I was raising some Red Admirals this year, and had the same experience, with heavy parasitization. Some of the cats died early; others pupated, and the parasitic larvae dropped out of the side of the chrysalis and fell to the floor of the container, where they crawled around for a while - and then underwent their own pupation. So... I kept the pupae of the parasite. And about a week later I was totally gobsmacked to see what emerged -- a common housefly (Musca domestica). I had been hoping for an exotic wasp like an Ichneumon, but it was a plain old ordinary housefly. After I get better organized I'll write up some of this for a separate post with some photos.

I'll try giving it a haircut and see what happens. I wonder if you saw a picture if you'd think differently about being able to save it though. How do I go about posting a picture? By the way, the grass you mentioned isn't quite it. The grass was much "stiffer" - it stood up and didn't "flop" and had the curls at the tips. And I don't think it was dead, it just never grew back after I cut it back.

Hi trailrunner, glad you like my pics. On my computer, I created copies of the images I wanted and then edited them to make them black and white...there is usually an edit function of some sort that may allow you to go sepia tones or b&w. I have a mac and it's an option with iphoto. It may be different on your machine. Once I got the pics the way I wanted them, I put them on a flash drive (or you could burn a cd) and took it to Fed Ex/Kinkos. The guys there are very nice and they helped me use their photo printer machine where I printed out the images in the size I wanted...I printed 8x10 photos, also selecting the option for b&w. They charged me $5 each print. I then went to walmart on line and ordered the 11x14 frames which with mats accommodate 8x10 pictures. The mats with these frames are cool in that they are a single mat, but are cut to look like a double mat. They come 2 to a package, $20 per package or $10 each. So it cost me total $15 each picture. The fun part was DH and I measuring and leveling and marking to get them all to hang straight, as the hooks are not in exactly the same location on each frame. Here is a link that might be useful: walmart frames

Lisa, I think you will have great success with Lady Ashe. All climbers take their time getting going. Go with the flow. It seems at first they are duds, but watch out, they are slow to mature, like large/giant breed dogs. Climbers are famous for a huge spring flush followed by a disappointing show for the rest of the flowering season. Lady Ashe is a work horse regarding strong follow up flushes, unlike any other climber I know of. I think a strong hybrid tea presence in Lady Ashe's ancestry is why. Lady Ashe apparently has hybrid tea genes in her background. I say this because after her first flush of the season, during which blooms come in clusters of 3-4 buds, the following flushes are 95% one gorgeous bloom per approximately 16" long, straight stem. They are perfect for cutting, unlike so many climbers' blooms which either nod or have very short necks. Also, Lady Ashe has excellent petal substance, a high petal count with high centered, layer cake blooms. Her lateral flower stems are like rebar, stiff and strong. Her new basal canes are flexible when young, and easy to train, but once mature, be prepared to have a small battle trying to he some cooperation out of them. The flowers never, ever nod. They also last a long time on the bush and equivalently so in the vase. My Lady Ashe is mature now, at year 6. In my zone 5/6 garden, she has been 12 feet wide (6 feet in each direction), filling the upper half, 2 feet, on a 4 foot high fence. She has not spread much in the last two years, just hulked-up nicely. I do not expect her to get any larger. In your CA garden you can safely expect your Lady Ashe to exceed mine in size. By how much, I cannot say for sure, but I would estimate at least 25-33% more. The caterpillar damage you showed is disheartening. Caterpillars targeting rose buds is a hard to treat. There two approaches you can try. Spray just the caterpillar vulnerable parts of the bush, just the shoots developing buds, not the entire bush. Try either of these two insecticides: SEVIN - spray every 5 days. Spray the bud growing tips only, during the caterpillar season. Sevin is a nerve poison that must land on the caterpillar's body to kill it. It is not a stomach poison, so Sevin on the plant will not kill the caterpillar as it chomps on the rose buds/leaves. BAYER COMPLETE INSECT CONTROL - Spray every 7 days during caterpillar season. Just spray the bud growing tips. Bayer is both a contact and stomach poison. It is systemic, so kills the caterpillars when they eat sprayed foliage. Its systemc action does translocate to new or expanded growth. That is why weekly spraying during caterpillar season is required. Your aim is to kill the caterpillars when they just hatch and are tiny, before severe damage occurs. When tiny, they do little significant damage, but as they grow (and do so very quickly), the damage done increases exponentially. With Sevin, you hit the tiny, baby caterpillars' bodies as they hatch. With BAYER you not only kill them as they hatch by the spray hitting their bodies, but any that escape will die when they begin to eat the leaves/buds. These leaves/buds have absorbed the systemic insecticide and are lethal to the caterpillars. There are no organic, i.e., insecticidal soap, neem oil, etc., I can recommend. They are very damaging to new rose growth/foliage, especially with your intense heat and sunlight. I did not see saw fly larvae, a.k.a. rose slugs, damage in your photos. These caterpillars primarily make patterned windows and as they mature, patterned holes, in rose leaves. I have not experienced them attacking buds, but I can imagine they could. I hope your Lady Ashe exceeds your expectations as mine has for me. Moses