My teas look awful this year too. The Austins look great because of the cool and wet spring. We really are at the mercy of the climate. Good thing we both have enough of a variety in our gardens that something looks good, yes? For you, it's the once-bloomers, for me the Austins. Both of us have bad looking Teas this year. Hope your season improves.

Armadillos eat grubs. Want any? I'll put a sign up in the yard, pointing them to Italy.

Some of my Teas look ratty, too. I keep waiting for Bermuda's Anna Olivier to get with the program. She just looks piqued & chlorotic, but then her foliage is on the yellowy side. We didn't have a bad winter, but it's been very dry - except in the rose beds so they have no drought excuse.

Hopefully, your recent rain will help you get through the summer, particularly your new trees. As to the hay and the grubs/beetles, what can you do? Not much. I just read that the Eurasian crow is a predator. Are there crows around?

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

I don't know if I can call this a bad year but it is certainly unusual. Being starved for heat Swedish people enjoy the sun and the warmth but unfortunately the plants do not. We've had no rain for over two months, the grass is brown, the apple tree leaves are undeveloped so there is little shade under the tree where we usually place our sun loungers to avoid the sun and take naps.

30 of my early roses are in flower, or are already over in the case of the species roses, at least three weeks early. Once-blooming old roses, gallicas, albas, etc, are showing colour and will start blooming very soon. I can see a little pink on Gloire de France from the window. I will open my garden in July to members of the Swedish Rose Society and I fear that I will have nothing to show. Perhaps the modern roses will be early, too, so there will be something to look at.

Bugs are plentiful, green aphids, of course, and a fat green worm it is disgusting to squeeze, a black bug that eats rose buds, another that eats leaf buds. I don't know their English names. Neighbours have seen deer already, they usually appear a little later, around Midsummer. They are wont to take a break in spring, spending it outside gardens after the winter garden fest. Lynxes have decreased the population recently but can't take care of all deer. I love lynxes.

We see less songbirds because of the drought here on the east coast, none have nested in our bird houses this year. We see no bats either, probably because of the lack of mosquitoes, the only benefit of the drought so far. We water for hours every evening, water is cheap here but watering takes so much time that we don't do much gardening.

Marianne in Sweden

ah yes, Marianne, the watering conundrum. We are still in the fiercest drought recorded in East Anglia and the grass is sere and parched, the roses (those which did flower) are either already over or absolutely refusing to grow so much as a centimetre. There is a hosepipe at our allotments but there are also 17 plots.......in order to water the potatoes, I went down to the plot at 10 at night, taking a torch, and watered until 3 in the morning. Otherwise, if it is not possible to do a deep water, anything else is just a tease. It is fraying folks tempers too since there have been 2 incidents of shouting (over hosepipe use) between plotholders. It is generally first come, first dibs but there is also an unspoken agreement not to hog the pipe when there are others waiting....sadly, some people seem to think their vegetables take priority over everyone elses. Ghastly! Mostly, when I planted out stuff such as squashes, courgettes, tomatoes and sweetcorn, I puddled the holes until drainage ceased (sometimes 2 cans for each small planting hole), planted the seedlings in mud and piled dry soil on top.....and that's that - they are going to live or die. The older established roses look sort of OK apart from whitefly and shiny aphid honeydew - I grow roses because they are essentially tough flowering shrubs requiring minimal attention - but the newish ones are in suspended animation....but then, so am I, wafting witlessly around the plot, pulling wild oats and field poppies, in a sort of dazed slo-mo. Even so, beats the pandemonium at home (dogs, babies, offspring!!!)I am spending an awful lot of time in the shed and have started thinking of comfy chairs (even a daybed), Certainly, I have a camping stove so tea and toast is always an option. A wind-up radio, good book.....and my house can be abandonned to the yelling masses.

Melissa, the useful information I have for you is that you have a beautiful garden (or property since it is huge.)

Sometimes I take pictures at just the right time, then those pictures are my expectation for future years. Yet this year we had one of the harshest winters ever, and my roses had to be cut back dramatically, and I discarded many. The winter was very cold, the spring was erratic. Too much wind and sudden cold episodes took their toll on my garden. Now suddenly the heat has hit yet the wind has not stopped.

