It feels like a cool, wet spring out here in the midwest, too, for some reason--I haven't looked at the rainfall amounts or temps, mind you, just feels like warm, dry sunny days are few and far between. And those are the days that my garden makes its biggest leaps. We are downright soggy yesterday and today, feels like I will never see the sun again, and the temps always fall short of what is forecasted. It is depressing--and yeah, my roses are only just recently leafed out and budding, and they're already starting to get some disease. Sigh.

We've had cooler than average, foggy, misty days but we're well below average rain, so the ground is drying up. Then a hot sunny day--and all the tender new foliage on the roses gets sunburned! ARGH!!

The weeds, of course, are flourishing.

The weather is very hard to predict and more difficult to control. I feel that in the future we will see more extremes as the climate changes and/or more warming takes place. We just have to do the best we can under the circumstances. However, roses have managed to make it for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, and they will continue to adapt and make it now. The very least we can do is hang in there with them.

It has been cooler than normal, even with the short bursts of hot weather. But, with all of the rain, everything is in bud and I expect early bloom (before June) on many plants, even though I pruned way, way late. I already have blooms on Distant Drums, Excellenz von Schubert, Incognito, Marchesa Boccella (kinda veggie, but it still bloomed), some ratty things on Baby Faurax, Dr. Troy Garrett. Color on many others. Crazy things.

I'm losing a lot to canker, sadly I am going to have to pull out a few bushes that are just too infected. As expected in my small group, the English roses are thriving, but most of my hybrid teas except the evidently hardy Mirandy are limping along. Reine des Violettes, a battered mercy purchase from K-mart last year, is loaded with deep maroon buds. So overall, the shrubby ones are doing great, and the hybrid teas are limping. Also noticed the outburst of sawflies - disgusting, wish I had caught it earlier but it was raining too much - they did a lot of damage and will be spraying this weekend - also have aphids but they are easier to cope with. I guess Maryland must be out of its water shortage by now!!!

Tammy, I feel like that every day! Stone garden, I haven't lost whole bushes but do have lots of black cane issues.
The roses and trees love the water though.

Carla

Lots of rain, lots of canker; I lost several of the HT, T and China bands I planted the end of last summer and two bourbons that had been limping along. But everyone who made it is finally putting on new growth and blooming like crazy. I agree with roseman; climate change is just going to make it worse. This has been a good, if painful, opportunity to evaluate survivors. Adaptability is my newest selection criterion.

Its been raining three, four times a week for the last three weeks. The ground is unseasonably cold and very wet. Of my HT, JFK is lagging way behind but I thought I had lost it. New Day and Sundowner are quite small but I'm going back to old fertilizer so maybe that will help. I planted two new HT rose, Blue Girl and Nicole but I don't think Nicole made it. We are suppose to have four days without rain next week so I can out there and start spraying for black spot.

And more rain! I agree with catsrose re adaptability. At this rate I am going to end up with mostly English and shrub roses, which isn't a bad thing except my very favorites are hybrid teas - I am so hoping my two Double Delights will cope, even the bushy Fourth of July seems to be sulking. Also I am "testing" 3 new Mardi Gras, so far they seem pretty happy.

I guess this is a pattern others have noticed: cane hardy roses are loving it and are opening an unusually good flush. Tender and canker-prone roses took a big hit; these are late and puny except for a few that are just late. Eight or ten plants look pathetic and won't be any good until late summer, if then. The McCartney, own-root, has no surviving growth but must be alive down there somewhere.

Interesting how different roses perform in different areas. Several people have said "I'll have English roses left". My Austins are the very WORST with the canker the last couple of years. In fact, I'll be SPing a "Teasing Georgia" tomorrow to put in a dogwood. Even the roses that have recent Austin ancestry (such as "Marianne") are struggling a bit.

The old gallicas, damasks, and albas are happy as clams.