Can I ever relate!This was the worst spring for my garden, too.I have terrible problems with those beetles as well. The little black one with white spots is the much-hated Oxythyrea funesta; the big one is Cetonia aurata.The have gotten so bad for me-especially O. funesta-that this year I've been trying to pick them off religiously (under the blazing sun, since that is when they are active). I also found a scientific institute in Hungary, the Plant Protection Institue,that has just come out with a pheromone trap for O.funesta,and I bought ten of these.My garden is far from my home,so by now I'm on this awkward schedule of getting out there around noon (after getting water from a fountain; I can carry about 300 liters in my car),putting the water into my tanks, doing the rounds of picking off bugs,and staying very late, until dark, to water,etc.Now I'm going into Summer Drought Mode (already!!!) I don't water established roses,of course ,but this week I watered the moves, new implants and second-years.Now, I plan to follow Paul Zimmerman's technique-not water them again until I see wilting,count back ,so then I'll know how often I have to water.I cut all the buds off my delphiniums and gave them some water (first one of the season) last night, hoping they'll save their strength for better years. You were smarter than I, Melissa. You forsaw that this was gonna be a bad drought;I just kidded myself along,so now I'm stuck getting water, etc.At this point I want everything to go dormant if it can,and just rest.I really don't like summer, and it's been summer since April this year, practically no beautiful spring.And those meteologists keep on predicting "rain next week". Ha! Yep, it's an awful garden year for me, too. Let's hope for better days! regards, bart

Heavens! You guys made me stop complaining about our way wetter than normal Spring (normally we have no rain whatsoever from late April/early May through Oct). Also, any rain we usually get in the Spring is really only sort of a drizzle, but this year we are getting strong storms. It is still raining here - two days ago we got one inch - not unheard of in history, but I have lived here forever, and the last Spring that was this wet that I remember was in 1965!

It has not just been wet, but chilly. Our roses were all way behind because of that, but then we had one of the best blooms ever, until several rain storms came and the flowers got smushed. Nevertheless, it remained cool and wet, and several roses I have that would be way done by now are still blooming. The hills even remained green through to the beginning of May - by that time they are usually completely brown.

Luckily, this weird weather has not brought any unusual bug infestations - just the normal rose cucurlios, which are nasty but disappear after a while. I don't even count aphids, as they really don't do much damage, and flocks of tiny birds come and eat them, along with the good bugs.

So sad to hear of your troubles - as I said, I have now completely stopped complaining! Good luck for more rain in the future - we are looking forward to our normal warm/hot dry rainless summer. Since that is normal, most folks who garden here have automatic watering systems - I still have to water some pots, but my DH runs around behind me when I plant a new one saying "Do you want me to put an emitter in that?" .

I laugh sometimes when I read proud pronouncements from rose gardeners elsewhere that they "don't give the roses any supplemental water", and then I find out it rains once or twice a week all summer where they live!

Jackie

Like Jackie, I shake my head at "don't give the roses any supplemental water," as our area is even drier than hers. To grow roses here, you MUST water -- and our rains generally stop earlier than hers, and begin later.

This HAS been a wet spring, but tho NoCal is still getting rain, I'm not sure we'll see measurable rain here in "Pleasant Valley." But I'm not going to whine, either. We also don't have beetles (other than the occasional Fig Beetle) nor even circulios. This spring, I've not even seen aphids!

Jeri in Ventura County's Coastal Desert

melissa, that sounds awufl, like end of the world plagues! Having gone through 3 years of drought, I can relate. We had a nice rainy early spring, then 24 days of hot dry weather with no rain. Add in a couple of nights where it went down to 40 (which screws up forming rose buds) and it's been hard. The first flush was nice, but the second, between the deformed buds from the cold and the thrips, they are all going in the garbage. Oh well. Hopefully the rain is more regular from now on, I hate to water. I hope your summer gets better.

I guess it isn't too bad here, except that my 134 roses have become the companion plants to the salvia, larkspur, and all the other former companion plants.

We had the harsest winter I can remember. I am still in school, and will not finish until next Friday. This is very late for us, but we were out for 2 weeks of snow days. After the harsh winter, we had very erratic weather especially on the weekends. It was either rainy or we had a sudden cold spell. As my roses were ready for their first flush, we had enough of a freeze or cold spell that all of the buds became partially brown. Then heavy rains, hot/ cold weather. It has all taken its toll on the blossoms, but the plants are surviving.

