De-lurking here to say it's not just you! We had a strange spring with wild weather swings (up to 40F from daytime to night), and I have to say...this is the crappiest rose season I've had in 8 years. Very abundant number of buds--probably the most ever--but the quality of the individual flowers just stinks. Like the worst thrips damage ever, but each and every rose has it. Some roses had stunted/balled/withered buds, others had blackened petal edges, still others didn't bother with blooms. My Queen Elizabeths, easily the most prolific roses in my garden, haven't bloomed yet. There are some old, established bushes that hardly went beyond their pruned size and only spewed a few deformed buds. Thrips are normally a problem on my light colored roses, but this blight is affecting every color. The later developing buds are better--if on the small side. It's the roses that developed first (late April to early May, which is quite late for us) that were the worst. Surprisingly, the roses that seemed to shrug it off best were some of my David Austins--Jude, the Dark Lady, and a few others. But some of the DA's (Abraham Darby) and other shrub roses and climbers (like Sombreuil) were just horrific. My mom came over and said "you know, if you just look at the roses from the house, they're not so bad." Sigh. And we had such a lovely, rainy winter (for us) that I was sure the rose flush was going to be awesome. And the numbers were truly impressive--hundreds of buds on some of my small (3 ft) bushes, which is the best I've seen. But again, the actual quality of the buds was the worst I've ever seen. Some tried and true winners from my garden were hard pruned just because I couldn't bear to look at their browned/blackened/crinkly/balled horrible little blooms. These included: memorial Day, Queen Elizabeth, Sheer Bliss, Peace (sob), Marilyn Monroe, Daybreaker, New Zealand, Just Joey, blue Nile, Evelyn, Abe Darby, Charles Darwin, Autumn Sunset, Golden Something(normally gorgeous downturned sunny yellow blooms, but this time they didn't even open!),Chicago Peace, Tamora, Pink Peace, Mirandy, Mary Rose, Secret (double sob), McCartney Rose, Tiffany....I could go on, but I'm feeling kind of nauseous. To put it in different terms: I have over 160 rose bushes with few repeats, and this year I have only brought six cut blooms into the house. SIX. But who can really blame the poor roses? Last week we hit 100 degrees on Monday, and on Thursday the high was 54 with rain (snow in Flagstaff, poor buggers). What is a plant to do in these conditions? Apparently, they sulk. Now it's getting to be blistering hot again, with humidity in the single digits. Spider Mite season. I won't likely see a good bloom until September, and then the deer and javelinas will be moving in for their Autumn feast. I'm thinking of getting into daffodils. At least the lilies, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, and cannas are doing well. And the glads look like they might actually open this year (last year they were all duds). I'm off to sulk myself. Heather

Lol, poor Daniella. Ask him if he will do my laundry too. I throw it all in together and everything looks like crap, lol. I was telling John about this and he said ohhh good idea about the pots and the roots now that winter is coming he is wanting to bring in more of them so he is liking the idea of burying the pots in the ground then lifting the pots for the winter. He forgets before we did all these flower beds and I told him about this he told me I was crazy and why would I want to dig a hole and buy a pot. Just put the dang things in the ground and leave them there he said, lol. How soon he forgets now that he is getting excited that they are going to start blooming, lol. I bet we have sunken pots next year, lol. The one I had last year bloomed in the garage nearly all winter long. I think he is remembering that and realizing all those in the ground are going to have to be cut down and he will miss them blooming. Who wants to make a bet he digs up some of his to bring in the house instead of cutting them, lol.

That looks like the neighbors lawns in this picture...The picture was taken in July a few years ago. The green lawn belongs to morpheuspa here on this forum. The neighbors water their lawns every day in the summer. Morph waters once per week in the summer. So as to your point about a standard for Long Island, it is more of a standard for the temperature of Long Island. If you are not following that, then you lawn will look poorly. Here's my summary blurb on watering: Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. Having said that, you cannot go cold turkey in changing it over to deep and infrequent. You have to come to it gradually by increasing the time and decreasing the frequency. Way too long grass is better than short grass. Yours should be mowed at the mower's highest setting.

dchall_san_antonio You previously said: IF you are in the area affected by "late night and early morning low clouds and fog near the coast, burning off by eleven," followed up by the 2:00 sea breeze, then go ahead and try the Marathon fescues. I think you qualify. I don't have a strong opinion on the three Marathons. MI is dwarf. MII is dwarfer. MIII is dwarfest. All that means is they grow slow and slower and slowest. I might favor MI because mowing high works best for fescue, and the MI should get tall quicker than the others.