The second photo would not load above, so here it is.

Right now almost nothing is blooming, but Potter and Moore is giving me some flowers.

Eyes for You doing nicely for a young rose.

Coquette des Blanches is another youngsters that's producing some much smaller than usual blooms.

Le Vesuve

I wish I could help. Your garden is beautiful, Ingrid.

Ingrid, with everything going on your garden still looks lovely. Helen

Why not trap the rats. I'm sure a local zoo could use the 'food' for their snakes etc.... Check with the local game warden before messing with the squirrels.... Maybe the zoo folks could do the trapping for you. Can't hurt to ask. Love your garden!!!

Thanks guys. toolbelt, there are always lots more where those came from, and generally when a population is somewhat depleted either more will move in from surrounding areas or the rate of breeding will increase. Our exterminator guy actually works at the Wild Animal Park, which is an extension of the San Diego Zoo, so they have their own rats they're trying to exterminate. It's going to have to be a somewhat peaceful co-existence, with the main objective being to keep them out of the house, attic and eaves.

I've canceled my order for Bolero and have ordered Cinderella Fairy Tale instead. Does that seem like a good idea in terms of health and heat resistance? I believe some of you grow this rose, and I'd love to hear how it does for you.

Sorry to hear about the rats and other naughty critters. I agree your garden is still gorgeous! We also have roof rats here in FL. They are super annoying. We have a screened in porch and they are constantly chewing through the screen. They also chewed through the bottom of the wood framed screen door. We had removed anything that they would want from our patio but they keep chewing. I put a few cats back there at night, for a couple nights and the rats went away from the porch for several months but they always find something else to chew, like plants!

I will be interested to hear what others say about Cinderella Fairy Tale. It is on my list for spring. I think it might grow tall here.

Ingrid, I have 3 Cinderella Fairy Tale bushes. One is reaching 8' here, in zone 5, no less, so it will definitely be tall enough for you, and the bunnies, to each have plenty of roses to enjoy. They're your kind of roses - soft pink, old fashioned form, and grow in clusters of lusciousness. The blooms are paler on the outer petals with slightly darker centers. Not a lot of fragrance, but it is a very pretty bush. The world has gone through swings in temperature before, and no doubt will again. Next, we'll be looking for roses that can stand the chilly summers. Oh, and Cinderella has never had a speck of disease or fungus or anything else I can think of, here in my dry climate. My tallest one is trying to overtake Eden's arbor, and winning, and she was the one that I cut to the ground early spring because there was so much winter cane loss, I was going to remove her. She grew back so fast, I didn't get her dug up. Glad I was slow to grab the shovel. They are strong, upright shrubs and need no support. I think you'll like it.

Sorry to hear ingrid! Hope things improve for you!

Yes, Ingrid everything is still beautiful, but I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this.

I'm so glad to hear the good reports about Cinderella Fairy Tale. It's such a pretty rose, and at the same time seems to be big and lusty.

Naturally I only take photos of the good stuff, but I went out tonight and took some realistic shots of what's going on, and even I was shocked at how bad it is. We can only hope for another rainy winter to repair some of the damage.

Do you think maybe they are thirsty? or maybe if you placed a bale of hay far away from the roses they would go eat that. If course then you'd have more...
For some reason the vermin have been down for me this year, but usually they eat all my peaches and apricots, they go up in the trees, eat the flesh but leave the pits. So I have a tree full of bare peach pits hanging. They also like to eat the peels off my lemons, so I have a bunch of "peeled" lemons hanging. If it weren't for the "ick" factor, it would be convenient!
Carla in Sac

Ingrid, your Potter and Moore is such a trooper! Beautiful blooms. With all your critters I am surprised you don’t have more coyotes. Have you ask the animal exterminator about their population in your area. I am on my local NextDoor app and there are regular reports of dogs and cats being snatched from peoples yards here this summer. Apparently they ran out of squirrels and rats?! Now that I think about it I have never seen a rat in our neighborhood. Occasionally a gray squirrel, ground squirrel, rabbit, skunk, and opossum. Used to see raccoons, but not in a long while. Predators and prey go in natural cycles, so as prey increase the coyotes should too.

Carla, I'm sorry but you simply cracked me up. That visual of your fruit trees in my head is priceless. We have one grapefruit tree on the hillside and since we don't eat grapefruit I haven't taken a close look. It would be too funny if they were missing their peels. Our neighbor has an orchard full of oranges and I don't know why the critters haven't gathered there instead.

We used to hear the coyotes near us every night and this year they've been strangely silent. Everything seems weird since last summer when all this began. Stephanie, we haven't had raccoons in the last year and strangely enough have never spotted an opossum. Our local NextDoor hasn't mentioned any coyote predation on cats and dogs. You'd think they'd be beating a path to our door with the variety and sheer number of yummy animals we have on offer here for them to dine on.

