konrad - It seems both pointless and misses the point to haggle over whether it was warmer this year than last; the climate doesn't work like that. In fact we are probably headed into a global cooling phase caused by a recent cooling trend in the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) (think el nino/la nina, except the last time we were at this stage was just after Reagan was sworn in!) that may hide or mitigate the effects of anthropogenic climate change for the next 20-30 years! Of course the data which is not open to interpretation is the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which has always been coupled with warming events in the past and which is the highest it has been any time in the last half million years. Here is a link that might be useful: PDO

Update on beetles here....I took the suggestion someone made, to cut off all the open roses and wait for the beetles to move on. I only have about 6 rose bushes and all of them were about at the end of their 1st bloom cycle when the beetles showed up. I did pick off a couple of dozen beetles into soapy water and then removed about a dozen and a half blooms on the roses. Two had already finished blooming. They are all working on setting another round of buds and Julia Child was the farthest along with that. She has a tendency to bloom continuously. So yesterday and today some of her buds opened. I found one beetle on the flowers and that's it. So I think they have moved on. I'm not seeing them at least. Actually, I've had more problems from earwigs at night coming out and devouring some of my plantings. They stripped Lamium and even some creeping oregano and thyme, some Heuchera and I suspect are the culprits that made a mess of one of my Clematis. I just don't have the energy to go out there at night and collect them. I have done that in other seasons and it helped a lot.

i usually have leader damage on my picea pungens.. blue spruce.. due to the robins INSISTING on perching on the highest tip of the plant ... the grackles also ... and it is slightly entertaining to see them do it in a wind storm.. ken

Yeah chas, I responded in Garden Gallery. If I were you I'd also post the picture here. B.