Suzanne, do you think there's any chance it would regrow if you replanted it? I had a chipmunk dig out a newly planted Pretty Jessica, but left the roots intact. I have a Dbl.PinkKO and it's a really nice rose. It gives a lot without asking much which is exactly what one wants in a more public space. Not every rose needs to be a prima donna.

Looks exactly like several of mine whose roots were eaten by voles. They looked fine but fell over when I touched them. I think Sheila had success replanting one of her vole damaged roses last year.

Vapor, I guess I could try burying the crown but...there are no roots at all. None. The little critter just chewed off everything coming off the crown down into the dirt. I guess there's a chance the rose could regrow its roots, but my thinking is that there's no way it could support all that top growth. I could cut it all back and try to stimulate root growth, but if I have to go that route maybe it would just be better to buy a new rose. What do you think?

Flowersaremusic, that was exactly my experience. So have you tried anything since then to prevent the voles getting to your roses? I have way too many shrubs to install cages underground around everything. Considering using one of those castor oil-based solutions.

I don't know how to get Sheila's attention. I wonder if her vole-damaged rose still had roots.

It just occurred to me that cutting it all back (the top growth) would perhaps not be that dissimilar from what roses in winter dieback climates go through every year. Right? Maybe? My problem is that I just have no experience with that -- I'm used to my roses being up and about all year long, not disappearing in the winter.

Suzanne, I'm so sorry to see this damage to your beautiful rose, accompanied by the equally lovely deutzia. Personally, I think a gopher chewed the roots off your rose. That's what it would be around here, and that's exactly the way a gopher would "take out a rose". Our voles are simply not large enough to take those roots. I've had experience with both varmints. There will be no outward sign of trouble, but deep in the ground a tunnel will lead to where the rose's roots were, and the gopher will chew right though them, eating them in total, and leaving just the rose top growth behind. Our voles attack roots of perennials and eat lots of grass, bringing little piles of grass back to their tunnels. If the "owner" vole of the tunnel somehow meets a bad end (I wonder what would do that to a vole??), you will see little sprouts of grass growing out of the abandoned tunnels, which aren't deep. The best thing to happen to gophers here are badgers. They can really eliminate a gopher problem. Predators can be our friends. I'm in zone 7A, and my roses have little dieback in winter. They certainly don't disappear. Diane

Suzanne, we put bait boxes around the garden, chicken coop, barn and in the garage to keep them from trying to get in the house. I didn't want to use sprays or 'bombs' or anything that would make fumes. You can buy the bait and boxes at any big box or farm store, also Amazon. It's been several years and so far, so good. The metal boxes are screwed shut so children and pets can't open them. I'm sure there are other good methods, but this worked for us.

You are right, cold zoners are used to roses coming back from the roots after winter dieback, if they are own root roses. If you try to save your bush, cut it back some and soak it long enough to get the entire bush hydrated. I don't blame you for wanting to save it. That bush adds to the beauty of your garden. Beautiful photos.

I pour bait directly down into the tunnels, and it's very effective. This is for voles, but I've used it on gophers, and strangely enough, big wads of aluminum foil pressed deeply into gopher tunnels seems to help, too. Diane

Yes, Suzanne, this happened to my DA Alnwick 3/9/19, which is own root. I think it was caused by a gopher like Diane said. After the initial shock and horror, I soaked it overnight in H2O and then potted it with potting soil in a 5 gal. I did not prune it back.

Unbelievably, it grew like normal in the Spring but had only one bloom. By this Fall, it had a lovely third flush. I think it is back to perfect health. Good luck!

A "Gopher Hawk" caught 20 gophers here this last Summer. This really reduced our problems. Voles here have girdled plants or eaten tops and I do have a rose surrounded by mouse traps because of another horrible vole incident.

Oh gosh everybody, thank you so much for your help and ideas and commiseration. I feel better already. It really helps to talk to other gardeners.

Sheila, I am ASTOUNDED that your Alnwick came back like that. That is amazing. I have hope! I'm going to do exactly what you did and hope for the best. Rifis, I will definitely keep you all apprised.

Diane, my understanding is that we don't have gophers here -- they're not native to this region. That's what the wildlife scientists and pest control people say. But boy oh boy, do we have voles. (We also have moles, who seem to have a party a couple of times a year and create big raised tunnels in our moss yard.)

