Wonder what they are? Post some pictures and I'll see what I can do. I make no promises about giving you species names, but I might be able to give you a general idea of what you're seeing. I've seen some smaller, tiny bees on the rose leaves also. There are MANY species of solitary bees, and most of them are very small. They're probably interested in collecting rose pollen to feed to their babies. It's not unusual for bees like this to collect pollen & nectar, make a ball out of the pollen (using the nectar as the binding agent), lay an egg on the ball, and then seal the whole thing inside a chamber and do it all over again in the next part of the tunnels they've already created. Native solitary bee species often live that way. The babies take a year to become adults, and so show up the following year to repeat the cycle. Some parts of the season they seem more agressive than others. Yellow jackets are more aggressive in late summer/early autumn because their source of food in the nest is diminishing. After they feed those killed insects to the babies back in the nest the babies secret a sugary fluid which the adults eat as food. That works great at this time year since the nest is growing in population and so there are more babies on the way then there are adults now (creating a situation in the nest where the adults have access to lots of food). By the end of the summer the queen isn't laying so many eggs as now, and so there are lots of adults, but fewer babies to rear (and thus less food in the nest for the adults). That means the adults have to look for sugary stuff outside the nest to satiate their hunger. That's why they become an aggressive nuisance at Labor Day cookouts & picnics.

Thanks, Marie. I can't get out much now, but I can search the web. This was a matter of exigency because I don't stake unless there is no other way. I have a bunch of hoop stakes but didn't want to use them on this. I don't have anything natural that is strong enough to hold anything but small plants that don't need to be staked. I also have a green heavy nylon twine, but I didn't want it to cut into the stems and bruise them. I've got regular old twine. If I hadn't been using the rebar I have, I would use that because it wouldn't show as much. Over on the antique rose forum, we use a lot of rebar. The roses soon hide it, and I asked my son to pick me up two 5' sections so I can tie a huge rose back (use my dk nylon loosely for that) so it doesn't hang over the sidewalk. I love bamboo, and you can buy long sections here, but it's expensive if you want a lot. I wanted to use raffia and make things for the garden with it. What I really want to do is make some small fence or trellis out of some of my white birch branches I've been saving, but I don't have a good plan in my head. That twig furniture, maybe somebody on Freecycle would give me some branches for more aesthetic staking that I can tie with raffia. I have some of my own books about that but nothing about stakes in particular. I'll check around the web. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm still cutting it back after it blooms and think it will still lean. I'll look for some of the things you mentioned. It looks awful, I know that, but landscape tape is gentle. I could have tied it in smaller sections, but wanted it done and over with. I'm more concerned about saving the blooms than how it looks I'll split the part near the sidewalk off, and get more plants out of it and put that somewhere else or give it away. It just spread too much closer to the sidewalk and it's supposed to be at the back of the border. The gypsophilia probably won't come back next year. At this point, I'm more concerned with how to pinch out those plants right so maybe I won't have to stake them. I do know when and how to pinch back my phlox. Heck I could have used a couple tomato cages further back, then try to less obtrusively tie the ones in front to that, a few in a bunch. Never thought of it.

I did a quick bit of slug research and found these little tidbits that I had not seen before. - Grapefruit, slugs love it and will choose it over your plants. (Sounds like an opportunity for a "bait and salt" to me.) -Oat bran, slugs love it but once eaten it expands till they die - Slugs hate mint, geraniums, fennel and garlic -soot sprinkled around the base of plants will kill slugs by drying them out - a squirt of ammonia diluted with water will kill them Then of course there are the slug eaters such as Starlings, toads, ducks, chickens etc. Those moist mild winters do increase the populations. Freezes have to be tough to get them. Oh and by the way, fish love to eat them. Of course your not likely to have fish hanging around your flower beds but you can toss them in the pond if you have one. Well, I'm off to spread some oat bran and feed the fish.

" I've always been an organic gardener, no toxic pesticides but this year I'm giving in, just bought some toxic slug bait, sorry to say that iron phosphate isn't cutting it any more." I have given in too. You are right that the iron phosphate just cant keep up. I bought 2 large containers of Ortho Bug Geta (metaldehyde) today to resolve the problem I witnessed first hand this morning. I was up at 5 AM (don't ask) and decided to have coffee on the patio before it got hot. I walked outside and there were no less than 50 slugs on my potted Jewel of the Nile. OH MY GAWD! This has GOT to stop! I dug some amonia out of the garage and did the 10% solution in one of my kids super soakers and went to town. I felt like Ahnold in Terminator! It was fantastic! I just hope the poor hostas aren't going to whither from the drenching they got. Every single hosta in my garden had at least 10 - 15 slugs and the ones near the rock walls were even worse. I just finished spreading the Bug Geta and will be doing recon tomorrow morning again. I HATE THOSE SLIMY BASTARDS! Alexa