HELP! Disappearing rose bushes!

10 years ago

I live in Tucson, Arizona and have David Austin roses in raised beds put in in the fall of 2011. The garden is enclosed by a 5 foot block wall with a metal gate covered with heavy security mesh. Two days ago all but two leafless 6-7 inch canes of a bush planted in March disappeared without a trace. There was a mound of dirt where the young bush had been. There was also a 5 inch mound of dirt in a separate raised bed amongst basil plants but none of those plants are missing. I've not seen anything like this in all the years I've been gardening but someone suggested gophers so I purchased sound-emitting stakes and placed them in the two areas. All was well yesterday morning but last evening I found a 1" and a 3" long leafless cane where a second year+-old rose bush had been; no dirt was disturbed this time and there's not a trace of leaves or pieces of cane anywhere in the bed or the surrounding area where both these rose bushes were growing. Next in line is a climbing rose on an obelisk. What can I do to save it and the 21 other David Austin roses in my raised beds garden?

Comments (5)

peachymomo
10 years ago
So the entire plant is gone, not just the roots? The mound of dirt you saw, did it look like it was pushed up from below or dug up from above? I have gophers and they will eat every bit of root, but I've never seen them eat rose canes or leaves. I don't think those sound emitting stakes do any good, for gophers you have to either kill them or keep them away from plants with gopher wire (or hardware cloth.)

I think you need to find out what is doing the damage in order to figure out how to stop it, for something that burrows you might have to dig up and replant all of your roses in protective cages. Or become a gopher (or other varmint) hunter, learn their behavior and trap and kill them at the borders of your property so they don't get close to your plants.

I know the frustration of loosing plants to critters, and I wish you well in your fight to save your roses!
Noradella
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you for the fast reply, Peachy. The mounds of dirt were pushed up from underneath. I dug up the sad remnant of the second disappearing rose bush and there were roots intact. The native soil under the bed is quite hard and I didn't find a tunnel. This is the third growing season in this house and the first problem like this in all my years of gardening (moved here in 1981) in Tucson. I'm a recent widow and senior with arthritis so replanting the roses would be quite daunting. Hopefully it won't come to that but I can't bear the thought of something tunneling under the rows of raised beds and devouring every morsel of my precious roses.
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jerijen
10 years ago
Well, if roots were intact, you don't have gophers.

Tunneling, with no roots chewed -- could be moles???

And roses simply vanishing always raises the possibility that someone simply TOOK them. ("Midnight Landscaping"?) We have seen that happen, here.

Jeri
roseseek
10 years ago
Moles loosen the dirt, disturbing the roots. They eat earthworms, NOT plants. Gophers eat the roots of the plants. I've never had gophers eat the entire plant. If the WHOLE plant is gone, someone stole it.

Get out your hose. Turn it on high. Begin poking it into the mounds of soil you find to see if the water flushes the plug out of a tunnel. If it suddenly finds the tunnel and the water flushes into the soil, you have gophers. Mole tunnels run just under the surface. Gopher can tunnel many feet down. If you have pocket gophers, you CAN flush them out with the water. I have stomped three this way in the past two months and literally drown one with the hose four days ago. The one I found eating a perennial (whose name will not come to mind) in the highest front raised planter night before last, I flooded and couldn't catch him. I took the dogs out and in the front lights I could see the plant shake. It's at eye level from the house level. I grabbed the flash light and hose and easily found his tunnels but not him. Dangit!

I have tried EVERY trap known for gophers and none work well with these. Ours are smaller than the usual, not even the mole traps work. They just tunnel around them. Cooke's Gopher Bait (poisonous) works well and I use it where I know the Toy Fox Terrors won't be able to get to it or the carcasses. Otherwise, I flush their poop and lots of water down the tunnels until they either stop activity in the area or I continue working with the hose until I can find and stomp or drown the critters. If you do actually get him, put his carcass back in the hole and leave it. Not only do they make great fertilizer, other gophers stay away from the decomposing animal until it is fully gone. Good luck. You may need it. Kim
jerijen
10 years ago
There's not enough water in the world to flood the gopher tunnels here. The warren of tunnels extends all over the hillside. Maybe all of Camarillo . . .

I have found that gopher holes DO make a great place to put dog poop. And it DOES seem to drive them away from that area. Katie has a real talent for digging them up and killing them, but it does play h*ll with the "lawn."

We have a new vermin-control device here lately, however. It seems to be effective on gophers, rats, and squirrels . . . NESTING HAWKS. I sort of wish we could keep them here ALL the time.

BTW -- this is why we do not use poison on vermin. I don't mind if a gopher dies in agony, but I don't want to chance harming the hawks.

Jeri