Flowersaremusic, when we moved to this property---which is essentially a clearing in the middle of an old forest---we spent the first couple of years just coming to terms with the wildlife and figuring out how to cope. We're still doing that, actually. Our pest control company has been upfront with us that it would be futile to try to eradicate anything.

Our strategy is to just try to cordon off or protect certain areas, or make them undesirable to the pest in question. If I could repel the voles from my shrub border (rather than kill them -- I really don't want to kill vertebrates), I would be happy with that.

Oh, I forgot to say: I googled around and found pictures of a rose that had been chewed exactly like mine, about 50 miles from here. The experts said it was voles. It does seem a little surprising because when you look at the tooth marks, you imagine something the size of a beaver. I guess the voles are small but mighty.

Our pest guy said if there's no mound, it's voles. They look too little to do so much damage. They got about 12 roses around the perimeter of my veggie garden but left the phlox, lilies and other plants. They also skipped the raspberries.

I've had gophers in my rose garden, with their mounds and raised tunnels. It happened all under the cover of snow, only to be revealed in the spring. They rearranged some rock borders and pushed a concrete bird bath to the point the bowl fell off. The battery powered vibrating cylinders you push down into the ground get mixed reviews on Amazon but work pretty well here.

Good luck with your rose. I'm looking forward to photos of it flourishing again.

When we had more gophers living in our undeveloped desert areas in back, you could see a small mound of frass beside each gopher tunnel entrance if the brush wasn't too thick.. But gophers tend to tunnel from so far away into the flower beds, that's it's often impossible to find where they initially entered. Voles are pretty easy to track down here, plus I have a couple of "helpful cats" when it comes to voles. We found that when we had a snow cover, the voles liked to tunnel just under the snow and end their tunnels up against the retaining wall's top edge. By eliminating a strip of grass next to the wall, and replacing it with decorative small rocks, the voles were thwarted, and we haven't had a problem with them in that area since. My kitty Finn did bring a vole prize up to me on the patio the other day. He's such a gentle guy that I was kind of shocked. He's a good mouser, too. We aren't in the middle of a forest, but out in the desert hills, and I hear you about wildlife challenges. For me badgers are good guys. We have hawks, osprey, the occasional eagle, deer, lots of coyotes, owls, songbirds, and bazillions of !@#$ quail--and the aforementioned mice, voles and gophers. Just today, the first wave of robins blasted in to cover the ornamental pear trees as they scrounged for the trees winter "berries". And lately a squirrel has braved the desert and is in the (planted, of course) trees, but frustrated, after we started using a squirrel proof bird feeder. Now if I can just control those quail a little better.....Sorry for rambling-- and Suzanne, good luck with all your wildlife. From your friend out West, Diane

Flowers, when our neighbors with money to burn built their home, they had the entire yard electrically wired underground to devices that produced high frequency sounds that mice and voles supposedly hate. I've never asked her if she thought this system worked. Also, I've never had gophers make raised tunnels around here--but as I've said, most of them are gone for badger lunch. Diane

I’m so sorry about your rose, Suzanne. I hate voles! I lost 9 roses this past winter due to voles and damage to many others. I wish I had done what Sheila did but was angry and didn’t have a lot of hope that they’d survive and so I just tossed them.

That’s awful about the gophers and your garden, flowers. I’m glad I do not have gophers here.

Has anyone had success using any particular repellent?

Here are a couple I lost:

So sad, Dave. I tossed my rose "corpse" onto the field when I found it tipped over and eaten, in frustration, before I decided to soak it overnight and give it a chance.

Oh Dave, that's awful. I'm starting to feel lucky that I haven't lost more roses. (Knock on wood.) And to think I just ordered almost $600 in new roses for this year. Yowza. My mixed shrub border has been doing so well I thought it was safe to move on to Phase 2.

I guess I'm just glad I don't have gophers too. Flowers, that sounds intense. btw, the more I read up on voles the more I'm hoping that they will be less attracted to the shrub border now that all the leaves have been blown off. Our heavy, heavy, industrial-strength forest leaf litter is maybe equivalent to your snow cover: a perfect blanket and disguise for the little critters to do their damage over the winter.

Sheila, when you soaked and potted your Alnwick, did you add any rooting hormone? Or just plain water? I'm going to soak my rose tomorrow and if necessary go get some fresh potting soil. (I may also look for some castor oil as a vole repellent....)

