Hi g_n. There is a product that you can use to overcome this problem. I saw it on a Monty Don Programme. Can't remember the name but if you've got a decent G_Centre (not B&Q's etc.) in your area, try asking, all the best.

Why get rid of them? Could you not revive them with some pruning and some compost? I am sure that if they are still alive they just need some care. The loganberry or tayberry would be just as likely to do the same if they could. Unless you don't want them, try boosting them with some cutting and tying and some rose food and berry fertiliser. I bet you get some rewards; unless you are tired of the rose and raspberry, I would give it a try.

Well, the rose (Dorothy Perkins, I think) would be fine with a little more attention, but it is such a big, thorny, unwieldy thing that I hate handling it. I thought I'd rather have a thornless thing that I could eat! The raspberry was a wild strain that never produced much anyway. Both were inherited with the garden. I think a more considered planting and some soil improvement would enhance that bit of the garden. My garden's so small I can't really afford to let any of it go to waste!

Cajary - David Austen sells a product which claims to build up beneficial fungi around the roots of the plant - mycorrhizae, I think they are called. £2.99 per sachet.

I see your point, garden nerd. Yes, if you do not wish to bother with Dorothy Perkins anymore than perhaps it would be better to replace it with something more palatable for you; in more ways than one. The wild raspberry sounds wonderful, though. They often have that quintessential berry taste that the hybrids just touch on; like wild strawberries do. But there is nothing like some raspberry canes in the garden anyway. What have you decided to do?

I haven't decided on anything yet, ask me in a couple of years time! I'm going on hols soon, so nothing is going to happen until Sept at the earliest.
Having had a closer look there is no raspberry there any more. Do you think I could get away with planting a thornless loganberry in front of the rose?

I already have a huge thornless blackberry which is swagged with more fruit than I can eat all summer, so a logan/tay might be too similar. What else could I plant that I could eat?

Hi g_n. How about a Kiwi Fruit? You can get the self-pollinating type so you only need one plant.

What about a new raspberry? A Heritage, say, or another robust one that bears a lot of fruit. Only if you like raspberries; of course. The tayberry or loganberry would be too similar to the blackberry, although I love to make berry pies with them and feel you can never have too many!

Do you have currants? Perhaps you might consider one of these; there are white, black, and red ones; and pink ones which are just gorgeous.

David Austin suggest that rose replant sickness can be overcome by digging in lots of organic matter and replanting with Rootgrow "friendly fungi".

But it is probably safest to replace the soil where the old plant grew with soil from elsewhere in the garden - two feet cubed.

One technique is to sink an old carboard box (the 12-bottle wine kind, for example) and plant in that, in fresh soil. By the time the cardboard degrades, the rose sickness will have gone.

you can use a myccorhizza fungus such as rootgrow and peter beales rose growers suggests planting a new rose or other member of rosaceae family in a cardboard box filled with John Inees 3. The box is buried in the old soil and will gradually rot down. However, how about currants - redcurrants and blackcurrants are in the ribes family and replant disease will not be an issue. You could make your own ribena!

Please don't get rid of the rose. If you can wait until October, then cut back hard, lift from the soil and either replant where it is or move to another spot. Sounds mad to lift and replant where it came from, but a quick dig of the soil and some good manure will do the trick. I did this and my lovely climbing rose has come back in leaps and bounds. It would be a real shame get rid of it.

no it wouldn't. If you hate it, then get rid. Life is too short to fuss over a recalcitrant rose.