I have Paul's Himalayan Musk Climber on his way up a mulberry tree at the end of the driveway by the garage. He shows the ability to have this tree completely swallowed in a few years ... it's the look I'm after, fortunately. American Pillar is planted on the fence by the Rose Field, and I intend to encourage it to take over a cedar tree. I haven't been too successful, yet, because the canes keep getting blown out of the tree. This rose is WAY to vigorous for a crabapple tree, IMO. How about Gardenia? It blooms once, but it lives to climb trees. It will scale your tree and spill out the other side, with pale yellow-fading-to-white flowers in clusters. Beautiful. Some opinions of the others that have already been mentioned, since I'm in your area: Madame Alfred Carriere tends to grow straight up around here, then form an 'afro' on top. May be a possibility, but it doesn't 'hang' very well. Susan Louise probably won't survive here. I want this rose very, very badly ... but it's probably too tender. Mermaid? Way, way too vigorous once it gets going. Alberic Barbier, though once blooming, is a wonderful rose. The canes are very flexible, so it would hang nicely off a tree. It will go 15' in a season, easy. A possible deterrant ... the wichuriana ramblers make lots of basal canes, which would need to be trained up the tree every year. My AB made at least 12 new canes this year ... no lie. The multiflora ramblers may be a better choice, if you are considering once-blooming roses. Veilchenblau is my favorite of these. I don't grow it, yet, but it will stop traffic at Robert's house when it's in bloom in his holly tree. or Tausenschoen? For re-bloomers, maybe one of the hardier tea-noisettes ... Reve d'Or or Lamarque, perhaps? Photos? You asked. Alberic Barbier Leontine Gervais (another beautiful, stringy Wichuriana rambler) Paul Transon (wichuriana) Gardenia Veilchenblau That should be enough for this morning. As you can see, depending on the effect you're after, the choices are practically endless. Just avoid the really tender ones. HTH, Connie

Here in the low desert we have at least two different types of cane borers. One is a little bee that drill the perfect holes in the cut ends of the canes. I still swear that any cheap nail polish used as a pruning sealant can keep them out of the roses. The other type of cane borer is a flat-headed side borer. It's an ugly little creep that can kill a cane all the way down to the graft within very little time. The leaves are still hanging on the cane and the borer is all curled up at the bottom sucking the life out of the graft, I guess. Nasty, nasty things. We find them in the public garden, too and cut the whole cane off to the graft. I don't know any way to keep them out. I suppose a systemic might make the cane toxic to them. I don't use chemical controls at home or in the public garden.

This is the time to work on your soil. Add compost, manure and good mulch. Keep the roots in good shape. Roses always do better with rain than hose water. You should see what the drought is doing to my roses in CA. The year it rained and rained was my best year ever. But roses want sun and warmth too. If you have been using chemical fertilizers instead of natural ones then you might want to give your soil some TLC while the roses take a break.

Thanks for all the great advice! Since I need to buy a sprayer anyway, I might as well just do the neem oil. I've tried the Murphy's Oil Soap mix I usually use for everything, but I think they feed on it, I really do. I found my nozzle, so I'll spray them off until I can get paid and get the other stuff. I really don't mind using the nuclear option as long as it won't hurt the bees, because I don't have a lot of bees around here, mostly just a few native solitaries and some wasps. Thing is, that Bayer stuff travels through the soil and I have other blooming plants close to this one, so it would get into them too. I don't have enough pollinators to risk killing them. I haven't seen any honey bees at all, not even when the huge loquat bloomed. I think that's strange since there are so many trees, but who knows?