Zyperiris, I grow about 30 Of the Austin roses over here near Seattle. Mine were going downhill over time until in frustration I build two raised beds elevated 16" and filled them with 3-way garden mix and compost. In the 2 years since they have greatly improved in health and vigor! The only one I Can think of that I got rid of was a pale pink one that grew very tall and always balled from the moisture...will think of the name soon I hope (Geofrey someone?). Oh yes, I put my beloved Abraham Darby in a back corner because he just DID NOT show off well on the arbor down the center of my garden. His foliage was ugly and the flowers never last long then hang like old gray tissue. But when he is gorgeous he is phenomenal, and adore his pink grapefruit scent! At my previous house he climbed up into a flowering crabapple and was a traffic stopper! Jude the Obscure has done fabulous in the raised bed. and his color is much more yellow then when growing in our native soil. William Morris is a MONSTER...He wants to be at least 8' by 8' even when cut back hard! And the flowers do not last at all as cut flowers nor to they have a fragrance...but he sure is pretty when in bloom! Queen of Sweden is coming along now in her 3rd year. Munstead Woods...I Am WILD about the flowers on this one! Its one of my newest. Love Tamora, Sharifa Asma for their fragrances. Lady of Shallot and Lady Emma HAmilton were both pretty this year for first bloom then dropped their leaves and are regrowing them now. THey are both still settling in.So is Claire Austin. Her stems are pretty droopy still, but the white flowers are beautiful. I think in another year or two she will be a favorite. Graham Thomas, Teasing Georgia, And Windrush are other beauties for me. I really love Windrush when she blooms. I got rid of Othello this year...loved the fragrance but they nearly always had Vegetative centers and diseased leaves. I have other older ones I have lost the names to (Probably all pink ones) and especially since moving them wonder what the heck I have! Oh yes, I can comment on James Galway. I put him on a back fence and kind of ignored him and then am struck by the beauty of the roses when they bloom. THey shade from pale on the outside petals to deep rose in the middle...a lovely effect. Ugly leaves though. I do not spray any of my roses unless Hubby hits them with copper spray when he does the peach tree in late winter...didn't happen this year. Some have diseased leaves but are not planted in prominant positions. I visit them, enjoy their flowers and then move on. Benjamon Britton is another one who's flowers light up the landscape, a lovely deep coral raspberry. CHarles Darwin look a bit like yellow kleenex drooping on the branches. NOt sure it will be a keeper for me...maybe one more year to prove its worth.

maybe it's bad manners to answer your own post, but I guess I just didn't give my question enough careful thought. I got to thinking that if this is indeed a beetle larva, and given that there are so many of these dang holes, it seemed logical to assume that I must surely see hordes of the adults around at some point. So I sat and thought about the insects most common to me from this creek. I ruled out the diving beetles amd most of the aquatic possibilities because most of their larval stages were totally water-loving, not high and dry like the mystery suspects. Then I thought of the tiger beetles! THere are HORDES of tiger beetles in this creek.... I flipped through the field guides and there it was, a pretty close description of my subject, although I had to go back on-line to find actual pictures of the larvae themselves. So I guess I have my solution, and one more piece of the puzzle that finally fits. Amazing how little resemblance the "youth" have to their adult forms!!

I had an infestation of stink bugs that were the same coloring as lady bugs. Got rid of most of them, but now their eggs are hatching and they do look like teeny tiny lady bugs. They are coming out of barrel-shaped eggs. If you can see any eggs, that might help. A photo would be great. Here's how I post photos: Upload a photo to Photobucket (a separate site), then copy the HTML link into the body of your message. Erase everything before HTTP and type (with no space between

First, I LOVED Jeanne, and had to look for her other videos, too. Thanks for posting the link, imsoconfused! "He liked it so much he'd come to me every morning before work and say, Do you need me to go to the store tonight?!?!....I LIKE grocery shopping!" (panting in anticipation of all the treats and goodies he'd be able to buy without anyone there to stop him). " Flyingflower, you must be married to my dh's twin. :-) We have six varieties of popcorn now, enough tortilla chips to feed a platoon, and more salsa than we'll eat in a year. The only thing scarier than dh shopping at the grocery store is dh shopping at Costco. There he buys, on every visit, a three year supply of maple syrup, a giant steak seasoning bottle that will last through several hundred ribeyes, and huge bags of trail mix (at least the latter is kept at his office.) When we go together, he pouts when I shoot down his suggestions about buying the 5 lb. packages of salmon or tuna. If our kids still lived at home, we might actually use it, but with just the two of us there's no way unless we're throwing a dinner party.