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.

Cats!!!

I don't have any experience with voles in my garden. However, I have read postings suggesting that planting the rose in a large pot in the ground will keep voles out.

Don Juan is one of my favourites and does very well for me. I'm sorry that yours didn't make it. Was it on Fortuniana? I have read posts that claim that Fort is not reliably hardy around Z7.

hope this helps,
Avalon

The point that I was trying to make about dealing with voles is that you have to have a reasonable solution. You can't grow your roses in pots in the ground. A solution that you will hear is to create a huge wire fence basket which you can put in each hole for each rose but this is a lot of work and completely unnecessary. What can do that will work is to put a wire mesh fence around the rose buried deep enough to be deeper than the voles will go and above ground enough to stop them on the surface. This will prevent voles from getting to the roots. This is also a lot of work for a lot of roses so my solution was to wire fence protect the entire garden and it worked. For an individual rose like the successor to Don Juan I would protect against voles with a wire mesh fence around the base.

I think most climbers can take Z7--Don Juan is known for dying in winter.

I am planning my rosegarden..and we do have voles and gophers. The back part of our property is a green belt. Last year we had to get an exterminator because I put out bird seed and the rats arrived. It was our first year here..lol. Anyway I think since we do have this problem I am thinking I need to make preparations for voles. What type of screen should I use..Like landscape weed barrier..more details please

zyperiris, Use heavy duty wire screen with the mesh about 1/2 inch meaning nothing bigger than 1/2 inch can get through it. I believe it is zinc coated so it wont rust. Bury it 8-10 inches below the surface and leave 2-4 inches above at least. I put it much higher and attached it to my fence and it also keeps out rabbits. Buy it at HD. Henry

Henry, Bury the wire horizontal as well as vertical?

I can't believe what I'm reading. I just did finished making a brand new veggie garden and my hubby thought I was nuts for digging a 12-18" trench around the exterior. I lined the entire thing with 1/4" wire mesh. I left about 3-4" up out of the ground and they are stapled to wooden 6x6's. We also have an above ground vinyl fence with 1/2" holes to keep the rabbits out.

I did protect Don Juan, however I guess it wasn't enough. He was a beauty for me.

I have had DJ in zone 5 killer winters for about 12 years with no winter protection...He is up against the house in a somewhat protected area. I MUST have some mutant...a mutant with dark red velvety fragrant flushes 3 times a season. He does not get huge in my zone...about 4 feet.