My wonderful china and tea roses have thin branches and small blooms. Even though I have cared for them, this is what they have produced. The weather here has also allowed far more bad bugs than I can remember, yet I will not spray.

I need to remember to continue caring for my garden, yet be realistic in what I expect. If I continue to be steady in my care, I hope they will thrive, and have a better show next year.

I think that if you take a good look at your garden on a pretty day, you will see that most of the plants are healthy, and are working to thrive again as they did before. They have been temporarily stopped from doing their best, and they need time to recover.

Good luck with your beautiful garden.

Sammy

Bad year continuing is right...108 today, 109 tomorrow. The heat is on in Texas.

Yes, looks like we're in for a real Texas summer, but it looks like the wind has slowed down which is a blessing. Forget about anything flowering, just trying to keep everything alive will be a challenge! But you know what? Wouldn't live anyplace else, no place like Texas!

We got some rain too, thank Heaven! Drought really is the worst. The Italian summers are just so long and brutal! Now, it's cloudyand I love it,but most people seem to want it to be hot and scorching all the time! Crazy!
Melissa, those black beetles (Oxythyrea funesta) are a real b###h; if it's any comfort, you are not alone. I have engaged in a major battle against them. The pherormone traps that I ordered from Hungary may turn out to have been a real help; they directed me, for one thing, to an area that I think the effing beetles are using as a breeding ground; it's in full sun, protected, and (was) covered in bright yellow ginestra (bright yellow is their favourite colour). I sawed down the ginestra and plan to clean the whole area up...these things really are awful, since they come out right when the roses do, and ruin so much. I may even start a trapping garden, below the rose garden, filled with bright yellow shrubs and pherormone traps!
My heartfelt sympathy to you, Campanula (isn't that awful the way people can get ?)and to all of you that still haven't gotten any rain. I repeat, I think drought is just the worst. regards, bart

Sammy, thanks for the comforting words. Also, you all have reminded me that many of you are having far worse years than I am; and that my plants are mostly in fair condition even if the flowers have been dreadful. I hope the many sufferers get relief soon. Suzy and Greybird, Mariannese, I hope you get rain--lots of rain--soon! And Greybird, that the temperatures drop. Ogrose, I happy for you that you're happy with what you've got. Sherry, we do have plenty of crows, but I don't know whether they eat beetles and grubs or not. No armadillos. I've thought about chickens, which my sister tells me love bugs, but haven't been able to bring myself to think through a chicken coop and the various requirements. Many people here let their chickens run free during the day. Bart, I'm glad you got some rain! I'm actually planning on introducing broom (ginestra) to some areas of the garden where I can't get anything to grow. I may be getting in touch with you about those pheromone traps. I think it's interesting that you say yellow is the favorite color of the black beetles. I don't remember seeing a lot of them on my Foetidas, which are as yellow as anything can be; while they particularly adore pale roses: 'Bermuda's Anna Olivier', 'Mme. Jules Bouche', 'Maiden's Blush'--all close together, however.
I've been doing some maintenance down in the shade garden, yanking weeds, cutting back plants, thinking. The shade garden, with its trees and shrubs and wooded surroundings, is closer to being a mature garden than is the big (sunny) garden which was just a brushy field until a few years ago, and enjoying it once the height of the spring flowering is past doesn't require an effort of imagination. The shade garden is where I can feel the effect of the form and bulk of trees and shrubs, appreciate the texture of foliage and the effect of freshly cut grass--my husband mowed it yesterday--against the beds and the woods. A pretty spot. Until this year we were chronically behind on maintenance in the shade garden and didn't have the planting adequately planned or carried out; but now we're fairly well caught up, there's enough of the planting in place for a plan to pleasantly evident, and I have plenty of ideas about how to continue developing the garden. There's certainly plenty to do in the sunny garden, but for it to be pleasant in summer the shrubs are going to have to grow taller than me, and that won't happen in a hurry. Thank goodness for the cool green of the shade garden.
Melissa

Unusual year here, too. We got our average rainfall in my particular part of California, but we got it slowly over a more extended period of time than is typical, and with cooler spring temperatures. As a consequence our spring flush started a week or two later than it usually does, and has extended a full month longer. Despite the increased disease incidence, I have really enjoyed the beauty of the garden this year.

Rosefolly