Ooooh, that's too bad. I think it's gophers or voles. Sheila has some posts about her problems with them. She has had some good results digging up badly chewed ones like yours, potting them up I think, and saving them. People with bad problems with gophers and voles seem to have to plant roses in underground wire baskets.

I think gophers are not an eastern problem. At least I've never heard of them around here. Voles were something the Mighty Hunter of my childhood was capable of exterminating. Since our recently late, lamented cats seemed to have flunked cat kindergarten, they were completely ineffective.

How are you mulching? I've found that I cannot put down mulch in the fall. It just becomes a hiding place for the little monsters. If they can't hide, the local Air Force seems to do a decent job of keeping their numbers under control. We have a lot of raptors - everything from bald eagles to peregrine falcons - and the red tailed hawks in particular make a specialty of small rodents.

Most likely gophers did that. Less likely voles, a much smaller varmint, going by the severe damage, although could be either or both at work. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible to eradicate. Most rose gardeners who live in vole/gopher country plant their roses in submerged wire cages, which are very effective in help preventing varmint damage.

Moses

As far as what to do with the damaged bushes. Follow your instincts. Either pot them up and try to get them rehabilitated, or start over with new bushes definitely planted in cages. I am really sorry for your disaster, but please don't give up on roses! Your climate is so rose loving, aside from the black spot pressure your heat and humidity encourages, in which case grow black spot proof/ highly resistant varieties which there are an abundant amount being sold these days. No need to spray for black spot unless you grow roses that have little or no resistance.

Moses

That’s horrible and you have my sympathy! I have lost roses to gophers and I know how maddening it feels to walk through the garden and find another one done for. I do think that one has enough root to save if you cut the top back to the size of what a bare root rose looks like when you first plant it. If you soak it good, pot it up and keep it in bright shade, you might salvage it. And just so you know, poison and traps do work… if you are diligent.

I’m sorry this has happened to your roses :( I agree that this was most likely due to voles. I had voles decimate many of my roses one year in my previous garden. I tossed what remained of my roses but I wish I would have potted them up. Sheila on the forum has shared her success of rehabilitating roses with similar root damage - maybe she’ll chime in.

I never had the issue again after caging my roses when planting and spreading castor oil beads (MoleMax) over my garden each fall.

A friend of mine had a big vole/mole problem until a ferral cat arrived in her yard unannounced and made a home under her deck. Now she has no problem with moles, voles or chipmunks.

Artist, sorry for your loss. I had the same issue last spring and lost 7 roses to the rodents. You probably should take action, putting some castor oil or repellents in the holes to eliminate further damage. LOS is very easy to root. So if the branches haven’t dried out you might be able to root a few cuttings. I grew a few new Graham Thomas and Zephirin Drouhin after they were digged out by the voles.

Artist, I feel so bad for you. you must be sick about the damage to your precious roses. I guess that cages are going to be your new planting method. I sure hope that you dan aave OLOS and Munstead

I bet voles…we have problems when we have lots of snow (Minnesota) and they tunnel under that and destroy our lawn and last time ate one of my Prairie Petite Lilacs. This year we put down some Milorganite which we read can deter them but we’ve had a snowless winter and no problems so I dont know if it helps.

Thank you all so much. I'm speechless...just when I thought I had figured out just about anything I needed to know. I hadn't.

If someone could recommend some specific underground cages that work well for roses I would appreciate it.

I am still not sure why the voles wouldn't get through the roots from the top of the cage which I suppose would not be closed.

What a nightmare.

I live in N.E. GA. When I first moved here, I had a mole problem but a few feral cats showed up and the mole problem came to an end. Every spring they will leave me a special gift by my front door (a dead mole). I take care of my feral cat community (food and water), they take care of my yard,

How do I get a feral cat? ....:)

I sent a message to Sheila, hopefully she'll weigh in with her experience. You'd be amazed at the rose scraps she has saved, lol.

The stainless steel vole/gopher baskets, sold on Amazon from so many suppliers, 5 gallon size, are sometimes chewed through, YES, you read right, chewed through. The next alternative is to make your own from rolls of hardware cloth, 1/2" should do it for the mesh size, and 16" high rolls. 5' lengths of which makes a round basket about 18" across, and of course 16" high, or deep depending how you look at it. Of course, a bottom is needed, and fastened to the basket side. The gauge is important. The higher the number the thinner the wire used. Usually 18 gauge, maybe 19, but no higher would be best. It has to be galvanized also.

Concerning the soil surface where the rose grows up in the middle of the basket which is placed so its edge is no more than an inch or so above soil level, the vermin can get at a rose there if unprotected. Make a circular guard with a 4" opening in the middle to accommodate the rose's crown and a slit from the hole to the guard's edge is made to get it in place. No fastening is done, just laid within the baskets edge, and gravity does its work.