I was wondering why I don't have tab button to write a comment. It took me about 5 mins to figure it out. Houzz change the "look". Used to be at the bottom of last comment .
Ingrid, your garden still looks great and your landscape is absolutely breathtaking. Your roses will be blooming long before you know it. Sorry about the rats.
Like Jasmin, we also have same issues but we noticed there is a decline in their population already. We could see them running across the electrical wires. They look almost like squirrels unless you look closely. But now we barely see them . Thank goodness !
I am also getting SoR but in Spring. Love your choices of. selection :)
Stephanie comment is very interesting about coyotes. Throwing in another predator - snakes. I prefer garden snakes :)

jin

Even with leaf loss your garden looks great, Ingrid. I'm accustomed to leaf loss due to blackspot, so it seems familiar to me to see plants without leaves.

Your Teas are interesting to see with the thick canes at the base. Mine could never grow to this size...

Pink myrtle and roses, a lovely summer garden...

pellet gun :)

It still looks lovely to me! Do you grow any climbers? Perhaps they, along with taller plants would help outsmart these varmints. Krista, that was my reaction, as well. I can only dream of a garden that's lush with leaves, even with supposedly healthy varieties. It's not too bad so I put up with it on some of them.

The only good thing about the rats is, we have a healthy population of Barred Owls that live in trees at the edge of our property. I can hear them in the daytime sometimes as well as at night. They are pretty cool. I'm glad they have healthy rats to eat in our yard. The neighbors a few acres away, poison everything, squirrels, too. I hope the owls have learned to not hunt over there.

Feral cats. We started taking care of a small community 10 years ago. The neighborhood was over run by rats, mice and all kinds of rodents. It took about a year to get everything under control but no one in our neighborhood has seen any rodents for a very long time . We work with the County Animal Control with the Spa & Nuter of this community. We allow a very few to be productive and the rest are fixed and released.

Jeri, I had lots of companion plants and they were all eaten (see naked pelargonium above). My reblooming irises were my pride and joy, but those were prime rabbit food. I now have milkweed, penstemons and sages which fortunately the critters don't like as much, and have about half as many roses as I used to.

Ken, the feral cat program is a splendid one but I'm afraid the kitties here would die of thirst in the summer. We used to have single feral cats here and there but I haven't seen any for some time, even though I would welcome them. I always have multiple sources of water for the animals scattered around the yard but have seen only rabbits, squirrels, birds and skunks drinking from them.

Sultry, we used to hear owls at night but not lately, and I'd love to have them back. Right now there seems to be a huge imbalance of prey and predators, and I can only hope that changes soon.

Vapor, I don't have climbers because I have no good place to put them and they're more than I can deal with in terms of upkeep. I've ordered Reve d'Or because I love that rose but am rethinking that. It's really much too large and I may just order two Star of the Republic instead of one. I'm a bit limited in selections since I'm ordering from ARE as they have the largest-sized roses. I'm strongly considering Golden Celebration also from Austin Roses after seeing the gorgeous pictures from Diane in Idaho, who says it's great in the heat, a huge consideration. If I were a normal person I wouldn't be ordering any roses at all in light of everything happening, but so many of us here aren't exactly normal in that respect. Plus, we must support the rose nurseries!

Sadly, feral cats here usually end up as coyote chow.

You are a lady with determination and vision, and I think you'll eventually settle on a balance with our (changing) conditions. As I hope we all, eventually, will in one way or another.

Sultry, I love that you have owls. When I lived in Silverlake, a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, there was a den of coyotes one summer under a huge thicket of bushes that was the neighbor’s entire backyard. One night I woke up to whimpering type sounds. Mama coyote had gone to hunt and had left her litter on my back patio, which was protected with high walls since the backyard sloped up VERY steeply. It was the most precious sight seeing these baby coyotes playing on my patio under light from a full moon. We did not have any rats, that for sure!

Ingrid, my Star of the Republic has new buds just ready to open. I’ll post a picture when they do.

Baby coyotes! how adorable. What an honour for you that their mom chose your patio as a safe spot for her babies. Ingrid, i sure hope the predators will arrive soon-that is scary. Global warming and climate change mess up eco-systems so badly. it's so frustrating: the very people who are so hateful towards immigrants are often those who insist that climate change is not a reality and an emergency! Times are so hard...

Jeri, it's so true. I'll be forever grateful that we were able to save one of the kitties, who someone must have dumped fairly recently, because he was such a friendly boy. Thankfully he was adopted almost immediately when we took him to the shelter.

Stephanie, that is the most beautiful and touching story. The trust the mother coyote showed you is incredible.

bart, the whole situation in all its ramifications is so sad. This is not the country I once knew, and not the world that any of us knew. I can only hope that the political insanity cannot last, although I fear that a more enlightened government will be too little and too late. Living in the now and treasuring what we still have seems like the best and wisest course.

