Voles love to eat plant roots.

I don't know where the idea comes from that voles are just a winter issue. I hope no one believes that and gets raided in the summer because they didn't take action or precautions. Last summer I'd lost every one of my acorn squash to voles. They looked great from above until I went to pick and found they were empty hulls with vole holes directly under them. I had no apparent vole damage tomy hostas last year. Didn't get any winter squash in this year because of my spring rehab from surgery and this summer they are ravaging my hostas. Just two weeks ago I lifted what had been a beautiful Wide Brim for years. I thought the drought was getting to it and the neighboring Francee until I saw the vole hole under the remaining leaves right behind the crown. All I managed to pot up were three small divisions. If anyone doesn't believe me I can post pics of the new little ones. Wow-I had one Wide Brim and now I have three. Is that progress - or what! If planting a couple of seeds in spring for acorn squash helps keep them from eating my hostas, it may be a bonus in vole damage control. You can always eat what they don't :) Voles, if you live in an a habitat that supports them, should be treated as they are; a year around hazard. If you don't have a year around problem where you live, you need to at least be conscious that they do present a problem in the summer elsewhere. I gave in and bought four traps last week and baited them with peanut butter. The next morning two were sprung and the peanut butter gone, and two went completely missing. Not a dead vole in sight. Maybe some other critter dragged the traps off to eat the peanut butter in safety. Naturally I don't put much faith into running a trap-line for voles. I figure the score is voles 4 - Les nothing, and out the cost of 2 really nice mouse traps. lol So much for a "winter issue"! Two more daily high temp records were broken the days it happened. Now we have new records of 92F and 93F. I actually saw one the other day duck into its hole in one of my hosta beds as I approached. I'm going for the castor oil and maybe some bait if there is no danger to my German Shorthair Pointer. I don't think they do well in very rocky or hardpan soil. I never had them in the AR Ozarks and Sandy in MO Ozarks said she doesn't either. So maybe it is not a summer problem in your biosystem. Les

Thanks, everybody - got the largest one with most roots back in soil today. It was a 12-hole day working in my newest garden! I WAS only going to do a few, but.... Ken --- what might these guys be if not plantiginea? Bloom in August, the flower is 4" long measuring from scape, 8 veins (if I counted right - I counted eight on either side of the mid ridge on the leaf - fragrant, it gets some sun, but not a lot. Myhostas.net calls out "The "Old August Lily" with light green leaves and 4" long white, trumpet shaped fragrant flowers in late summer." Leaf is 8-9 inches long. But, Hosta Lib pics do show rounder leaves. Oh, well, I love the flowers at this time of summer, even though I know there are larger.... and I do get attached to old plants in my garden. These followed me from NJ to CT 12 years ago.

A few drops of SuperThrive in the water might strengthen what's left of the roots, and encourage more to develop. Roses lined the perimeter of my veggie garden until an underground varmint took up residence. One by one, my roses did exactly as yours did - sat on top of the soil with no roots, so at the slightest touch, they fell over. Or, in some cases, the younger bushes were entirely gone. Pulled right down into the tunnels where they could be eaten at leisure. New home owners near me had their landscaper plant roses all along both sides of their very long driveway. The next morning, they went out to check on the roses, and they were all gone. Pulled right down into the ground, leaving only a hole and a few leaves. I was told it's voles, but I don't know if that's correct. Voles are very small. Hope your bush can be saved.