Someone else with voles. I've been battling them for years and they are the only thing that has ever gotten the best of me. If you create ideal conditions for them to thrive, you will probably get them and it is a challenge to get rid of them. And what are ideal conditions you ask? In their natural state voles live in the soft composty forest floor where the soil is basically compost. The don't live in hard dirt or are they very deep. They live in a maize of tunnels where they eat roots. They love rose roots. I've seen them kill a healthy rose in no time at all. The rose starts to wilt and soon it falls over. You pull it out and there are no roots... just a stub. Most people don't have a vole problem because they don't create the ideal conditions for voles to live. I do because my beds are just like the composty forest floor and one year I lost about 60 roses. Some entire beds. What can you do? You can dig them up, flood them out, impale them, or try to poison or gas them. I made an impaling devise to impale small areas and not miss them. You need to cover the area entirely to make sure you stab every vole. You need to clear the area before you plant again. You can try to protect the roses from voles when you plant either individually with wire or the whole bed. I surrounded some beds individually and I protected the entire garden with wire mesh fence. I didn't vole proof it but the damage has been minimized. It sounds like you have made a good vole environment so you will have to get after them. As for Don Juan, it has nice form but it is a bad climber. I would replace it with something else. Good luck.

I have this rose too but I'm not as happy with it as you are. Gorgeous fragrant flowers, yes. But for me it's not at all disease resistant. But that's to be expected given my location. I have the same issue with this as I do with regular Don Juan and some other roses. Great blooms, horrible looking canes and foliage. I wouldn't mind if it were covered in blooms, but it isn't. Not only is mine usually leafless (even with being sprayed) but the canes get grey and ugly looking. I am going to really prune it next spring and start over. Maybe it just needs to be refreshed.

Frankly, Don Juan, a climbing hybrid tea, probably won't ever be cane hardy here unless you go through extraordinary measures to winter protect them. I personally don't have that kind of tolerance for protecting roses, so I've chosen the route of the super-hardy climbers and shrubs. Some great hardy climbers for our area: John Cabot Victorian Memory/Isabella Skinner John Davis (small Climber) William Baffin Some also claim New Dawn and Vielchenblau do well here but I haven't personally tried them. Check out High Country Roses over in Utah (www.highcountryroses.com) - they specialize in roses for our colder, high elevation climate. Nancy

I think it sounds *way* too close. You might post on the rose forum and see what answers you get. I don't grow that specific cultivar, but I can't think of any climbers that stay that narrow. You will need enough room for the plant, and enough room to get in around it to tie up canes and prune without needing a blood transfusion afterwards. I will be interested to know how tall your climbers get for you. My tallest climber only makes it to 6' or so. I don't think I've seen any climbers in my area that are much taller than that. Cheers, Michelle