A 4" high hardware cloth collar with a 6" diameter is made to protect the base/crown of the rose to protect from terrestrial attacks from voles, in particular, who are a bit less subterranean in their damaging, especially over winter.

Sorry for my bad grammar and perhaps confusing instructions. I'm old. You can get all materials that you need from Amazon, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.... Make sure to wear strong/flexible gloves, and a pair of good quality hardware cloth shears will make cutting your 5' lengths go much easier.

You can lick this problem. Have Courage! Takes the virtues of a Godly person to grow roses...believe me!

Moses

Would it be better if I just placed pots in that garden bed and call it a day? They are not doing that great in the ground anyway due to tree roots.

Or do those monsters climb in pots too?

Artist, I got a message from Fig about your situation. Yes, you can save your plants. You need to soak them overnight and then pot them in a 5 gal pot in potting mix. Keep them well watered and place them in a shady area at first. You can keep them in a pot over the Summer at least or longer if you prefer. I did not cut my plants back.

Miraculously, they grew roots and came back if I discovered them before they totally dried out.

I did not lose one.

I replanted them in the ground in Diggers Heavy Duty root guard 5 gal baskets. None of the replants have had this happen again.

This is for 12 baskets. You really need these heavy duty ones.

I still have hundreds of roses that are in the ground without a basket, but I feel so much better knowing the basketed roses are safe. I'm planting all in baskets going forward. I also use a Gopher Hawk to catch gophers with success.

Good luck Artist. I'll try to find the thread where you can see my photos.

Sheila, thanks so much for sharing this 🌹

If you are considering using pots, go with the LARGE plastic whisky barrel pots. I have several large roses growing in these type of pots and they are doing great. For my roses, the secret is the soil. This is what I use.

In my wheel barrow I dump 1 bag of Top Soil, 1/2 bag Soil Conditioner and 1/2 bag of Perlite. Mix it all together real good. I line the bottom of my pot with oak leaf foliage, or pine bark mini nuggets. Fill the pot 1/2 way with your soil. Water it good. Let it drain. Put your rose in the pot and finish filling the pot with the soil. Water good and let it drain. Mulch it real good. water again and whalla, your rose has a good home to grow in.

This is the only picture I have of any of the roses I have in plastic whisky barrels.

Dear Sheila and Ken and everyone else!

Thank you all so much.

I will do a instructed and the recommendations for specific products are fantastic bc it always takes me a long time to do the research and then I don't even know what I am doing.

I threw away Savannah not knowing what had befallen her, but I still have LOS. She still has normal little leafings, not dried out and she is currently soaking.

Munstead might have to come out of the ground too and go through the same treatment but I'll wait and see.

I just bought Ring of Fire to replace Savannah and will plant it with a basket but I still don't understand what would prevent the rodents from diving in and digging from the top instead of the sides. I doubt mulching around the bush is enough.

I also still have Dee-lish in the ground without much signs of damage at the roots, in the sense that it is sturdy when I shake it (doesn't come out of the ground) as well as a few Drifts and Eden against the fence; but Dee-lish is not growing as fast as it should either.

Only my potted roses are growing fast and boding well for this season.

Any particular poison or deterrent I could use in the meantime to chase these creatures away for the roses still in the ground without basket?

And Ken,

I have a few roses up on the deck in containers and they generally do well. So much easier than the battle on the ground. There they're fighting tree roots, deer, I suspected some RRD a year plus ago and snatched them right out of the ground, and now these underground rodents too...

I would give up growing roses in flower beds straight in the ground but I really love having some in the landscape.

Also, if I were to place some in containers in those beds ...could the rodents get in those containers too?

They didn't in the container roses on the deck .

I should also mention I have been growing roses for over half a decade now and I never had this problem before. Why suddenly voles?

Our property is on what used to be a heavily wooded area but more and more trees were cut over the years. We cut a few ore last season. I used to see a hawk around here quite a bit but lately I have not seen much of him anymore, which makes me wonder if this was due to more trees being cut recently.

Could this have allowed the population of voles to multiply? Not that I ever saw a vole.

We do have chipmunks but I don't think they did this.

Anyways. Off I go to order baskets. Thank you again, I would have absolutely given up without all of you!

Artist

Sheila,

I wanted first to try one of those and see how it works but it looks like the product comes only in a pack of 12.

I am also not sure how exactly to use it. Reviewers seem to complain that it is difficult to shape into a basket.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

What about this one? They say it's designed especially for roses (among others) and it is already shaped into a basket, plus it comes in a pack of two.

But if you vote it down I won't get it.

Also...(so sorry!)...should I cut down the roots of the rose for an even cut or should I root them as shown in the pictures above, eaten by the rodents?

Artist, I have had voles and rabbits eat top growth of roses here, but gophers don't seem to go over the lip/ wire ring that is above the ground 2-3 inches and tunnel in. They just come from the bottom to munch. Of course they could munch the peripheral roots past the root cage too, but they don't get to the crown of the plant.

