Are you able to cut off a couple canes and check if there is any borer larvae or tunneling in the canes?

How has the rose been pruned over the years? Looks like good spring prunings may have been in short supply? Where do you garden....zone? further descriptions such as: hot and dry summers with mild winters, or hot, very humid summers with cold winters, etc...?

Tell us so that we can help you better. 😁

Moses.

I will cut that cane back tomorrow and look at it closely. In the past, I have pruned it back about 1/3 as well as take out the older canes completely. It has been stunning in previous years. I grow a lot of roses but have never encountered this problem before.

I wonder about the roots. Are you in gopher country?

Or voles, Sheila. No gophers in these parts, but voles can devour rose roots here over winter, so that come spring, even a mature rose bush can literally be lifted out of the ground with one hand, no roots, all gone, eaten away.

Moses.

Vancouver, Washington, is across the river from Portland, Oregon, and is probably zone 8. Diane

Yes, zone 8. So far, I've never had a problem with voles (knock wood). I have around 50 roses and have not seen any damage elsewhere. This particular rose is in a raised berm if that makes a difference.

Have you gently tried to lift the rose out? Yes, I think a berm might make a difference with voles. They like to tunnel along in that kind of thing. Your hometown of Vancouver was where I was born back in the Stone Age--ha. Anyway, it should be obvious if the voles chewed off the roots of your rose. I wish I could be of more help. Diane

In the meantime while you assess if voles could be involved, the canes you showed are dead and won't hurt if you prune them down. Not living in vole territory, all those canes look like winter kill to me and I'm used to pruning many roses down to the ground and letting them come back from the ground or from the graft. That might be a good idea anyway to not make the rose support dying canes and concentrate on regrowing, including if the voles have eaten some roots. If so, I expect the vole experts will give you advice about soaking and protecting the roots when replanting.

In my experience, LEH is a finicky rose and if any of your 50 roses would be a diva about temperatures, that would be my pick.

Cynthia

Out West here gophers eat roots and voles eat tops. I know it is voles eating roots in the East. You may need to dig this plant up to see what is going on then replant in a pot if roots are eaten.

I just had a lilac get roots eaten. I have plants in root baskets now, but planted this lilac before I started that. I have left it in the ground and hope it makes it with extra water.

Voles eat roots in this out West place. I've caught them in their vole cities tunneling all over the lawn and the flower beds. They bring little piles of grass to store in their tunnels and destroy perennial and rose roots. One year, after I'd eliminated the rodents with vole/mouse bait in their tunnels, little tufts of grass from the stored grass emerged from tunnel entrances all over the flower bed in later spring. One dead vole was stuck down head first in his tunnel and dead. What a mess that was, but I cleared them out. Gophers leave a pile of frass next to their tunnel entrances and the tunnels are a little larger. Years ago, we had a huge number of the tunnel entrances in the gully below us, each with a little pile of frass next to the entrance. It was quite a sight. Soon, the badgers moved in and decimated the gophers. I confronted a badger near our slope and he tried to stare me down, but finally turned and ran down the slope. I found badger diggings on the slope below our back yard as they went after the gophers. It was war! Apparently, coyotes stand by when the badgers, the best diggers, go after a rabbit or gopher. The yotes are ready to give chase to any prey that escapes the badger, who can dig like crazy, but whose short little legs can't run that fast. Anyway, after the badgers killed off the gophers, I never saw a tunnel entrance with its pile of frass again. Now, my kitty, Finn patrols for voles and catches them, often leaving them for us to find on the patio and often headless. The voles still tunnel under snow cover, chewing paths through the grass. They did it again this winter. But once the snow cover was gone, so were they (Finn?). Voles are all over the place here in the West. Diane

Here is an update: I cut back the dead cane a little at a time and I did not see any evidence of insects. It appears that one entire side of the rose died, as I said before, one cane at a time. It looks like a new shoot is emerging from this area. I did notice unusual coloration on one of the other canes.

Well, that's obviously not vole or gopher damage. It looks like bacterial cane canker. We had a scourge of that about 15 years ago around Boise (I live in the desert hills outside Boise, SW Idaho, zone 7). I don't think you can rescue this rose. Diane

Thank you so much. That is a bummer as this is one of our favorites.

Google Phyton 27 for rose cane blight. This is the treatment that was used in the Boise area. It might help. Your rose looks pretty bad, but having Phyton 27 on hand might be wise. It is a bacteriocide and fungicide. I hope others might chime in here with any suggestions. The Phyton 27 was recommended by the state plant scientist. Diane

Thanks so much. I work at a nursery and I'll inquire about this. Amazon says it can't be shipped to Washington...

Or you might just remove it and plant another rose . I get canker on some roses every year and almost always the rose dies cane by cane . I do spray my roses .

I wish I had a badger, Diane. I do have roots eaten and mounds and denuded rose canes. I also have rose canes eaten off. Whoever it is, I wish the critters could move on. We have oodles of voles here. I am ready for a colony collapse.

Bacterial cane blight is supposedly different than canker which is fungal. Blight is bacterial and there is a difference. Phyton 27 isn't systemic, but the information I have read says that systemics don't work on cane blight.

I think our vole colony did collapse, Sheila. Due to pressure from me, removing a massive plant stand of heliopsis which the voles hid beneath, and my kitty, Finn, the voles have beat a retreat. But constant vigilance is necessary. Diane

Removing this massive stand of helopsis really messed up the voles. I recommend that if you have a wall to wall army of plants, remove them, or drastically thin them out.

That is part of my problem, Diane. I do have dense plantings and ideal habitat for critters. I am not sure I could have had the heart to tear out those gorgeous flowers of yours.

Passionvine, that is wonderful and I am thrilled. Your rose looks thick and luscious, and it will be blooming soon. Please keep us posted on how things go with this rose. Diane