Today my wife found a new rose shoot just nipped off (9" up)and gone (looking chewed) - we live in town. Any ideas . . .
Could be cutworms, they climb and chew off shoots. Disturb the soil around the roses and look under rocks and litter. If you see a pale fat caterpillar type insect that coils defensively into a "pigtail" coil, that's your cutworm. http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/insects/fad06s00.html Some say you can make shields for plants with plastic containers, around the stem like a collar, dug partly into the dirt. Hand picking works (because they are quite large), however Muscovy ducks are really da bomb for cutworms, they go gonzo for them.
I should probably think of logging in when we find out the problem and replying - but hey that's human nature. We've seen the culprits and put up cages around the effected roses - only certain ones were eaten. Those culprits are rabbits which have been seen and occasionally escorted out of the yard by a dachshund! We're going to try human hair - we've heard it works great. Thanks for the ideas.
