike (and we only allow one strike now) and DH dug it out last year. Some wide ranging roots were left behind. The first come-back root came back with RRD. So we dug it out. Then six weeks later, some more growth came up and (knock on rose-wood) it's healthy. Then about two feet away , more healthy stems came out of the ground. I know these aren't seedlings. Seven Sisters has a really distinctive leaf when compared to the ten or so other roses on its fenceline. It going to take a while for the new stems to replace the old, but so far, they look good. When you prune, prune to encourage airflow. Are you spraying miticides for spider mites? Can you interplant with some low growing mints?

Well...I am very sad, and there's only one thing I can do to combat depression; I will turn to gratitude for what I have received from Vintage, and a pouring out of love to Gregg and Gita. First to them, for they've both been so kind to me over the phone and through emails....I've never met them but they have a place in my heart. Then the roses! Ah what beauty they've brought to the abbey. Cymbaline, Halloween, Miss Atwood, Souvenir de Pierre Notting, Marechal Niel, Maman Cochet, White Maman Cochet, Etoile de Lyon...and friends, I'm only scratching the surface here...Huntington Pink Tea, Mrs. Foley Hobbs, William R. Smith (Best clone in the world!), Mrs. B.R. Cant, Mme. Berkeley, Mme. Lambard, Condesa de Sastago, Devoniensis, Alliance Franco-Russe... This is nowhere near exhaustive...but I am filled with joy every day as I walk through the gardens and see these plants, put in with my own hands as tiny bands, now towering 5-8 feet high and some 12 feet wide. Mme. Berkeley! I thought she'd never put on heft...and now, what a giant plant. I just had a dinner party to attend last night, and brought an armful of Etoile de Lyon, Maman Cochet and William R. Smith roses to my hosts, all from Vintage. How blessed we are at the abbey for the years of selfless service Gregg and Gita have given us all. Thank you many times over - your legacy will live in my gardens forever.

John, I have to say that I am a bit concerned with that much water being that close. The Acer saccharum rootstock will not like 'wet feet' at all. My concern is that the water does not drain away just under the surface. So while the flow may never make it to the root ball, it may very well saturate the ground 3-4 inches down and remains that way for days longer. That would not be a good circumstance for a Sugar Maple, and one that is just planted with reduced root mass it could be much worse. Now everything depends on how ell it drains. I have clay, and it would be VERY bad. But your soil may drain much better and not be a problem. It just depends on the soil. The fact that you have a Eastern Red Cedar nearby being hit by the same flow, supports that the soil will drain quickly, but only you can answer that for sure. Couple of things you can do is raise the rootball 5-6 inches, but that would require replanting. Also you could go out to the lowest point of the swale (the low spot in the channel) and dig a small trench say 3-4 inches wide and 6-10 inches deep. Ideal being is you provide a lower concentrated channel so that the excess water can drain away more quickly after the rain stops. Kinda like a 'French Drain' but with no cover over the top. A narrow channel such as that is easily ignored and would help drain the excess away more quickly. JMHO. BTW, neglected to say the holes on the one tree look like what I got on our Fall Fiesta after last winter. Small area of bark damage probable from sun crack/scald. Should heal up quick and not cause problems. Arktrees