Diane, what do quails do out there? We have so many birds and animals in this forest that I don't know which ones are eating my fruit; I just know that I cannot grow any sort of fruit or vegetable outside the screenhouse, nor can I even sow seeds in the ground. As for voles and the circle of life, I wish we had badgers. But we don't have badgers. What eats voles here is the dreaded ssssss.... And if there is one animal that I will move heaven and earth to keep away, it’s ssssss....

Is that deer?

Sheila, I‘m glad you were able to save your Alnwick rose and because of that I will do that if this occurs again. For almost all roses planted after I found this damage, I planted each individual rose in a cylinder of hardware cloth with the sides 2-3 inches above ground. I had “caged” most of the large rose holes I had dug in the past but they were large and flush with the soil. These smaller and slightly raised cages may not provide any more protection but I’ll see.

Suzanne, your leaf litter sounds like mine. I used to appreciate it since it was extra winter protection for my roses but I told myself I was going to keep all the leaves cleaned up this year to help deter voles doing damage below them but since my garden is surrounded by trees, it is really futile to even try. I did use 3 vole deterrent products once in late spring and twice 4 weeks apart in late fall - vole scram and molemax granules and spray (supposedly works as well w/ voles). Hopefully this was enough.

I would pop any root eaten rose in a plain water tub immediately. I did water mine in the pot with a root stimulating plant starting liquid in the water following the directions but used half strength. This was used only twice to water. I really don't know if this really did anything, but it surely did not hurt. (I once used too much on a baby plant and killed it, hence the half strength.)

Friends over in Asheville NC had the same problem, but their vole attack took down about half their roses. They cut the stems back, soaked them in a growth stimulant called Nature's NOG, and saved them all.

In my own garden, I've seen a vole preference for many of Radler's roses, maybe because the roots do so well in my soils.

I'm trying daffodil bulbs around some roses as the voles don't seem to like them and maybe the voles won't make it past the daffodil ramparts.

Daffodils are toxic to all animals. Even deer won't eat them. Tulips are another thing altogether. Also toxic: morning glory, four o'clocks, datura, brugmansia, and many others. In these parts, our mule deer hate the cat pee smell of boxwood, so I have lots of boxwood around.

Suzanne, is the dreaded sssss thing snakes? We have them occasionally, and I think they are very helpful creatures, for the most part. It depends on what kind you have around, I'm sure. Diane

Diane, such useful information about the boxwood. I don't have any for precisely that reason, but if it keeps deer away, I'm game!

Okay, the rose bush is soaking in the biggest tub I have, though it's not nearly big enough. That bush is larger than it looks in the photo -- probably 5 feet tall and 4 feet across. I think I will have to cut it back quite a bit when I pot it up tomorrow. Sheila, it's in pure water; will use some diluted plant starter tomorrow in the pot.

I also found another rose casualty of the voles. One Peach Drift rose, in the midst of a border with 10 of the things, has been shorn of its roots. It's also soaking in a bucket. Stillanntn, I found that NOG stuff online. May order it, though it's quite expensive.

Diane, yes, the ssss.... thing is snakes. They certainly have their place in the ecosystem and believe me, the woods are full of them. But I've spent years trying to keep them away from the house, and it's finally working. Not fun to open your door to an enormous ssss.... at your feet or lounging on your porch.

Vapor, I take it you have a deer problem? ;-) Surprisingly enough, we don't, although the forest is full of deer. This is their home. But maybe because the woods are full of all the natural foods they love, they've never shown much interest in my ornamentals. (And now as soon as I've said that, watch them come through and mow it all down....)

Boxwood stink! Eww. So pretty but lordy, the smell. Same with privet; I refuse to have it in my garden.

Dave, I had the same thought about leaf litter. Thought it was a good mulch. No more! Going to keep that stuff blown off all fall and winter.

