Sara-Ann, they all look great and beautiful to me.

Oh my goodness you have had some good years. If it makes you feel any better. I have never had a year that good. Still waiting but I'm happy with things for the most part. Such a beautiful house and yard you have. They well be good again.

Fantastic photos Sara Ann!

You've def had some beautiful years. I know the feeling. For a couple years it seemed to start out great then tons of brown buds it seems came out of no where. Every year though it seems one irritating bug comes as soon as one leaves. It starts with aphids then thrips then the horrid beetles with thrips still holding on and when the beetles leave here come the grasshoppers. It. Never. Stops. Plus an occasional rose slug here and there. The roses always seem to prevail somehow and I'm so thankful they do. You def have some gorgeous roses and love your pics of each and every one. Judy

They all absolutely gorgeous ,all look extremely healthy , I would kill just to have one of your roses

Sara-Ann - wow!!! You sure know how to grow roses!!! They're gorgeous!!! I especially love the vertical row of roses!!

Judy - Oy vey - you sure have had some terrible bugs. Grasshoppers too? Yikes. I'm so glad you persevere.

Carol

Thank you so much! Judy, only one year do I recall having a problem with grasshoppers, I know it was quite a few years ago. My insect issues are pretty minimal compared to some, I feel fortunate that way. Your roses are amazing, I would never know that you had many issues at all! You all have beautiful roses, I enjoy and appreciate you all!

One of the tribulations that all of us as gardeners suffer from is the "off year". For me it might be something so vague causing problems, I never am able to figure the bad year out. Other times, it's quite obvious--in my case, one year it was the nastiness of a bad weather flare up. I recently discovered several of my Evelyn roses, that I assumed were suffering from too much tree shade, were really suffering from a complete lack of water--this went on for several years, no less, caused by a severe drop in pressure in the drip system in one small area. I'm now hand watering them, and they are exploding with growth and blooms. Could some of your roses have the same problem--lack of water that you're not aware of? Here, regular irrigation is a necessity. Nevertheless, your photos are just beautiful--I particularly like the lovely pink colors, and the blooms are so abundant. You are not alone in suffering from an "off year", I know. Diane

I was talking to a friend saying that it seems we only have had 2 weeks of summer weather. He said, that's what he thought. All of his veggies in the garden are half the size as normal, because there hasn't been enough sun. He said this is the worst summer that he can ever remember. I agree.

Carol

This is leap year. Always bad. My wise mother says :observe,incects will triple.always do on leap year. And its true. Ive those spiders,thrips, ect.in greatest number ever. Its an invasion!!! Roses doing pretty bad blooms size of quarter and no vigor. Plus heat and humidity beyond bearable. Not good year. Everything is failing. Lets hope next will be fruitful and favourable.

I think that being a gardener, I always find something to dislike about the year. Last year we had a drought, so everything turned crispy. This year winter was rather mild, followed by cold spring and first half of summer. I'm sure that if I were not gardening, I would find it delightful not to have to turn on my AC the minute the heating is off, but instead I worry what horrors did all this cause for my garden. And BTW, like katalea mentioned, this year insects exploded. I had massive invasion of spider mites. À la horror movie. Nearly same thing with crickets. And I have JBs, for the first time since in forever. I normally have none of any of those, or next to none, so maybe there is something to the leap year theory.

Yikes!! Hopefully this is an abberation and next year will be better. That's what I'm hoping for too.

Carol

All in all even though this was our hottest summer since the 70's everything still did ok... Insects damage was very mild here this year...

Gee Carol not much summer for you... Hopefully next year gets better! Hope everyone that had a off year has a better one next year....

Thanks, Jim!! It's raining here again. :) If we don't have nice weather coming...I'd just as soon get into winter. :)

Carol

Oh, Carol, I wish I could change things for you. I could sure use some of that rain of yours.

I'd have to say that I've been having a good year. Spring was early and wonderful. Summer was not quite so hot as it usually is, and we never have much of an insect problem, except for thrips on certain susceptible roses. The roses are huge, but I wish some would bloom more, but all in all I'm happy. And thrilled to discover my three 12 year old Evelyns have been given a new lease on life (see Rosy Days of Summer)--a nice ending to August for us. Diane

Diane - I wish I could send the rain to you. :) Good riddance to it. LOL I drove by a construction site, and they had sandbags all along the road to stop the water from cascading down to where they were. I've never seen that here before. We're supposed to be semi-arid. Sheesh.

I'm glad you had a wonderful summer, and that you saved your Evelyns!!! Good going!!

