24 hours ago this plant looked amazing. Now it looks like this

Check for a rabbit warren in the roots or maybe a vole got it.

I'm not seeing any obvious holes near it and I can't pull it up. I'm afraid if dig it up I'll kill it.

Flush with water first. If no rebound, I would dig it up and soak in water and pot it.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR It was watered very well this morning before I went out to look at it. How long would you wait until digging it up?

You might also check for dying or black parts of the cane at the base. Usually that's on selected canes rather than the whole bush, but some canes can rot out at the base and result in a fairly rapid decline of the foliage above. If so, prune them off and let it regrow.

Otherwise it looks either like too little or too much water. Sometimes roses cannot uptake the water they're receiving if they're in heavy clay and the water sits around their roots. There are other nutrient issues that can be involved with poor water uptake but I don't know them so I won't speculate except to say that wilting can result from too much water that it isn't able to use effectively.

Not like too much watering is happening from here through the western US any time soon. I can't water my roses deeply enough to keep up with record and sustained heat with no rain. You're in Colorado so maybe the water you're giving it is getting taken up by neighboring plants and it's just not enough. I run my sprinklers on a garden bed for about an hour to deeply soak the entire area, so that might be worth a try. Roses would rather be watered deeply then let them put down deep roots than water frequently with shallow roots that dry out quickly.

Cynthia

Check for gopher damage. They will tunnel in from afar, so no above ground entrances. I have had similar incidents, and it was gophers. Otherwise, what Sheila said is good advice. Diane

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR I did a little digging right around the base and tried to pull quite firmly and it didn't budge, it seems to be rooted fairly well. I'll give it a deep watering now.

@Nippstress Nebraska z5 Thank you. The canes look green and very healthy even at the very base. Honestly when I dug down to check the roots I was surprised at how dry the soil was even though the sprinklers went off just this morning! This is MW's 3rd year and I have never had a water issue before... but I will give it more and see how it does. I can't believe the soil wasn't more moist though....

@Diane Brakefield can I ask how much you water yours?

So there will be no ”autopsy” after all.

That’s good.

If the temperature is between 95-100F, I water deeply every day (one hour on the drip system). That's a lot of water, but as I've mentioned many times, we get only 10 inches of precipitation per year, and that includes snow. So, we rely entirely on irrigation with sprinklers and the drip system. I also have almost all soil in flower beds covered with plants. They make great "mulch". Diane

Wow, I guess I didn't realize the intensity of water needs around here. That's so discouraging, I was hoping to have an eco friendly garden but I guess I have not accomplished that.

@Diane Brakefield We do get snow, though snow coverage is far from consistent or reliable here, but our average rainfall for the year is apparently 9.88". So during the growing season I guess we're in the same boat. When my neighbors told me they watered 3x a week for 30-40 minutes at a time, I was seriously stunned. I refused to water as much as them. Well, it's probably why they ended up harvesting significantly more from their garden than I did. The farmland across the street from us watered their crop with one of those giant moving sprinklers ALL DAY LONG yesterday. Now I get why. I guess that's really what it takes here.

Extreme water needs for a huge part of the country that produces our food plus heavy ongoing drought conditions and wildfires... well isn't that enough to make one nervous...

We do 50 min. on a drip system every three days. I cheated yesterday and gave them an extra 20 min, but then knocked off 10 min. from today's scheduled watering. Hopefully my little cheat will give them enough deep water without giving them too much.

In hind sight I should have run all watering systems a day early instead of waiting until today. We usually run the sprinklers over night and last night would have been perfect. As it was I got up at 4 a.m. and started them but that makes us water into the day which isn't optimum as too much evaporates.

The rock bed they are in is like an oven due to the rocks and a west facing brick wall. I should put a thermometer out there on a 100 degree day. I wouldn't be surprised to see 135F-140F. You absolutely cannot touch the rocks when the sun is on them. They will burn your skin instantaneously.

When we first planted the bed I showed Matt at High Country Roses a picture and asked him if he thought roses would survive. He really hemmed and hawed and said it wasn't optimum. I decided to try anyways and have been really pleased.

After looking around I found that alot of people here have roses in rock beds. Even the picture of a tour of a rosarian's home from the Denver Rose society looked to have river rock beds like ours.

What is that phenomenon called when the soil forms an impenetrable barrier? You can water until you're sure it's puddling in the bottom of the hole, then find it's only wet for about a 1/4" down? I'm sure there's a name for it. Some soils and composts are worse than others at forming a barrier, keeping the roots dry even after you think you've sufficiently watered. Watering as you back fill helps.

Magpie, once the plant gets established, you won't have to water as much. And, if it's that barrier thing happening, once the soil gets wet, it will accept water more readily in the future.