Now the wind is a problem. I am never sure when to water since the high winds seem to dry out the plant, but the roots are plenty wet.

I feel guilty as I write this because we live less than 2 hours from Joplin Missouri where there was a tragic tornado. I truly do count my blessings, and wish the best for those of you who have been terrorized, threatened, or hurt by those tornadoes.

This has been an unusual year, and it looks like it is almost universal. I still am hoping that my tomatoes will produce well. Maybe my roses will also perk up, and have a good summer.

Melissa, I hope the weather turns to beautiful rose weather for you, too.

Sammy

Melissa, I'm so sorry you're having a bad year. Like my fellow Northern Californians, I have been whining, but will stop now! My balcony garden has not been happy with the weird Spring we have been having, but it's not really dire. One of my roses (a Tea) had a magnificent earlier Spring flush, though now is being eaten alive by aphids - the others are not too thrilled with the weather, but I think they'll be OK when it settles down and warms up. It is, however, an odd year here for bugs, at least for me - no ladybugs, no syrphid flies, hence tons of the aforementioned aphids, but a number of curculio beetles, and a very small red beetle I have never seen is here in great numbers. Again, maybe this odd ratio of pests to predators will even out when the weather stabilizes. Anyway, the roses in the Sacramento Old City Cemetery are thriving and gorgeous, and that place seems to have its own little perfect ecosystem in regards to the insect world, so I get my rose fix there!!
Hope it all gets better for your lovely place, and soon.
Laura

I would grow roses only in that area where young plants may need supplemental watering, not older, established specimens. If this is not possible, I wouldn't grow them. Jana

I need to stop groaning. Yes, my part of Texas is in exceptional drought, 100 degree temps began in April, with a current high this year of 110 on Saturday. So what is the wind blows day and night too, with dust clouding the horizon. No weeding, because the usual grassburrs, goatheads. wild verbena, careless weeds, wild mistletoe, etc, just couldn't grow in the parched dirt this year. I think I did see a tumbleweed baby or two, they can grow where nothing else can. We are so used to the heat, we can work out in it all day, no sweat, lol.

Blooms, you mean those dried up tissue paper looking wads?

But we did get 3.75" of rain Thursday a week ago, the first we have seen since November. 'Course, it didn't take but a second to soak in or maybe just evaporate. We actually heard toads that night. Then back to hot the next day.

But no plague-like bugs. Actually, no bugs at all. No butterflies either, I think the bird ate all the catepillars. Earthworms are gone too. I can throw away the mosquito repellant, what do we need that for?

And no hauling water, that would just be too much for me. The well is holding for now. Then I will turn on the city water spicot and open up my pocketbook.

The wind is my companion, It has blown day and night for 3 days I know, 30-50 mph, howls and howls. But a blessing that the tornados has missed us thus far.

My family has owned the farms here for 3 generations, grandparents immigrated from Germany and Switzerland, to join family who came over before them. Makes you wonder, the wagon must have broken down here, because nobody would pick here on purpose. I need to stop complaining or start packing.

Melissa, It does sound like a difficult and most discouraging year. Your garden with its steep slope is a challenging place to work at the best of times, though often all the more rewarding for it. Beautiful up close with all its vignettes, and simply stunning from a distance. I do admire the way you find things to delight you even though your discouragement -- your pleasure in the clematis, your satisfaction in the self-seeding of plants you hope to encourage, and your gratitude for a bit of rain and falling temperature.

I will knock on wood and wish that next year you will be able to look back and say, "it started off rough but turned out to be a pretty decent year after all."