Suzanne, it's funny, but I don't mind the boxwood scent, though it's not necessarily going to keep deer away all the time for sure. I use deer repellent, too, and even the best of repellents is only partly effective and costs a bundle. It's stinks plenty and is a pain to apply. Other plants deer totally leave alone here are Russian sage, catmint, lavender, penstemon, snapdragons, rudbeckia, Jupiter's Beard, echinacea, butterfly bush, hibiscus, and many others, including all the toxic flowers I previous listed. Deer love roses, of course, tulips, some dianthus, hosta, euonymous. Not sure about campanula, which they leave alone here, as well as coreopsis, heliopsis, helenium, and more. Sorry to bore you all with lists. Our deer are different from the kind you have. They are the largest deer, not particularly cute, as far as I'm concerned, and are called mule deer. I'm sorry to read about your Drift rose. I have a lot of Apricot Drifts. Good luck with the soaking and planting. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, partly because you have an own root rose to deal with. Keep an eye out for deer as you add more roses. Diane

I think the reason the deer aren't too interested in my garden is because this particular area is full of one of their favorite natural foods: sassafras. There are enormous stands of sassafras along the river and in every gap in the forest. Deer love it. (So do Japanese beetles, which is why fighting them is futile.)

So far the biggest enemies of my roses have been insects, pathogens, and trees. When I first moved here I created a slightly raised bed at the wood edge and started growing roses. They were beautiful at first. I had a bunch of Austins and shrubby floribundas:

It didn't last. The forest trees looked at that and said, "Oh hey, thanks for the nutrients and the water. We'll just have all that. Slurp." It's like that Richard Pryor routine where he's talking about being on safari in Africa and watching the lions watch him. The lions are saying, "Come on, get out the car. Bring the camera too. We gonna eat all that s*t."

But the deer never bothered any of it.

Yes, I totally agree. I never saw a deer until they developed a large woodland down the street. With nowhere to live they quickly found my little quiet paradise in my lower level. I am constantly redoing the fences and trying every permutation to keep them out, but as they were foaled here they will break it down even if it may damage them. I'm trying a new style this spring so we'll see how successful that proves. I don't mind snakes at all... we don't have any poisonous ones around so I encourage them. I never had to worry about voles or mice when my cats were alive. There are some neighborhood cats that like to visit, so hopefully that helps keep the numbers down. The darn chipmunks are real pain, however.

The reason I knew my voles were voles, was because I could see them. We had a vole population explosion one year. There were so many, you could see them frolicking on the lawn. I had to stand in the chicken pen and stomp my feet and wave my arms to keep them out of the chicken feed while the hens ate. I took the food out when they were finished. They're mice with longer tails and smaller ears, or vice versa.

Suzanne, you're right about your heavy leaf litter being a good place for voles to hide. All the nests we found were under something - a child's pool we were using for mallards we were pet sitting, under the dog house, etc. I'm sure many were under debris out in the meadows and fields.

What is your strategy that's working to keep snakes away? I've only found 2 in 25ish years, but they scare me more than any other garden invader.

Flowers, my strategy is to keep grass, leaves, undergrowth, and bare dirt away from the house foundations and instead use as much paving as possible. I spent a small fortune adding extensive paving on the east side of the house, having the north side foundation plantings converted to gravel beds, converting the backyard to a gravel courtyard with quasi-Japanese plantings, converting the few remaining green foundation beds to moss rather than grass, and keeping everything clean and clear. We also took out some more trees to move the forest edge back a few yards. It's not perfect but it helps because our local ssss... prefer the forest environment.

I don't know if that would work for you, because out there don't you tend to already have wide open spaces?

I should add that I didn't do all that just to keep away snakes! It was a much-needed improvement in our landscape. The builder had just sort of plopped the house down in the middle of the forest with poor site drainage, and it was hard to keep the jungle and the mud away. It all feels much better now.

Suzanne, I love the look and practicality of gravel and wish I'd used it more. Do you know what they used under your gravel? We're planning on covering a few areas with it this spring. I don't think it would help with snakes here, though. We're surrounded by open fields, meadows and brush. I'm told we don't have any poisonous snakes in this area, but I don't like any of them. My grandmother always told us kids to make noise and shuffle our feet when we're walking in the woods so the snakes would run away.

I’ve had roses where the gophers ate all of the roots - looked like beavers had gone at my roses. Off and on I’ve tried pruning rose, dipping what’s left in rooting powder, then putting in a pot filled w rose potting soil. I’ve had success 2x. Usually I start over because I’m impatient. Over the years, gophers have eventually infiltrated everywhere - we back up to los padres national forest - so no hope of total elimination. I use gopher hawk traps w good success, but I only have to be out of town for a few weeks & come home to gopher condos. So all but one rose is now in gopher wire cage. i buy them pre-made - just have to bend them.