Here, a neighboring field was plowed and a vineyard was planted and that seemed to coincide with the gophers moving over to my property. The "Gopher Hawk" product on amazon really does kill gophers. We got 20 last year and 30 in 2022 and 45 in 2021.

As you said, the only plant I lost here was when I did not know what was going on when a rose did not leaf out 2018 or so and I waited and did not pull the plant out immediately. I was familiar with cold climate gardening and plants were slower there. Here, nothing dies of cold. On the vole topic mouse traps seemed to work the best, but voles did not eat roots here.

This all just takes patience. The rescue year the plants look good but it takes a couple years to get back to full force.

What is the Gopher Hawk product?

Also, do you think the Digger product above should work? I don't need 12 baskets and it sounds like those may be difficult to shape into a basket, per reviewers.

I would rather try these two first but they might not be "heavy-duty" enough.

Google the Gopher Hawk. They work.

Yes, the Heavy Duty Digger baskets work here. There are directions on how to shape the baskets. The weaker baskets would not last as long.

Gophers and voles are two totally different creatures. You probably have voles, so all the gopher advice is irrelevant.

Here, voles are most trouble in the winter. When the snow melts, you can see their trails in the grass. They will also treat mulch like snow, and tunnel along the soil line. If they don't have either of those places to hide, they are much more visible to predators. This is good. Poisoning them simply introduces the poison into the food chain. It will then kill hawks, foxes, and perhaps the neighbor's dogs. Not good. The best way I've found to deal with them is to take all those nice places to hide, and get rid of them.

Pocket Gophers inhabit Georgia. Males are 6", females, 5", including tails. Sandy soil is their habitat. Voles and Gophers are residents of Georgia.

Moses

Whatever eats roots, Mad, out East, the gopher baskets would protect the roots. Artist's plant's roots have been eaten just like mine out West. The damage is identical to the roses roots.

Out West our voles are small and only eat above ground.

The baskets could be root protectors without mentioning gophers.

I don't use poison either.

The light weight Digger baskets would help, Artist, but not last as long as the Heavy Duty ones.

The gopher baskets won't go anything after the vole is in the basket. Several posts up, Artist asked how the baskets work since they aren't solid across the top. I really don't see how they can work for voles, since voles travel across the top of the soil.

I kindly disagree - based on my experience, they did seem to work where I used then vs where I had not. I used heavy duty hardware cloth and made my own. I sunk them 24 inches in the soil and they were a few inches above the soil. I was concerned that a vile may just climb over it into the basket but never had vole damage with the cages roses.

You can see the hardware cloth is elevated above the mulch.

I am wishing for your success with this issue!

Dear all,

At this point I am completely adrift, no longer knowing what I am doing. Some updates:

I repotted LOS shown above to rescue her, as Sheila instructed. She was still in good shape overall, just chomped at the roots and is now trying to grow back in a 5 gal pot, protected perched on my deck.

I also pulled out Munstead Wood because it was clearly not thriving, not growing, stunted, as shown in picture below. Barely any leaves growing.

Interestingly enough, this one was NOT munched, but still mysteriously not growing. At this point, I can only blame the fierce competition with the tree roots in the area. That rose bed will probably never do OK (except somehow the Drifts), not as long as that tall oak is there.

I am soaking it too and will replant in a large pot for the long term. After all DA-s do well in pots and my Olivia Rose has been one of my best performers in a pot. In fact, so far I have done way better with roses in pots than in the ground. I guess whatever ground I have, it's not good.

I also went to the remaining forest area surrounding our property and saw Savannah lying in the leaves where I had ditched her. I had thrown it away over a week ago but it had rained. After the discussion here it dawned on me that it may still be barely alive and I could maybe try to save her. I picked her up, brought her back and soaked her too. When I cut a stem, the inner part is still white fresh with a touch of green, so maybe there's hope.

This will be the great Save Savannah operation. Maybe a miracle will happen and she will eventually come back.

On an other mysterious note, I have a Double Pink Knock Out at the mailbox where there is no competition with any tree...and that rose too is failing to grow. Stunted despite adding manure, fertilizing, watering...the W9Y. I have NO idea what is going on at this point.

I am optimistic about LoS, not so much about Savannah.

Munstead needs to find a home in a large pot and live there on my deck.

Thank you all for any other tips on how to recoup these beauties and stimulate maximum root growth this year. No expectations of bloom of course, just recovery of the plant. Maybe roses for me are meant to grow in pots after all, or at least as long as we live on this property with impossible clay, tons of tree roots and weird creatures underground.

I would bet on Savannah making it too, Artist. That is pretty much what happened to me with Alnwick rose when I found it tipped over and rootless I threw it into the grass and only later realized it needed the ICU. It came back beautifully.