Hi Avalon!

I believe it's rabbits for me as well. It's very frustrating, and a lot of chicken wire.

They seem to prefer some of my roses over others. They ate my carefree beauty roses down to the ground over winter, and left several other roses completely alone. I hope your Mary Rose recovers. I wish I could find another solution... chicken wire isn't expensive, but when you want to wrap it around every rose, clematis, peony, coneflower... it starts to get expensive. And it doesn't exactly look nice either.

What will you do once you catch him? Relocate? I am so torn. I love nature and I love creating a habitat for all the creatures. I wish they wouldn't chomp my roses.... sigh.

Thank you! I hope it comes back. I am sure I won't see any blooms now this year. :/

Is it own root? Will it grow back? I do hope so! I know it will take a while but at least it will live.

I have the menacing rabbits as well. I try to plant things they might like better so they'll leave the roses alone. They LOVE dianthus! So I plant lots of them around and let them munch on those. That works pretty well during the season but not in the late fall and winter when they roses are the only things left green in the garden. I go out to find canes chewed off at the base all the time. They don't even eat the canes, just chew them off and leave them lying on the ground. ARRRGGGHHH!!! However, at the moment they're doing a real number on my spring bulbs. Between the squirrels digging them out and the rabbits eating the tops I probably won't get much tulip bloom this year! My DB is threatening to get a pellet gun but I hate to resort to that.

It probably is own root judging by its hardiness. Sorry Michaela, that just sucks. But now maybe he rose will put energy into growing, and next year it will be bigger and hopefully you will see some blooms- got mine own root and it took about 2 years to bloom.

I think my cat must keep rabbits away.

Get a varmint dog. It will take care of those wascally wabbits. I lost my varmint dog to cancer, and the armadillos are destroying my yard and flower beds. I'm going to have to do something, too. When she was alive, I had no problems with squirrels, possums, raccoons, or armadillos. They were too terrified to enter the property.

I got a great deal on a couple hundred feet of garden fencing. It looks odd to have rings around the babie roses and all the fruit trees but it has made a big different in keeping the digging skunka at bay

All my baby roses have a fence around them. I call it their playpen lol.

At a historic site here, I have seen rabbits eat a mature Polyantha to the ground, over night. I was shocked. I had no idea they could do that.

I can empathize. I have fencing around individual roses too. Year 'round. I call it my rose petting zoo. It's ridiculous, but between the groundhogs, rabbits and deer and whatever else, I just try to go with it. I even named the big black snake(s), because I hate getting surprised by him. Have tried to battle with them and throw them in the creek, but they swim. To shore. Of course my shore. I know it's a good predator to have, so I just accept him and do my best to accept the rest of the wildlife even though it can be so so so trying on one's nerves when growing a garden in which you'd actually like to see all your care and hard work come to fruition. I hope your rose survives and flower's beautifully for you sooner rather than later ; )

I interplant onions and garlic in my rosebeds. I also cut up rotting onions and spreadm them around the bushes as well as the perimeter of the beds. They don't look very nice but the rabbits seem to be turned off by the smell. Next time if you run out of chicken wire, you can chop up an onion and spread it around the plant. It may temporarily help.

We're fortunate that the rabbits have never been a big problem (probably because we feed them) but since the drought they have significantly decreased in number. It's amazing to us that Notch-Ear and Trainee and three-legged Tripod have survived several years in coyote haven here. I used to have to put thorny barriers around young own-root roses because those would be eaten sometimes but this year I haven't done that and nothing's been touched. I feel terrible for those of you who have to wage unceasing war against various pests. Even the roof rats disappeared for a while but they must be back since they chewed through some of the wiring in my husband's car. Strangely, the gophers have completely vanished and they were quite a problem before.

Wow I am blown away by all the comments since I was last here. You guys are just the best. Just coming here to see all these comments cheers me up.

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Seil - it is own root! Thankfully. I'm hoping since it was a two gallon own root from ARE it will bounce back fairly quickly. I'm just so bummed. I never even got a picture of it. It was such an impressive rose.... I would guess 10-15 buds that were very young, no color yet. Such a loss. But at least it should survive.

I really love that suggestion and never thought of that. I am not familiar with dianthus but am going to look it up right now!! The worst is when they don't even eat them!!!

Squirrels do that here as well... they like to dig right next to my peonies. I think they may have killed a newly planted one I got last summer. Haven't seen any signs of it yet and all my other peonies are popping up now. I am pretty much giving up on tulips. I love allium and think I will just spend my energy and money in the fall planting them instead.

My hubby made the same comment today. It makes me sad so think about killing them. Wish they'd just nibble on them rather than destroying the whole plant.

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Thank you alto, I am hoping it will bounce back. I have read that Alchymist is a slow rose to take off. Hopefully since it had a really good root system it will bloom next year. So bummed... I just wanted to see the blooms! I planned on cutting them off right away so the rose didn't spend too much energy keeping them on the plant. Guess the rabbits took care of that for me! Can I ask how big your alchymist was when you got it? Was it a band or a larger rose? Would love to see a photo of yours if you have one!!

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Florida, we have two german shepherds. They aren't varmint dogs but since we got them I have seen a decrease in their presence. Unfortunately this little garden is outside our fence so them it doesn't help. The ridiculous thing is there is a KO, a Kashmir, and a High Voltage rose all with fresh leaves exposed and they didn't touch them! Maybe the blooms are what drew them over to it.

