Thanks for the info Sue!
It's been about four years since I was actively reading this site, so I missed Zuzu's quoted comment.
I'll not be able to find the comment I'm thinking about, but somebody asked the question about why Dr. Huey rootstock was used on the west coast, and my recollection was that she mused that it might have to do with Dr. Huey being more gopher resistant... The comment would have been ca. 2012. It made a big impression. So big that all the roses I bought this year will be on Dr. Huey...
I know that the very first rose in my own garden to be identified as being killed by gnawing gophers was Katharina Ziemet, a multiflora hybrid. But the second was a hybrid tea rose bought from a big box store, almost certainly on Dr Huey roots. In both cases, I think the roses were stressed by some some other factor.
I suspect Quietness was lost this way, too.
Folklore and Duftzauber 84 were shovel pruned because of loss of vigor which I suspected was due to gopher damage - but I was not able to confirm this when I pitched them. They were on multiflora rootstock. I find myself pulling up most of my Palatine selections (on multiflora rootstock); but it could be that most of my purchases in the last five years from Palatine have been HT roses; and most purchases from other suppliers have belonged to some other class.
Until roses on fortuniana rootstock are easy to find in commerce, I suppose I'll find myself replacing a lot of roses.
Meanwhile I'm planting belladonna, digitalis, and euphorbias in my rose beds this year. Since I lose less than a rose a year on average it will be hard to know for sure whether this does any good. I got a psycholgical setback this morning, though, when I observed a new pile of gopher-excavated dirt six inches from one of the foxgloves I planted in the fall to repel them.