A few blooms in the garden today:

What a lovely rosey glow your pictures emanate, Ingrid. Beautiful.

The porcelain blooms of SDLM look perfect, I've always been fond of this rose.

The iris is a stunning backdrop for Potter and Moore.

Great summer blooms, Ingrid.

Krista, I wish it were an iris, but the critters eat those as soon as they put on a little growth. It's actually penstemon 'Midnight' which no one seems to eat so far, and I'm very fond of its deep purple flowers.

I'm loving the fact that the nights are still cool enough to be comfortable. Several times when walking outside at night I've spotted a kangaroo rat for the first time ever here. It's normally a desert dweller and the fact that they've migrated to our area shows that global warming has become all too real.

I have two outdoor cats and a fair bit of woods surrounding my property. They are out during the day, but are housed in the garage overnight. I only feed them once, in the evenings, once they're locked up. Granted, these are sweet "porch" cats mostly that don't seem to venture too far from our 2 acre property. We have many trees to climb if they needed to escape pursuit. I have zero problems with rodents.

The penstemon is a good companion for the roses. I like the height of the plant, looks great for landscaping. Aunt Margy's rose has grown! A few years ago it was smaller, as I recall.

Krista, AMR was smaller after I pruned it and didn't seem to want to grow back much until last winter's abundant rain, and it's now both taller and wider. Without the abundant rain that other places have my soil seems to repel irrigation water, and when I dig down it's only the very top layer that is moist after watering. So frustrating!

Jen, with coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions in my country neighborhood I would never have a moment's peace with a cat outside, even during the day. It's puzzling that predators aren't keeping my rodent population down, and I can only hope that sooner or later they'll discover the abundance of riches at my casa.

So here is promised picture of my baby Star of the Republic. Purchased from Antique Rose Emporium in February, so only 6 months old. It has supremely healthy foliage and is currently in a very awkward growth phase. It shot up this one cane a month or so ago and I cut before it got too long and then it made 5 sideshoots each with one or two buds. It is planted at base of left fence post. I cut the one open flower yesterday evening, since it’s supposed to be 100 today and I wanted to enjoy it. This one has a light tea scent, but the last flush had strong fragrance; I can’t remember type of fragrance except it wasn’t tea. I am guessing the tea scent it always there in the background, but sometimes it makes other stronger scent molecules.

Stephanie, that's a simply gorgeous flower! My Sweet Frances did the same thing, with one cane shooting up above everything else, which seems to be a fairly typical habit of some of the older roses. Mme. Joseph Schwartz, which is the same age as Sweet Frances and is planted next to it, is doing the same thing. It takes a few years for these little ugly ducklings to turn themselves into beautiful swans, but I find this awkward phase to be rather endearing too.

Coquette des Blanches, on the other hand, has been very mannerly from the beginning, with a nicely rounded bush and with flowers that have a lovely old rose fragrance.

I wonder if your no ID plant is agastache Kudos yellow or gold, Ingrid. Thank you for the lovely photos.

Thank you, dear Sheila, it is indeed Agastache 'Kudos Yellow'. Wouldn't you know it, just after I said it wasn't a popular food item I discovered half the stems were cut off. If they ate the plant I could understand it, but to see a grouping of uneaten stems scattered around the plant is extremely maddening. Oh well, it is what it is.

Ingrid

I agree with everyone, your garden is ruggedly beautiful in spite of the marauders and harsh conditions.

I’m very surprised that bunnies eat your irises and roses, my yard is teeming with bunnies that scatter in every direction when I enter, but they pretty much leave my valuables alone. Perhaps my weeds are more abundant and tasty than yours, at least to a rabbit’s palette, they pretty much stick to the lawn and eat what’s there. I must say you have a very healthy wisdom on living with nature. I’m afraid if they ate my roses and irises, my Pinterest boards would be overflowing with ‘delicious ways to cook rabbits’. I’d be full on Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.

Ben, you are so funny! From what I can gather bunnies do favors grass, of which I have none, and therein I think lies the problem. Even so, my irises and roses were safe until the summer of 2018, which had abnormally scorching temperatures early in the season (I remember it was 115 one day), which I think killed most of their natural sources of food. We are now two zones hotter and drier than we were ten years ago, and that, along with the six-year drought, left the wildlife with very little to subsist on. When I look at all the greenery in the photos of people in rainy regions it must be difficult to understand that in areas like mine life is poised very much on the edge of survival. If we didn't have water imported from northern California most of us would not be able to live further south. In areas closer to the ocean, for instance where Lisa lives, there is not the extreme temperature and level of dryness that prevails here. I know many of you have friends or relatives here, or have visited CA, but living here now with the advent of global warming has taken on a grim aspect that I wouldn't have dreamt of 8-10 years ago. It is very sobering. I am grateful that for now there are still roses in my garden to bring joy to my life.