well, geez.I would have to sit here and include almost all of them to get a favorite.They are all gorgeous,and I couldnt just pick one bloom out of these.I love the red of show girl. and all of the purples, too, and they look fantastic with the rain drops on them.I dont have to think about taking pictures in the rain since it dont rain here.Sure hasn't this year anyway, Just a quarter inch a couple days ago, didnt hardle wet the ground. Jean

When soils become waterlogged they can't take in oxygen or nutrients via the roots, so they start drooping. If that's all it's doing it should be OK once the soil drys out a bit. If not, then the leaves will start to turn yellow, then brown, then the plant will die. If I sound like I've had waterlogged soil problems with tomatoes in the past you're very right. I used to grow my tomatoes in a field with rows about 250 ft long and 8 to 12 rows depending on the year. There were several low spots in the field and if there were deluges those spots would fill up with water and the plants in those areas would actually be under water to one extent or another. I found that not all varieties repsonded the same to waterlogged soils in terms of internal transport, but we already know that relative to BER, but if the plants didn't go too much further than the all yellow leaves there would be a chance they would live. So if yours are only drooping and no yellow leaves it seems to me they'll be fine. if there's standing water try to dig some drainage ditches. Carolyn

Rose midge will also cause that bunching of leaves. As the midge destroys one lateral, another begins to grow. When the new midge hatch they will go for that tender new growth then the process begins again.This leaves a look of too many leave in one spot. In case you are interested this is what worked and did not work for me. This is my opinion only everyone must do what right for them. My 2nd year was the worst for midge. Out of hundreds of roses there where no blooms anywhere. This was more than 12 years ago when many nasty pesticides were still available. I did what was recommended. I gathered 3 different chemicals with different modes of action to keep them from developing resistance to one pesticide. I sprayed every seven days for one cycle. Then every ten days till the end of year. Even missed the fireworks in July with my family as it was spray day. At the end of the year I removed 2 inches of soil from around and under bush. The following season I held my breath waiting to see how it went. They came back all of the previous was for nothing. There weren't as many it's true but not gone and surely those that survived would now be immune to what I had used the year before.That was the last time I used any chemicals in the garden. Two years later we had a very droughty year with no rain from spring to fall. Spider mites covered the roses the ground full of cracks. The surprise was there was no rose midge. It seemed as thou they need moisture or something that year had dined on them. Rose midge stayed gone from here until two years ago. I'm now experimenting with pulling back any ground cover from affected roses to allow the ground to dry, Also placing a barrier fabric down around the entire canopy of rose so that the midge larvae can't reach the soil. Plus removing any buds that begin to bend. Barrier fabric is much easier to do with hybrid teas than a big shrub. Please take this as just another opinion not at all meant to sound like the only way. Just how it went for me.

Just thought I'd post the results I had in one garden bed that's clay-loam. Last year I had amended this bed with home-made compost. Everything did well last year as first year plantings. This year they suffered from too little light. (I just put the roses there to get them through the winter and hoping they might like the eastern exposure. Heathcliff, Sugar Moon and Falstaff like sun in my neck of the woods, it seems. I'll probably be moving the viking Queen next Spring as she's a fraction of the size of her sister in full sun, and hasn't bloomed since Spring while her sister would be non-stop if not for the midge.) Anyway, the soil was very dry even with rain. I thought the heavy leaf layer prevented water. I stuffed the empty holes with alfalfa hay, compost and leaf mold until I decided what to plant. I also put the alfalfa under the leaves in the rest of the bed and gave it additional compost. Wow, when I went to plant Lavender Lassie and two hydrangeas, all the soil was so soft and fluffy and moist, even though we had less rain that earlier. I'm now prepping my holes in advance of next Spring and filling them with the same and covering the entire bed with alfalfa hay, etc. The new plantings have taken off even in the reduced light of late summer. I repeated this in another new bed and Mme Alfred Carriere and Awakening seem to love it even in their NE exposure. (Of course, they could just be responding to being in the ground vs. in pots. : ) ) Lesson learned. : ) I'm also trying gypsum on some new beds I'm prepping since they're on an incline. I'll report back.