As Baby Boomers age, allergies are increasing tremendously, far worse than with any other generation we have records of. I submit it likely has a great deal to do with the smog and other pollution in the environment they (we) grew up in. Yes, what your neighbor sprays or dumps greatly affects you, too. I completely understand the necessity of spraying roses in environments where most won't grow without it. If I had to live where extreme winter protection or frequent, regular use of sprays were required, I honestly doubt I would grow roses. My hat is off to you who do it as it just seems too much work from my point of view. Ingrid made a great point about the found roses from the area. A plant which has survived, even flourished, for decades without our intervention seems a perfect choice to enjoy. Many OGRs and earlier modern roses have survived in old gardens and cemeteries in the Deep South and California's Gold Country and they frequently make excellent landscape plants. It is truly a case of climatic suitability, what is happy where you garden. I'm very glad you brought up that point, Ingrid, thank you. Perhaps they aren't exactly the flower you might be looking for, but using a variety of those which are successful where you are then filling in the premium spot with the desired flower on a plant specifically selected because of its performance in your climate should provide you a beautiful personal environment with less effort, time, energy expense and exposure. Working with Nature instead of trying to bend it to our will requires a whole lot less of everything. Kim

The rose bush you want is The Fairy. I also have rescued dogs and I have a beagle mix that has done hundreds of dollars of damage to my garden digging. She won't mess with The Fairy though. It's a beautiful low sprawling bush that bursts with pale pink flowers all summer and fall. She has about a billion really mean thorns. Shes a landscape rose and keeps those thorns low and dense. Better yet she will put down babies that take root and grow where her branches touch the ground. Fortunately she is almost disease free and you don't have to prune her. She's shade tolerant, thrives on neglect and did I mention that she's almost constantly in bloom from June until hard frost? Since she's low you can put her in front of climbers to fill out the area. Cassie is also an escape artist and I had her microchipped. I would suggest you do the same (along with an identification tag.) That way if the little darling gets out you have a good shot at getting her back.' Here is a link that might be useful: The Fairy Rose

Right. It's actually fairly easy to diagnose what's eating your roses. Rodents chew at a 45 degree angle, making their gnawing appear as if you've deliberately pruned the cane. Those include rabbits, squirrels, rats and mice. Deer, horses, cows and other larger animals which eat plants rip the growth off instead of precisely "cutting" it with their teeth because of the way the teeth meet. So, if the damage is a precise, 45 degree angle cut, you have some sort of rodent. If it's higher up in the plant where you'd think a rabbit couldn't reach, suspect squirrels, rats or mice. If it's ripped off and there is potential for deer, that's likely the culprit. Don't expect the prickles to prevent horses, cows, deer, etc., from eating roses. For the most part, they don't care. Prickles are probably less of a "defense" mechanism, than one which assists them in "climbing" into trees to get to the light. Gophers actually eat the roots of the plant. Ground squirrels can, also. Moles and voles mostly damage the plants by loosening the soil around their roots, interrupting their ability to anchor themselves and take up water. Kim

I can't think of any way that the birds could be directly killing your rose. The small amount of bird poop wouldn't do it. Maybe (and it may just be another one of my nutty ideas) the birds could introduce some type of pest to the shrub. I'm wondering if the birds weren't attracted to the shrub because of whatever problem exists. Birds often prefer shrubs with less dense foliage, so maybe that rose was chosen because it wasn't as thick as the others? Another idea (maybe another nutty one) is that the birds could have been attracted by the presence of insects in the rose. Don't count on any of this being the case, but it's about the best I can come up with without sufficient sleep.