Thanks, Chris. Looked carefully at UC IPM's site about katydids. My holes in my leaves are teeny tiny, like pin dots. Plus, I've got a little PLC, too. I chatted with the nursery I bought them from yesterday. Interestingly, they have an article on their new web site about PLC. They told me that despite spraying their dormant trees FOUR times, due to all the crazy rain we got, they are still having issues with fungal infections - PLM and Shot Hole. It's not bad - just a few leaves on each tree. So, I made sure I had some Monterrey LiquiCop on hand for this fall and winter for everything. And no, I haven't put tangelfoot on my trees, yet. I have got to get to that just to control the aphids and ants. If I can get the ants off, I can then hose off the aphids. I think I can get to that starting today. Trying to build a garden shed and potting bench, too, and my wonderful hubby was not happy with my foundation, so I've got to rake away ALL the gravel, then re-set the stepping stones. Ugh. But, I will keep my eyes peeled for katydids. Patty S.

Anytime you till organic matter in to soil you could get the soil bacteria working hard at digesting that organic matter, and in my experience that can result in the organic matter being well digested and no residual left, humus, in the soil. Organic matter put on to soil as a mulch will not get digested that fast and will be there much longer and will not cause the soil bacteria to digest it all that well and that will leave some residual, humus, in your soil. Just how quickly will depend on where your soil, and the Soil food Web, is. A good healthy soil will be different then would be a soil that is not good and healthy. So if you till organic matter into your soil and it is still there several months later that should be an indication that your soil is not as good and healthy as it could be.

It's a japanese beetle. Welcome to roses. You can knock them off every evening into a bucket/jar of soapy water like jim recommends and that does work very well, but if you want something stronger and non organic you can spray with sevin in the evenings (not powder, it kills bee hives and not during the day, as that kills active bees also) or use milky spore (Lowes and Home Depot carry it here) but that kills future eggs/beetles so it won't work this year. Or, be like me and do nothing. Some years are worse than others but I'm not harming the butterflies, frogs, skinks, or hummingbirds while trying to control a little leaf damage. When you don't kill one thing, everything lives and eats one another so it all works out for the best.

Since no one else has answered you, it looks like a blight that needs to be treated. To do that you would want to remove all affected parts of the plant. Here is a link http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1153.html From what I understand it happens during moist conditions. I would cover them during the hot part of the day with a little awning of some sort. If you do a search on these 4 things you should be able to get them back up and running. 1) Peony disease 2) Peony care 3)Transplanting peonies 4)Transplant shock. Google those 4 things and it will bring you a host of info. Read read read. Good luck.