Rosefolly

You folks are too kind. Yes, this is the worst flowering I've ever seen since I started gardening, but then, it's just flowers. The plants are generally fine. We haven't had any slides (quite a bit of earth shifting and bulging, though, with all that rain in the winter). Some plants have actually been beautiful, though the roses are a distraction; and I never thought I would find myself saying, "Thank goodness the roses are nearly done blooming and the garden can start to look decent again"! I was down in the big garden yesterday evening. My husband had mowed most of the main paths, and the contrast between the mowed areas and the beds with their shrubs and cultivated herbaceous plants and wild grasses, with Italian cypresses sticking up here and there, was, from certain angles, beautiful. I'm not taking the weather well, it's too sunny and too warm and leaves me sleepy and lethargic, but it has been lovely the last few days, the air washed clean and blue, a breeze blowing, the trees the deep green of early summer. The lavender and common wild daylilies (the only ones I like) are in flower now, strong colors that go well with each other and with the colors of sky and woods. Down in the shade garden rose 'Centifolia' has somehow managed to preserve a good portion of its blooms and is looking most satisfyingly romantic, without losing its dignity in the process. 'Chapeau de Napoleon' also looks pink and lush, if you don't go close enough to see the beetles, and is entwined with the silver and gold of anthemis: a happy sight.
I appreciate all the sympathy, but in fact I know that this doesn't even come close to being a disaster, not even a second-rate one; certainly not to be spoken of in the same breath with people who've lost their homes to a tornado. All of us, everyone who has written here, goes through hard times of drought, flood, winter ice storms, spring freezes, humid mosquito-plagued summer, dreadful bug infestations. Even with this bad spring, I consider myself one of the luckiest gardeners around, with a soft job when it comes to getting plants to grow. Many of you have harder conditions to deal with than I do.
Today DH and I went out to the far end of the property where there's an old pear tree in the middle of a field. Years ago we planted two roses there because at the time we didn't have any other place for them: 'Alberic Barbier' and 'Gloire de Guilan'. They're out of reach of water and have gotten practically no attention since we planted them, but lo and behold, they're alive and blooming--with no beetles!!--and with a good firm tenacious hold on existence, too. Last fall or winter we went there and cut away brambles and wild clematis and hawthorn from around the roses, and today we trained 'Alberic Barbier' further up the pear and gave the brush another haircut. GdG is still small but appears well established. The countryside is really, really lovely this time of year; and on the way back we stopped by the cherry tree--the best cherry tree in the whole world--and picked a colander full of fruit before returning home. Really, the world is a beautiful place.

Bart, your spring sounds exactly like our spring; DH and I share your frustration about those weather reports. Our inch of rain was probably a couple of millimeters. Good luck with your watering: it sounds like a lot of work. Do you have a shady place to sit and pass the summer? That's a must in Italy, plus a long siesta every day, and try to get things done early in the morning and in the evening.
Jackie and Jeri, I'm glad for your rain, which sounds like a blessing! Though I can, with some mental exertion, imagine getting tired of rain. About the supplemental watering, we don't water our plants after the first year, and we have a regular summer drought that runs from two to four months, THOUGH we get a generous annual rainfall, about 40". The plants do fine, perhaps helped by the depth of clay under them, though of course the roses don't bloom when they're dry. But everything lives. (I hope that's true this year as well, with a drought that begins in spring and not in summer.)
Sammy, I like your comment about the companion plants! It's very much that way in my garden! But then, in spite of all the roses we grow, I've never considered mine a rose garden. Good luck to you as well!
Laura, I hope your garden gets better weather too!
Ingrid, for heaven's sake, rejoice in the lovely garden you've had this spring: it makes me feel happy just to hear that it bloomed really well. I appreciate your and others' good wishes. We have a wonderful amount of beauty here, and are definitely not objects of pity, the plague of beetles notwithstanding.
Jana, Well, that's pretty much our rule. Different people garden in different ways.
Greybird, you're one of the gardeners who make me realize what a soft, cushy gardening job I have here. I'm glad you finally got some rain!! We suffer from wind too, not to the extent that you do, though. I imagine windbreaks are not a possibility? I'm looking forward to the maturing of the seedling trees we keep planting. No doubt I'll be an old lady by the time they make their influence felt.
Paula, one of the many kind voices I've heard after my complaining. I think the truly beautiful, albeit dry weather we've had since I wrote my first post has had a beneficial effect on my mood. Plus the roses are nearly out of their misery and the garden is entering a new phase. We're doing pretty well, and a good crop of cherries certainly helps one's mood. It's okay for the moment. We may even get some rain in a couple of days!

Thanks for listening folks! I wish we may all have a change for the better in our weather!

Melissa

I loved reading this last post, Melissa, not only because everything seemed better but because your description of the garden and the countryside was so lyrical that I was transported there. Now if you could only share those cherries!

Ingrid

Oh, I thought that also about the cherries.
They seem to be very expensive here, this year, so I suppose the weather patterns haven't been kind to them.
This'll be the first spring in a long time I haven't put up frozen cherries, to enjoy some time when cherries are a memory.
But maybe, maybe, we'll still get Sweet White corn and local melons.

Jeri