Hi! Sorry to hear about the damage. Pull any mulch away from the base, and look carefully at the broken ends; could they have been chewed? I know cutworms and slugs can do damage like that, to quite thick canes, in very little time (like over night).

Best,
Lara

How would I know if it was a cutworm, and what could I do about it?

Deanna

Rabbits?

Connie

Are the stems kind of top-heavy with blooms? I have a few roses that put out new canes that are so floriferous that they almost knock the cane over. I have to judiciously prop them up with a support stick or twig with a good v-shaped end--more or less permanent support to keep those top-heavy canes somewhat upright (usually slanting at an angle, but at least not falling all the way down to the ground).

Just a possibility.

Kate

Sasquatch? LOL

Groundhogs will pull a young stem over and taste it to see if it's good to eat. Roses don't really appeal to them much, but they do some damage anyway.

This is not rabbits-- they nibble off shoot tips and young leaves, leaving the leaf stem.

These aren't skinny floppy stems. These are good strong stems that were standing tall before they got severed. It's very strange.

We don't have any ground hogs around here.

Deanna

Severed or broken over?

Not sure how to answer that. The canes aren't broken or bent in the middle. They're broken off down at the base with just a little bit left attached, and the canes are just laying flat on the ground. And it's the stronger canes rather than the thinner ones.

I'm wondering if I should put cages around the rest of my roses so it doesn't happen to them, whatever it is. I know it's not related to overfertilization, because I haven't even fertilized yet. But we've had lots of rain.

I looked to see if maybe they're rotting at the base of the canes from rain keeping the mulch wet, but that's not it. They're just broken off.

Deanna

We lose canes all the time in heavy wind driven rain--staking them will help but it looks ugly. Tying them together also helps--not quite so ugly. Our garden is fenced--rabbits just look at the roses through chicken wire supported by a picket fence.

Thin canes are more likely to bend, while thick canes supporting a lot of top growth are likely to break.

Deanna - I'm just over in KY, and I have had the same problem. I've been finding quite a few canes broken from the base as well.
IMO, I attribute it to the strong winds and hard rains that we've been getting.(Even some larger than usual hail!). But now your post has got me wondering! I'm going to keep a lookout for more,just in case it might be something more!

Thanks!
Shelly

If the canes are still red, they are tender and suseptible to strong winds knocking them down, cause the cane hasn't hardened off yet

I told you it was Sasquatch..no one listens to me