Question
I have a strip of yard that I use for flowers.

In this strip, that is usually moist, there are various wildflowers , pachysandra and several roses.
Everything does well except for the roses.  I assume that the damp soil is hurting them but don't know what to do about it. it is not a heavy clay soil because i have added compost to it over the years but again, not certain what I should do about the damp soil.  I have tried disease resistant roses.

Thanks for any advice.

Answer
Roses will tolerate a wide range of soils providing they drain well. However the one thing that the roots will not tolerate is being damp or especially wet for more than a few days. This will suffocate the tiny feeder roots and so the rose starves to death. If you want to grow roses in damp soil then a good idea is to grow them in a raised bed. In other words raise the roots so they are in some sort of container which allows the roots to actually be on the top of the soil not under it. That way they never get wet for too long. Any containers that are 18 inches deep will do. Take out the bottom or make very large drain holes and just sit them on top of the soil. Wet soil is probably the number one killer or roses. To try and grow them in this type of soil is never really successful.