Mist on those gorgeous, healthy leaves and blooms just looks like Spring.

Lovely! Glad to hear you're getting some moisture!

Sadly, it's not enough moisture to do a bit of good . . . But I suppose it's enough to make some blackspot!

Pretty, but useless if you need water: do I understand correctly? I hope you do get rain!

We had a long spell of dampish but not rainy weather (we did get rain eventually, though), and the roses got a lot of fungal disease. But the quality of the blooms was good.

I think any moisture does at least some good; ok maybe it causes BS in roses, but for most plants and especially the native vegetation it is helpful. A lot of plants absorb quite a bit of their moisture intake through their leaves.

Melissa, the soonest we could hope for rain would be late November. Even in the wettest years, it will not rain here in summer. And now that local reservoirs are at 38%, the powers-that-be are finally calling this a drought.

When I saw that mist, I thought blackspot, but I didn't want to say the word. Then Jeri said it, so I have a question. Those are new this year leaves Could BS have overwintered on canes nearby? Or come in with the winds youall are infamous for having?

Ann . . . Blackspot is really very rare here. That's not surprising, considering that we are well on the way to becoming a coastal desert. I have seen it after a very wet winter (which hasn't happened for years and years).

BUT I have to admit that I have lately seen a very small amount of blackspot on "Old Town Novato". It surprised me because . . . DRY. But the air has been cooler and more humid this spring than we have seen for some time. So . . . You never know.

One thing I DO know is that it IS going to get hot within the coming month, and we won't see mist or drizzle, much less rain, until late Fall.