Ann,
What a horrible stunt to inflict on you and your roses, I"m sure you must
have been really crushed. I hope your rebuilding efforts go smoothly.

My first hunch was that you shouldn't have to replace the soil at all-- I
was pretty sure Roundup doesn't impact the soil, just the vegetation it's
sprayed on. Hopefully the spray in question was just like Roundup. I did
a
search on Roundup and I found this:
http://www.pestproducts.com/roundup_herbicide.htm

This link confirms what I suspected-- if the spray WAS just like Roundup,
you'll have killed plants but soil that's OK to replant once you remove
the
dead plant. You shouldn't have to replace ANY of the soil, just get rid
of
the dead plant.

If there's a bright side at all-- at least you get to choose all new rose
plants?
Good luck with your rebuilding.

JimS.
Seattle

Jim,

Thank you for your thoughts. I have had in the last hour a number of emails
and advise and your right, I should be OK with the soil I have.
A gardener in a UK garden group has suggested I look at the David Austin
roses web site. They have a new product - a cocktail of friendly
Bacteria/Fungi - that apparently inoculates the soil against rose replant
disease. Seems worth a try. They also have a great selection of roses for me
to look at buying. They ship to France too.

Yes it was a horrible stunt. This all happened last summer just when the
garden was looking glorious and all of a sudden everything started to go
brown and with in 2 weeks all the roses were dead. Apparently the employee
was wanting to leave and couldn't get unemployment benefits if he left, so
he had to be dismissed. He could have just simply told us this and we would
have happily let him go.

Ann