Hi thorn

I think you might be onto something. I have a friend who lives in a area of France often with very little to no rain in mid summer. After they had a firm drill and made a pump to reach ground water they now can use the sprinklers and hose as much as they like. They write to me and tell me roses bloom better than ever :-)

Good observation! I remember when I first started growing roses, I was given the advice from an old-timer that water is the most important part of growing roses successfully: chems, fertilizers, pruning, soil all are way behind water in importance. It is true, and nothing beats rain! : )

Same thing here, 20 plus days of rain, 6 or so inches and the roses are loving it. BUT then they do bloom the rain balls most of them up or pounds the petals off overnigh. So its good and bad.

Karyn

It's true, true, true. I don't have the water supply to irrigate, so depend on rain. If it rains, the roses grow and bloom. It's as simple as that.

Melissa

I am ready for a nice rain. So are my roses.

Rain? What is this thing called rain?

Send some to central Texas. After our monsoon summer last year, we've just dried up.

Agreed, nothing beats rain. I water to keep 'em alive.

However, with no rain this summer, no disease. No bugs.

the upside to dry I guess. Good for you for looking at the positive side.

Isn't that the nature of gardening? Eternal optimists we are. Otherwise we'd give up.

My Souvenir de Malmaison (sp?) is blooming right now - have no idea why, but she's beautiful. No balling of the blooms this time of year. I moved her to the partial shade till the blooms fade - they're too precious.

I'm seeing masses of rebloom too now thanks to our rain. There also seems to be more rampant blackspot than in most years, but I guess you gotta take the bad as well as the good :).

I had a lot of balling on certain bushs. Especially Comte de Chambord and Prairie Joy. I thought i'd have more black spot, but i do have some.The rebloom is excellent and its dryer than it has been. I'm hoping my 2nd flush will at least, not be lying on the ground...Happy gardening everyone..........mark

We have had alot of daily rain here in north central Florida and my rose bushes have consequently also gone crazy with happy blooms. I even have a good irrigation system on them during the dry time but the growth is nothing like it has been from the rain. You know the rain gives more than just water. It brings nitrogen and negative ions too. I read somewhere that roses are 86% water and also that they get 95% of their nutrients from the air! I am also convinced that water is key to happpy roses. Rain water is heavenly to them.

Things have finally slowed down here. We are only getting the rain every 3-4 days now. Which is still a lot of rain for our area.We have been dry the last 10 years. Farmers here are always talking about the water table being low. I think this year will definetly help.
When i posted this i thought everyone would think i never watered. But in fact i do water quite frequently throughout summer. Never could i equal the amounts that we've had with this seasons rain. Or could i afford the water bill for that matter.I'm just enjoying the extra blooms and the amazing perrenials which have greatly benefited from the rain as well. Thank you all for your comments and patience.....mark