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Kippy, that is awesome! I've been buying rolls of the chicken wire and cutting them into circles and zip-tying them. They're not very pretty but it does help! I have some garden fences I've made into squares to border around some of my roses and hydrangeas but that's a lot more expensive and it will be a long time before I can do that around all of them.

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Jasmine, that is hilarious.. I love it. I have a lot of playpens right now!!!

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Wow, Jeri. That is some hungry rabbits! I haven't had much problem with rabbits and my roses before except for winter and that I couldn't really blame them. Last summer they devoured my clematis over and over again until I finally threw up an ugly chicken wire fence around them.

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Ann, I am glad I don't have to deal with snakes! That would startle me. We had a toad in our garden for several weeks last year and I would scare him when I walked by and he'd launch out from behind a plant and about give me a heart attack! Thank you so much. Hopefully all these positive vibes from everyone here helps it bloom sooner :o)

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Karen, do you think allium like globemaster would accomplish the same thing? I love allium and plan on adding more globemasters this fall... will start throwing them near my roses if you think it would help!

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Ingrid, dumb question, but what do you feed them?

Tried to snap a photo of what is left. At least it still has a few leaves....

Looks like there's some good green cane left so it should survive and put out new growth quickly.

Yep, Karen, you're right, onions! I remember planting onions along the border of my veggie garden one year and it did keep them out. First time I ever got to eat my lettuce, lol! And I know I just recently read somewhere that onions and garlic are good rabbit repellents. I'll have to buy some onion sets and plant them around the roses! I've never grown garlic. Is it hard to grow?

It looks like ornamental allium will do the job as well... might explain why my molineux I planted at the same time was left alone since it's right next 3 allium globemasters coming up.

Looks like my plan of adding globies all over the gardens is much more justified this fall than I thought!

Hi Seil. I don't think that garlic is hard to grow. You just plant the bulbs and they will just take off. I usually buy onions in 3lbs bags and garlic in packs. I have never been able to use up garlic and onions before they sprout. So I just plant these around the rose bushes but I do not harvest them. When they start to form flower buds, I chop all the green parts off and scatter them around the roses as compost. These will regrow the following season. I haven't seen the rabbits in the bed that I have done this. Though the rabbits still attack the roses in beds that I have planted roses mixed with other perennials and no onions or garlic interplantings.

Michaela here's a picture but it isn't all of it. I got it from Ashdown, or High Country Roses. It wasn't a band, but I forget how they used to ship them. Definitely not a gallon pot though. It's probably about 6' tall now.

It's beautiful alto! Thank you for sharing with me! I am looking forward to seeing mine bloom... maybe next year :o)

Thanks! I still remember the year all the buds on Prinz Hirtzenprinzen were eaten by those damn green worms, this was after having the rose 3 years and no buds until then. It just sucks.

I was working near Alchemist today and noticed two suckers. I wonder if they are from that rose or what.

Hi Michaela,

After some discussion, my DH and I decided not to trap-and-release the rabbits. We were going to release them in a nature area close by, but we thought we'd miss them, and were also concerned that they might already have babies in a nest somewhere.

We are going with wire cages around everything. Not the best garden look, but we both enjoy seeing the rabbits, and our cats really get a kick out of watching them from the screen room. Maybe we'll get motivated and put little white picket fences around plants- that would look much better than wire, I think.

I read all of the comments on this thread, and it's interesting to see that so many folks have "rose playpens", as sultryjasminenights calls them. Rabbits are fairly common critters, I suppose.

I have a caution on using onions. In my garden, the gophers LOVED the onions. They ate every single onion I planted. But garlic they leave alone. I have a lot of society garlic growing along the property line where the gophers come over from the neighbors. I do have a mole or two and until Sunday I had a crafty gopher :)

Looks like your chicken wire is hardware cloth. That should keep a lot of critters out. I got the wire garden fencing that is 3"x2" I think It seems to keep the skunks at bay but did not work to keep the hens out of the roses before the bob cat

Oh, I'm sure the bob cat works! We do have some coyotes around but they haven't seemed to make much of a dent in the rabbit population. We also have hawks and I've seen them take a small rabbit. The problem is the dang things breed like...well...rabbits!

I am lucky I only have rabbits & squirrels to deal with! Seeing all of your comments reminds me I could have even more critters trying to devour my roses.

Here's one of my nicer fence setups I am trying, just added this one around a newly planted Incrediball Hydrangea.

The other fence I have been putting up around roses... I don't have a photo from my garden handy, but I take four of these and make them into a square.

I think they look nicer than the chicken wire but can't afford to do that on all of them just yet!

Michaela, here's a better picture of what you can look forward to.

altorama, you are such an enabler! I did not know much about this rose before and now it has to be on my must have list.

So beautiful!! Karen if you decide to get it I highly recommend ARE! Maybe yours would even come with blooms on it! :)

"There's a lot of good eating on one of those" (Terry Pratchett) - although he is referring to a turtle, that's what I tell the rampaging bunnies in my yard. Hasn't worked yet.

Thanks Michaela. I would have ordered it now but I have about 15 roses coming so I think that it will have to wait next year so I have a chance to find a good spot. Do you have a Christmas Tree shoppes nearby? I saw my CTS carried a bunch of really nice decorative fence set for $3.99 with 3 or 4 pieces.

Oh yeah, that's great though! 15 roses! We don't, but that's a steal!