One year I tried to plant a perimeter of daffodils / narcissus around my entire yard & meadow — huge undertaking! A few weeks later I found about 2/3 of the bulbs had been pushed up out of the ground & dried up!!! Varmints actually removedthem! So I didn’t get my perimeter - but right now my meadow is blooming w gorgeous narcissus! I got to keep some & they come back every year now. The castor oil may deter them for a bit, but not long in my garden. It’s traps & cages for me. I throw the dead gophers out in the meadow & they’re gone by next day. My friend throws the gophers on her roof & the crows come & dispose of them! Circle of life?

the moles make raised tunnels - but don’t eat roots, just grubs. and I loved the book THE MOLE FAMILY’S CHRISTMAS as a child, so I leave the moles alone.

good luck - it is heartbreaking to lose a great plant.

Deborah, your description of gopher root depredation is spot on. That's my exact experience, except I don't have your exceptionally awful gopher pressure thanks to the badgers--wish I could mail you a few. I wonder if gophers hate boxwood--so sorry about the daffodil loss. I suggest a datura perimeter, or gasp, even morning glory. Critters hate this stuff, and datura would not be dug up--it's quite poisonous. I have seeds I could send, but a couple of plants ready to go might be a good start. Then there is castor bean plant (think ricin). My friend has grown this stuff with no problems. I use a bait pushed down into tunnels that works really well, but is probably not available in California. I rarely have to use it because of said badgers. Coyotes like gophers, too, as well as hawks. They love yummy vole lunches, as well. Go Predators. Diane

Flowers, all I know is that it was a heavy commercial-grade underlayment. It was much thicker than any of the fabrics you can get retail. I asked them what it was and they just said it was commercial stuff.

Deborah, we've had some luck with daffodils on the wood edge, so I gambled this winter and put down a bunch of daffodils along the driveway. We'll see if they survive. I usually just keep my bulbs in containers---though then I have to deal with the squirrels, who will literally dig up my pots to find that giant "nut" I've planted. Raccoons, too -- when I see a whole container dug up and even tipped over, I tend to think it's the raccoons. I don't think they eat the daffodil bulbs, because they're toxic, but they do dig up the containers to see what's in there. I find the daffodil bulbs dug up and tossed around.

Diane, I have loved datura since I lived in DC but have always been afraid to grow it because of the toxicity. In my DC neighborhood all the townhouses had lovely little courtyard gardens out front. A couple who lived one street up from me had magnificent datura that opened up like giant moons in the evening. I could smell it half a block away. Such a sweet, wonderful fragrance. I've always been afraid that a dog might be tempted by the sugary aroma to take a bite.

Thanks, Suzanne. I guess the gravel guys will know what to use. The GardenAnswer girl has talked about a commercial grade underlayment for gravel on her videos. Regular weed barrier garden cloth is worthless as far as I'm concerned.

I've had my share of disappearing daffodil bulbs, too. Similar to Deborah, I planted hundreds of them along our long driveway and had visions of a wide sweep of yellow and white wrapping around the house. By the 3rd year they were pretty much gone. Once in a while, a lonely daff will pop up to remind me of the lost hours I spent on my hands and knees planting that strip.

The weather forecast has been closer to being right this time. It has snowed steady for 2 of the 8 days we're supposed to get snow, but our minus 2˚ has been upgraded to a more bearable 12˚ above. The forecast changes by the minute. I love the beauty of a heavy snowfall, but I'd rather see roses.

I know cats leave it alone, and I've never seen a dog near it when I grew datura, but that was a long time ago. The bees just love it, and get trapped down inside the trumpets. Then I'd hear angry buzzing and help them out. Brugmansia is taller and also poisonous. Maybe a little research would help. Datura was pretty tall, too. These two plants weren't hardy through our winters, but in warmer climates, they wouldn't die during winter. My favorite nursery and greenhouse here has year round displays of tropicals, including a brug "tree". In bloom, that is something to see. Diane

I want to "like" the comments, just to prove I've read them. But Houzz won't let me like anything. So -- LIKE LIKE LIKE and thank you !!!

Well, like to you, too, Deborah. And to everybody else. Diane