Solution for Rose-sick site?

[Glutton4...]

I have a customer with a very sick looking small formal Rose bed. The Roses were fed with manure last autumn, and the failed plants were replaced, but are not thriving. I think the bed is Rose-sick. I have pruned them all, and will be manuring again next month. Is there an easy solution?

[Aberdeenplotter]

The author of this site says no Rose Soil Sickness. (Rose Replant Disease.) but I'm sure I saw something recently about a new product on the market. can't find it now though. Still looking

[SarzWix]

Have you tried Mycorrhizal Fungi? (I had to Google it to find the spelling ) I've read it somewhere that it's good for this. There's plenty of info about it if you have a lookie, but there's this for starters:
Mycorrhizal Fungi

[chris]

I was going to suggest digging out the soil and replacing with fresh (from another part of the garden? - swap them?) but that article linked from AP has that in anyway. So erm........... different plants?

[Aberdeenplotter]

The author of this site says no Rose Soil Sickness. (Rose Replant Disease.) but I'm sure I saw something recently about a new product on the market. can't find it now though. Still looking

Must have been dreaming. Couldn't find it. I also have the vaguest recall that drenching with armillatox did the trick but that was maybe another dream

[snohare]

<Nodding head emoticon> You're quite right Frank, Armillatox was once the traditional way of reducing if not eliminating rose-sick soil. Being such a good disinfectant, it killed the spores and fungal bodies that had built up in the ground.
Nowadays of course you can't get it, eventually the penny dropped that phenols are very toxic...I see it occasionally being thrown out at the landfill site, but I doubt I have any.
Other than that all I've ever heard to work is the good old get the spade/mini-digger out...although I'll bet a couple of years of drought would knock it back a fair bit, the cure would be worse than the ill.

[sewer rat]

If the soil is indeed rose sick, there are a couple of options
1. When planting new roses, dig a hole a minimum of 2ft by 2ft by 2ft and fill this with a mix of fresh soil from elsewhere in the garden and riddled compost. Add the micorrhizal fungi / RoseStart at the prescribed amounts and plant your new rose in this hole. The theory is that the rose should be healthy enough by the time the roots reach out into the surrounding old soil to withstand whatever it encounters. Do not replant roses that have come from the same border or bed as these will carry the condition with them.
2. Dig out all the soil to a depth of 2-3 ft and replace with fresh soil mixed with well rotted manure and replant with new stock.
3. Rip out all the roses and replant the area with something else. This is probably what will happen to the old rose bed at Scotsburn House which I am renovating. The bed is just too big to remove all the soil and replace so at the moment the options being considered are lavenders and heucheras.