Carol

@carol - don't mention winter yet. It's suppose to be a doozy this year. I'm already wondering what's going to make it through. I've planted 40 new ones this season. Many which are pushing my zone! As for the spring/summer, almost everything I've planted has really done well. Even Abraham Darby without a bloom yet; but it had 8 new basal breaks which 2 have hit the 6 feet mark here. And all the new stuff planted last year has really started to grow & thrive this season. Even the Japanese beetles were not too bad here. They only really bothered 3 roses & made them a bit uglier. Some roses have bloomed more than others, some have grown more at the expense of blooms. But nothing has died & overall the gardens make me happy!!!

It's supposed to be a cold winter? Yuck. It'll be a bookend to the crappy spring and summer. LOL

Good thing you had a great summer!! Do you usually have bad bouts of Jap. beetles?

Carol

According to the farmers almanac, the prediction here in Ontario is colder than normal & above the average precipitation. On the plus side maybe the extra snow will help insulate my garden beds better!

As for the Japanese beetles, we get them, but not like the swarms some areas in the states gets.

Sara-Ann, your roses are gorgeous! I think we do have to try to be philosophical about the off-year, or partial off-year, and then celebrate the good ones all the more. For me, this has been a strange one. Early spring was horrific, with that late cold that destroyed every flower on my oriental wisteria (honestly, that one made me cry, literally - it was covered in buds and in one night, every one of them shriveled and died). Then, rose season was great - I felt like they were more beautiful than ever, their companion clematises were spectacular, and I had earlier delphinium bloom so some delphiniums with my roses! Also, the poppies and larkspur were the best they have ever been for me, tall and gorgeous, and my beloved dame's violets were super-prolific. And I think I finally got the "garden room" thing to work. But then ... summer has been pretty bad. Its been so hot, and very dry, most of the roses are getting fried badly if they bloom. It seems like the really nasty weeds are more prolific than ever; I can't keep up with them! The best I can do is to keep them from totally swamping things, and between that and watering I don't have time to do much else in the garden (and its been so hot I can't say I wish I could spend more time, not to mention the mosquitos are awful this year!) I usually have tons of cosmos blooming - this year, hardly any; I think the late cold killed most of the seedlings. Also, we have a crop of adorable but voracious baby bunnies, and I think they ate a bunch of them (not to mention my pole beans). My tomatoes are sub-par, and for some reason, my dahlias are only now coming into bloom, and most of my hydrangeas did nothing (again, I blame that late cold). Finally, I lost one of my beloved Capt. Samuel Hollands (a big beautiful one) to horrid RRD. So at this point I'm just hunkering down and hoping for rain and cooler weather! And I'm trying to remind myself that ups and downs are just a natural part of gardening, and of life. And though we all get discouraged sometimes, things change - good times will come again!

Sara-Ann, can you tell us what varieties you are showing in these drop dead gorgeous pics? I'm particularly interested in the 3rd photo and the last photo.

Frances - The worst part of your summer, for me, would be the mosquitoes!! I hate them!! You've certainly had ups and downs this summer. But I love your end sentence!! Good times will come again. :)

Carol

Thank you so much, I do appreciate the compliments. SoFL - I'll do the best I can in naming the varieties shown in these pictures.

1. Queen Elizabeth, the light pink one, Dublin, and you might see some Folklore and Olympiad in that bed also. Closer to the house, Midas Touch, Pink Peace, Miss All American Beauty, Bewitched and you might also see Spice Twice (orange).

2. Double Delight on either side, with Drop Dead Red in the middle.

3. Bewitched, Pink Peace, Tiffany and Perfume Delight.

4. Aloha Climber

5. Pink Peace, Tiffany and Perfume Delight.

6. Belinda's Dream and Sunsprite

7. Love Song, Peace, Belinda's Dream, Sunsprite, The McCartney Rose, Liebeszauber and Zephirine Drouhin.

8. Dublin Bay

9. Tiffany

10. Mme. Isaac Pereire

I do hope everyone has a good year next year! Carol, seems like the pictures you've shown of your roses have been so beautiful this year and I thought you deserved a really good year, so I was hoping! I think you are such a positive person, and an inspiration, that's a good thing. I appreciate all the good advice and encouragement I get from Seil, Diane, Jim, Kentucky, Judy, Carol and all of you!

Sara-Ann - :) You are most welcome and right back at you!! :)

Carol

Sara-Ann, I have noticed a lot of damage to my rose bushes due to cane borers this season! I do seal the canes with Elmer's exterior wood glue. Ouch. I am wondering if I should use insecticide earlier in the season, as in shortly after I prune?