1. The description of color sounds like it could be a multiflora rambler as Mad Gallica suggested. These have many small flowers in June. Go to helpmefind.com and look at Veilchenblau or Seven Sisters (multiflora). 2. Ramblers must not be pruned severely in fall or spring. This would prevent them blooming. Possibly this is the whole problem 3. The diagnosis of spot anthracnose disease is based on holes inside the dark spots or rings. Before the center drops out, it is colored light gray or tan. If the holes are separate from the spots, it is insect damage such as rose slugs, usually trivial. Post a closeup picture of your spots when they appear. 4. Rose midge is unfortunately common in northeastern zone 6. It is a very bad problem that calls for insecticide use a couple of times a year. This is a possible diagnosis, but you will need to watch and see whether the growth tips are being killed massively. As I understand it, roses are usually able to make some growth in the early season and then growth is inhibited later on as the pests build up. For more info and pictures, search on robin rosetta midge.

I am fairly new at this also. But i do know they like moist air, so mist. Also the little cup that is formed in the center of the plant, pour a little water in that cup. And if you are like me (a person who like to fuss over my plants) when the cup is empty put more water in. The water you put in the cup should not have any food in it. Good luck.

A number of things: 1) No need to remove sod, so that will save a ton of work. The newspaper, mulch etc will kill the grass and the dead grass adds humus to the soil. 2) If planning to plant, do not use landscape fabric. Fabric is designed to be used under decks, patio stones and walkways where it will not be cut into for planting. Here's how to do it. Use a garden hose to outline the bed. A curvy line looks best, likely a lazy L or C shaped bed will look good. A square bed or rectangular bed with straight sides does not look as nice. Move the hose around and rearrange until you get the shape you like. Now spray paint along the hose and remove it. Use an edger to cut the grass along the paint line, wiggle back and forth to create a v-shaped line. Cut the grass inside the future bed very short. Save your newspapers for a month or get old ones from the corner stone (they cut off the date to return to supplier and throw out the rest). Arrange to have a truck load of composted manure and another load of wood chips delivered. On bed creating day, get a few friends, some beer and munchies then proceed: One or two people place four to five sheets of newspaper over an area of future bed, folding paper to match the curve of the edge. Another person follows with the hose and wets the newspaper. The rest shovel manure and then woodchips over the newspaper, wood chips should be about 2" deep. After all is done, drink beer, eat munchies. If you don't object to chemicals, a faster way is to spray the grass inside the spray paint line with Round up, wait two weeks, respray any grass that is still green, wait another week. Then, one day have the truck load of manure dumped on the bed, rake to shape. Next day, have the truck load of wood chips dumped on the bed, rake to shape. If any weeds pop up over the summer, pull them out when small. You can plant into the mix after about six weeks or wait until next year. While waiting, draw a plan of the bed on graph paper and plan what to plant where. If full sun with sandy, dry soil rethink using iris, they need moisture. Adding organic matter is good, but you cannot change the fundamental nature of your soil. So unless you want to spenda lot of time watering, research plants that like sunny, dry conditions and use them. Depending on the size of the bed, you could consider some small shrubs like Potentilia (under 3ft with yellow flowers all summer).

That's great news. I am happy for you especially since your son is military. No matter how any of us feel about the war, we appreciate our military people. We spent many holidays alone. Because of the parents and step parents issue, I decided what ever day my children could be with us was "the" holiday. The Christmas my oldest granddaughter was four, they were stationed in Abeline. We lived in San Antonio and my son's father lived in Kingsvile and my DIL's mother lived in Robstown. The kids had their Christmas at home and then drove to SA. The next day we had our Christmas. The day after they drove to Robstown and had Christmans at my DIL's mother's house. They went to my ex's on Christmas morning and had Christmas. Soooooo,my granddaughter got up the day after Christmas expecting it all to happen again. She was a tad disappointed.