Linda - No question what you said is 100% true. Just musing here and not at all being critical of your plant or how it's cared for. When we strive to learn, we grow in our hobbies and pastimes; and, the more proficient we become at keeping our plants healthy, the more particular we're likely to become about their appearance. Very rare indeed is the good looking houseplant that isn't programmed (genetically) to be strictly true to a form (think Norfolk Island Pine). This means that unless we provide the physical guidance some plants need to be pleasing to the eye (by pinching and pruning), it's a good bet it ain't gonna BE pleasing to the eye; this, because indoor conditions really mess with a plant's natural growth habit, more often than not to the degree the indoor plant looks nothing at all like in situ plants of the same species. Look no further than a short distance upthread for examples of growers who fully realize their plants aren't looking as good as they'd like because they haven't yet taken control over their plant's form ..... but they're working on it. We all need to allow for the fact that a very high % of hobby growers are thrilled with nothing more than seeing their plants grow and exhibit signs of reasonably good vitality ....... nothing at all wrong with that, nor does it deserve to be diminished. When we reach the stage where we can reliably keep our plants in prime condition, most of us are ready to move on to the next challenge, which might just as well be keeping them pleasing to the eye, too. Every 'AHA!' moment that proves as useful as it was exciting when we first realized or discovered it, elevates the plane on which we interact with out plants, so progress lifts us up and provides lots of personal satisfaction. If we plan on exacting personal satisfaction from any hobby, learning new things and progression becomes an investment instead of a chore. Just the view from here. As always, YMMV. Al

I leave some on but cut and dry others for flower arrangements and wreaths that our garden club makes for a local shelter. If they brown up, we use spray paint and they are quiet decorative. We don't have a lot of snow in the PNW (although we had snow flurries today) to make them collapse! I also keep many old blossoms heads on the bushes for the birds. Most of the lacecaps are left alone and they stay beautiful for a long time especially after the larger outside infertile blossoms turn red on the underside and turn down. Some Macs with large mop heads will splay like Kluis Superba with full blossoms on the ground. The Kluis blossoms will turn green, turquoise, purple and blue even when dried. Sometimes there will be more than 15 little dark birds scratching under the bushes in the late fall and winter looking for treats. I don't see these as ugly, just the next show in the long seasonal cycle of the plants.

NJ, Deer eat rose buds, their choicest part of a rose bush, like Brussels Sprouts. They do not spit them out! You definitely are not dealing with deer....possibly ground hogs, but most likely squirrels. Squirrels or squirrel like critters are probably at work. Curiosity is at work rather than looking for a food source. They are attracted to green rosebuds because of their apple scent. Bitten off and dropped is what they do, maybe taking a nibble just to see what they taste like. Squirrels can do a lot of damage to apple trees, from the fruit just set size in June, to harvest size in the fall. Not much you can do short of killing them, a temporary fix. Do that and you just make room for more squirrels to move into the just vacated territories of the dead ones. Maybe the newcomers will not bother the roses, as the eliminated squirrel(s) did. Moses

We have an abundance of rabbits this year, and I too have noticed that the cucurbits which were sprawling have been chewed and even killed. The cukes growing on a trellis haven't been bothered. I've had to put a 2' high fence of chicken wire around the chard/beets/mustard greens because the rabbits chewed them to the ground. I have a rather wimpy little plastic snow fence all around by garden to keep the dogs from helping themselves to the tomatoes. It has always worked for them, but the rabbits chewed through it. We have noticed that small rabbits can get through chain-link fencing. Linda