Magpie, I'm not surprised your farmer neighbor watered all day long. We get little snow, with exceptional years (I'm talking about the valleys, not the mountains). Idaho is a big agricultural state, all made possible by our fantastic irrigation system based on amount of mountain snow melt, which flows into streams, then rivers, then into reservoirs held back by dams. This system provides hydroelectric power (clean energy) as well as irrigation water, and lots of recreation. And like most of the West, fires are a problem and a worry. Here's a pyrocumulus cloud produced a few years ago by a huge forest fire quite a few miles away. It's a cloud not smoke. Diane

Flowers, that's called caliche, and we have it, as well as lots of the arid West.

Magpie, if you don't have a drip system on your roses, you probably need one.

Here are some desert hills. The mountains are just a few miles away, and in the other direction lies the valley with lots of agriculture going on in the rich soil. Diane

It's just strange that MW is 3 years old and I've not had this issue before, and I wasn't watering more often before. Probably less actually. So 🤷‍♀️

So glad to hear, Magpie. Watering with drip would really help. Hydrophobic soil repels water like Flowers said, too, if it gets too dry.

Diane, I don't think we're talking about the same thing as far as impenetrable soil. I have plenty of caliche (learned from you a couple years ago), but I'm talking about trying to moisten the fluffy new soil in a planting hole. When you think you've saturated the area, and it's still dry just under the thin top surface. It's a mystery where the water goes, but it's not saturating the soil at all.

That cloud photo is awesome, literally, and your hills always make me think of another planet, they are so austere.

Ah! Sheila, that must be the word I was searching for. Hydrophobic soil. There have been times I'm sure I'm watering someone's garden on the other side of the planet, but it's actually not even sinking into my own soil.

morpheuspa in the Lawn forum regularly describes successful use of baby shampoo to convert hydrophobic soil to nice, fluffy water-accepting soil. He knows what he’s talking about.

Michevious Magpie: Is that a bit of pine straw I see? Please describe the thickness of your mulch extending out circumferentially one foot from the base of your recently desiccated Mumstead Wood. Is your rose sufficiently mulched?

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3385626/how-does-baby-shampoo-help-my-lawn#n=5

@rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ) that's just dead crocus foliage. I have a few inches of pine bark mulch but not a ton.

And I watered the hell out of it but no signs of recovery :/ should I defoliate it to stop transpiration from the leaves for now?

Did someone tell you to defoliate it? No, don't. Those leaves may still be an energy source for the rose, not to mention if they revive (which is looking iffy), they will shade the plants root zone. Sheila, what should Magpie do? Dig up the rose and soak it overnight and then pot it? I think that's what I'd do. I wish Sheila would chime in. If she doesn't, and there's no sign of revival, do as Sheila wrote earlier--dig, soak, and plant in pot. Diane

Flowers, I misread your post, and on reading it again, realized I'd given you the wrong information. I think the baby shampoo idea is a good one for hydrophobic soil. Diane

I wish we knew for sure the plant has roots left. I did not defoliate my gopher eaten ones, but I have heard that doing so immediately throws them into dormancy which might be helpful until you figure out what is going on. If the plant is flooded with water and there is no response the roots or lack thereof would worry me. If you had chronically underwatered the plant, it usually would not look this healthy up until the wilting. My roses that have been too dry looked starved and wan but did not suddenly wilt.

I really wish the plant could be soaking in a water filled trug after this near death experience. If that happened the leaves would perk right up.

Autopsy was not the right word. Your plant needs to go through a root evaluation operation, Magpie.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR So you would dig it up at this point? If I dig it up, do I leave the ground soil in the roots, or should I brush it off so they're in light potting soil instead for recovery?

@Diane Brakefield, same question?

I agree, Sheila. It's the best option. Diane

I would soak the plant overnight in a trug of water, Magpie. The soil will fall off. I repotted my plants in potting mix after the soak and potted them in 5 or 7 gal pots.

You will identify the problem in this process. If the plant has roots it will settle in and grow a nice rootball by Fall when you can put it back in the ground. If the roots are gone mine grew new roots in 3-6 months too.

Put the pot in the shade at least to start, while the plant is recovering.

I think mine will go in the ground this Fall in Gopher baskets.

Thank you, Rifis, I appreciate the reminder and the link. I read every word, understood a few, thanks to the definitions morpheuspa provided after each unfamiliar word and remembered reading about the baby shampoo solution a long time ago. I would never have thought of it without having my memory jogged. Baby shampoo will be added to my garden supplies.

Diane, I was sure you misread that. i do have that layer of hardened 'soil?' in some areas. What a pain that stuff is! It's like planting in a bucket.

