At home in summer, I mist/spray my roses every early evening, which has always helped them. This year, before we left on a month’s vacation, I set our sprinkler/drip system to come on at an additional time, 6:00-6:10 pm, three minutes on each of the three circuits (if that’s the right word). August where we live is a seemingly endless parade of glary, cloudless, triple-digit days, with maaaybe 5-10 minutes of rain from a freak thunderstorm. Why would this year be any different?

This year there was Hilary, and six inches of rain. Then there were intermittent showers, three-four days of that.

As a rule my roses in early September are riddled with chili thrips and look awful. Moonstone is one of the worst offenders, but almost everything gets hit sooner than later, even my teas. This year — glossy leaves, flawless blooms, happiest-looking set of plants I’ve seen in years! Some leaves have been nibbled here and there, but no sign of thrip infestation.

I’ve often read on this forum that water will fix almost every rose problem. Now I can attest to that.

I’ll post pictures tomorrow.