Lainey2, I don't think there is an easy answer. I have a similar problem along my 70' chain link fence that over the years has developed a drainage problem. My son, who is a landscape contractor, is developing a bed for me; it appears that he is building a sort of berm to offset this problem as well as taking some soil off the edge of my patio.

We're talking major landscape and tree soil being added, don't know if this will work, but it's a start. It's not going to be cheap, and I really had to think about how important it was to me, but must be done if I want to have the plants I want.

Lainey -
How is the area the rest of the year? What kind of soil do you have? Is it heavy clay?
The answer may be as easy as adding lots of organic material or may be as complex as installing a French drain.
Are any other plants growing in the same area?

We have been raising our rose beds with compost--we make lots of it out of tree leaves and grass. We also got a sump pump to help in case we got heavy rain like we got one year while the ground was still frozen, but it wasn't needed this year.

I've gardened here, upstate NY, since '92 and have had consistent problems growing roses. About 1/3 of those I planted died or have malingered. Part of the problem is heavy soil and in places very shallow soil. Lots of shale around here even out cropping at the end of one bed.

Still they are some roses that are unaffected shrugging off what is sometimes mentioned in rose books as doing well in "poor" soil. So....it could be one of those cases where another rose might make it there. A rose that is tough as nails grows in any soil and even does it in shade is Rugosa Alba. Also disease free. Has a wonderful big beautiful white very fragrant flower AND repeats bloom.

You have to determine if it's a temporary problem due to a lot of rain, or an ongoing problem (it floods every time it rains) there are spots in my yard where the water collects and they stay wet long after everything else is dried out. My yard is high in the front and gets lower in the back yard to direct the water to a drainage hole. I did have a lot of landscaping in my back yard to help with this and had all my downspouts buried to carry the water away from the house and to the drainage hole. I also have several french drains in spots. I still have some minor issues in spots.

Even with that, my flower beds will get very soggy if we have a lot of rain over a short time. Not much you can do about that. You can't really improve the drainage in a small spot except for building a raised bed.

It's been a mucky mess the last 3 springs, including this one, hasn't it? Farmers can't even get tractors into the fields. They sink.

What usually is a great spot for roses has turned into mud bogs. I raised the beds, I have a sump pump, and I'm in the process of plotting out some new beds designed for shade plants that will hopefully gobble water in some of the boggiest areas.

Right now I'm seriously hoping that this is a short term pattern, but only time will tell. In the meantime, I've traded gardening clogs for those rubber rain boots and invested in a lot of Oxyclean to get the mud out of all my jeans. I refuse to transform to container gardening and I'm determined to ride out this weather pattern.

And guess what...more rain forecast today. They've been blowing dams just south of me in the Cairo area this week. So sad.

I'd dig deeper and see if there is a clay layer below that's preventing the water from draining. If so you may need to dig past that and then add more soil and organics to get it to drain properly.

Fill in the hole and make a raised bed over that spot. Fill raised bed with good soil and drainage problem solved.