Magpie, I also planted a Munstead several years ago that suddenly went limp and started turning yellow. I did exactly as Sheila suggested to you. Mine defoliated itself when the leaves turned yellow. I replanted it in the same hole with fresh planting mix because I thought something I added might have caused the problem. And, just as Sheila said, it perked right up and has been fine since.

Oh no, my post disappeared. I think I figured out the issue. I dug it up and found a smallish but intact root system so that part is fine. But because of severe winter dieback, all the grafted canes died completely except for a tiny bit of one. The whole bush that grew back was supported by that one small cane, and it broke partway somehow (possibly from the weight of the bush after it got wet from the sprinklers). It looks attached but it's able to move a bit as if on a hinge so I know it's partly broken. So now my question, is there any chance of rooting the cane that is actually MW after all of this today, or is it done and now I just have a Dr. Huey rootstock on my hands?

Do you have rooting horomone to help with the rooting? It seems like it would be worth a try. My MW is own root from DA so it's certainly a variety that grows fine OR.

I don't have the rooting powder. But I do have potting mix I can put it in.

Soaking it overnight would still possibly help. I do have an own root MW doing very well.

You could soak and plant as is in a pot and put it in the shade and maybe the broken piece could get something from the understock while it is growing new roots. The negative here would be if only Dr. Huey grew and not MW it would not be good.

Turning the broken part into a huge cutting is what I did sort of with my rescues but it was during the dormant season that my roses lost their roots which was easier on them.

This is all too bad and I am so sorry. I really hope the rose could make it.

Thank you, everyone who tried to help! @Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR yes it is unfortunate, the rose was my first one ever. 3 years ago my husband told me to pick whatever I'd like from the nursery and he'd get it for me as a gift, and at that time I did not like roses at all (I didn't realize the range in how they could look!) and was on the lookout for something else, but as I was shopping the scent of the rose greenhouse lured me into it and somehow I walked out with a Munstead Wood. No blooms or buds so I had no idea really what to expect, just figured why not take a chance? And some time after buying it it bloomed just 1 flower and the fragrance was so lovely I fell in love with it, and subsequently fell down the slippery slope of rose collecting/growing. I would definitely be sad to lose it, but I spent the whole day fretting about it and now I'm so tired I think the worst of it is passed. I will be okay. If all MW had ever done was bloomed that one flower that inspired me to garden the way I do today, it still would have a place in my heart.

That is beautiful, Magpie!

Magpie, glad you found the problem but sorry that it appears to be fatal. However, look at it as an opportunity to pick up something that will be cane hardy here in Colorado. Maybe a visit to High Country Roses is in order. :-)

I don't have this one but Canadian shrub, zone 2, repeats in flushes? What isn't to like.

https://www.highcountryroses.com/shop/modern-roses/hardy-canadian-roses/adelaide-hoodless/

This is the sort I'm going for in the future.

@mmmm12COzone5 if only you knew how long my "wishlist" on the HCR website was already 😅😅😅 they are all zone 4 and below because I want big roses.

Magpie, you didn't try soaking your rose, even with the break? I thought, what the heck, it can't hurt and might help. Sheila, the doc, is full of good practical advice. I'm sorry this worked out so badly because your MW was a beauty. I love the photo above. Diane

Magpie,

Then I would dump Munstead and pull the trigger on one on your wish list.

We have successfully put in High Country Roses bands April, May, June, July and August. The trick is to put a wire cage around them to protect them from rabbits (the tender rose is very tempting to them) and put a piece of window screening over the top that drapes down one side pretty far (for the west) and a little on the other side for the eastern sun. We have two types of screen, solar (which is heavier and thicker) and standard. Then you can position the screen so it gradually gets more and more sun. We attach the screen with tomato plant clips but you can use binder clips or clothes pins. That way you can easily move it to gradually remove the shade.

We put in Fred Loads July 2020. Here is it's shade cover. The right corner, hanging down, provides morning shade. You can see there is more material on the left for evening shade. We are starting Fred Loads with solar window screening which is heavier than normal screen because it went into the ground in July.

The blue clips are from amazon and we use them for our tomatoes and climbing roses.

https://smile.amazon.com/Yinghezu-Supporting-Climbing-Straightening-Trellis/dp/B07T362D5N/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=plant+clips&qid=1594152891&sr=8-4

As the rose gets more used to the sun we rotate the shade cover so it is getting morning and evening sun. Eventually we take it off on hazy or weak sun days. After a bit it comes off completely but we leave the cage up. The rabbits really love tender roses whereas they will leave the older thicker canes alone.

@Diane Brakefield No I did soak it, in fact it is still soaking. It's definitely not looking better though.

I can't like that. What a shame. You will persevere. Diane

DA does sell own root roses too, Magpie. I have a MW own root. So sorry your rose desiccated before the soak.