We just bought this place a couple of months ago and I’m beginning to think that the war against the gophers is going to be very long. In the mean time I’m thinking of keeping the roses in 5 gallon containers. I’m just not sure how long they can stay potted. I’m working mostly with floribundas and a few HT’s. Any suggestions?
There is a ton of work to be done to get this place in garden condition. I think you can see the gopher skyscrapers here.
Good luck with those vermin, Jeff! I sympathize with you! I’ve kept roses in five gallon cans for YEARS with few losses. Not that they were happy, flourished or even really “performed”, but if you can shade the pots from the worst, direct, intense hot sun and make sure they don’t lose their soil, all you really have to do is keep them watered. Be careful not to let them grow into the ground unless you relish digging out volunteers from the roots forever. The Clino-Bracteata seedling continues trying to resprout right where I planted my Annie Laurie McDowell and there are many coming back all over the area they occupied in the cans.
Jeri and Clay Jennings out in Camarillo, CA, plant their roses in large squat plastic pots right into the ground to keep the gophers out. They say it’s working for them and they’ve been doing it for some years. I guess the rims of the pots being above ground level help to corral the water so it flushes through the pots instead of flowing out over the sides. I would have worried the gophers would chew through the drain holes for entry, but that’s not what they’re experiencing. It might be something to consider when planting.
Thanks Kim. I’ve wrapped the roots on some that went into the ground with 1/4 inch hardware cloth, but I’m thinking that after a few years that could be a lot of metal in the ground if I need to rework an area for some reason. The pot in the ground might work pretty well. I’ve read some articles that tree growers use a pot in pot system. Thanks for the suggestion.
You’re welcome! I dig up old hardware cloth and chicken wire here on the hill. Thirty years ago, the whole thing was planted by Theodore Payne, the big local native nursery and all were planted in cages. The cages remain, the plants didn’t. It’s remarkable how long that wire lasts in this soil.
Jeff,
I have close to 100 roses planted in ground with approx 5 gal size chicken wire cages around their roots, closed on the bottom and sitting about 3-4 inches above ground. Haven’t lost one to gophers since adopting that strategy. I believe Vintage uses that method. The gophers get them below ground and the fruit and desert wood rats get them above ground. For the last two yrs I have had this cat that sits on the roof at night and when she sees or hears a gopher or rat she goes after them, and she doesn’t chase off the 3-4 feral cats that I feed just for sticking around and keeping down the rodent population. I was able to have roses in pots sitting on the ground for the first time this yr (in 20 yrs) because they are doing such a good job. Things still get damaged a little, like my kiwi got all its’ leaves eaten this yr, but not for long. Occasionally a low hanging rose disappears, but again, not many. I don’t plant out many young roses until I know I am likely to keep them, just so I don’t have to invest the effort for nothing. The gophers do keep moving into and take over the recently “vacated boroughs” and do trim the roots that grow out side of the wire, but the root systems get pretty well established and can take a little pruning until the cats catch up with them.
Jackie, is there no ‘fumigant’ that you all can use on the rodent population ?
Jeff, I don’t plant my seedlings in the ground because of gophers and oak root fungus. I grow many in 5 gallon pots, and some bigger ones in 15 gallon pots. One good thing about our cool foggy summer climate is that pots don’t dry out as quickly as they do in a hot climate. A good local source for inexpensive pots of all sizes is Western Farm Service at the corner of highway 129 and Lakeview Road just east of Watsonville. Are you coming to the Monterey Bay Rose Society rose show tomorrow?
David, there are some gases and fumigants that supposedly work. I think that cats and traps work better and faster. The underground runs that some of these gophers have are extremely extensive, and in an old area (anything that is not new construction) gophers close off some parts of their burrows on a regular basis to keep out gopher snakes (we have seen a few of those) rain or water run off, and being pretty anti social, to keep each other out. It is in late fall and early spring that they seem to leave the family nest and branch out looking for an abandoned run or start a new one. It is pretty hard to tell where one gopher’s tunnel ends and the next ones’ starts. I’m pretty sure they know. But they are a lot like the rabbits in Australia- every where a predator is not. It’s just problematic because you can’t see them, don’t know the extent of their tunnels, and might not even know that you have them until a plant, rose, or tree suddenly drops into a hole, seemingly without the benefit of having a root to prop it up because the damn rodent just ate it all up. I have had the ‘good fortune’ of dropping into one of their tunnels that came to close to the surface and the soil was soft from recent rain. This is why gases and fumigants don’t work well-it is to easy for the gopher to block or have part of his/her run blocked if he/she detects anything. This is why the wire works so well protecting the main root ball.
Thanks for the responses.
David: I tried rigging the exhaust of an old lawnmower with pipe and shoving it down a hole. I let it run until the gas ran out. Didn’t do anything to the gophers.
Jim: I should be at the nursery about noon or so. I’ll see if I can find you hanging around
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Jeff, I hope to see you today. I will be leaving the show to have lunch with the judges and MBRS members around 12:25. Maybe you’d like to join us?
Ninety percent of my roses are grown in pots. This is not by choice but necessity. I am surrounded by 4 huge elm trees. The roots of these trees extend far beyond the drip line of the tree and any plant in their path is strangled by the fine fiberous roots that can form a mat of roots up to two inches thick which deprives the rose or shrub of water and fertilizer. Two of the trees are on neighbors property, one on our property shades our master bedroom from the blazing afternoon sun and the fourth we will most likely have taken down in the next couple of years. My pots must also be set on saucers or atop landscape cloth because these roots can find a drainage hole and totally engulf a pot in a years time.
I attempt to move roses up into larger containers as needed. This is not an ideal situation but is the only way to grow roses in my yard.
That’s frequently an issue, Joan. I battled Paper Mulberry trees for years. NASTY things! A fruitless form was used in the mid Twentieth Century in these parts as a predecessor to Fruitless Mulberry as a home shade tree. VERY invasive roots which travel great distances and infiltrate pots, plumbing, and any soil it finds. The tree “glued” nearly three hundred pots to the ground. I had to uproot them and make sure I didn’t take any major roots with me when I moved the roses to Newhall back in 1989. I feared taking the thing with me and having it invade the hillside the roses went to.
The wood of Paper Mulberry is useless. It doesn’t burn, so firewood is not a use for it. It’s extremely brittle, so you could break major limbs by bending them. You coudn’t grind it up as it got gummy in the shredder. The copious litter was useless as it got gummy when wet, forming a layer of solid crud on the soil surface, so they were of no use for mulch. It flowered seemingly year round so there was always pollen to foul up your allergies. It suckered via the roots and had MAJOR surface roots which ran any and everywhere. The wind would break major branches off regularly and the whole tree could topple just for the fun of it, like Eucalyptus. Termites LOVED them. Fortunately, none of them traveled with the roses. White Birch is every bit as nasty as is the California Black Walnut out back.
Aleppo pines do the same thing. I often cut into a root when planting and can tell if they are Aleppos or Eucalyptus by smelling the wood/sap. and they can travel easily 100’. And the gophers don’t bother them! Of course the shade they cast is another challenge. We have removed about 20 eucs, aleppos and acacia since moving here, but now that we are getting a little older, have slowed the pace down a lot. But, if I get my way about this, there are at least 5-6 more on the list, with a couple of these on the neighbors land. These trees all get around 50-100 ft tall, with some of them about 50-70’ now. The builder of this house was definitely into junk trees. What is funny is that so many of the aleppo seeds fall into the seedling pots, and how fast they grow if they are not spotted immediately.
You’re missing the opportunity of a home based business, Jackie. “Seeding Bonsai Trees”!