I have a couple of negatives re the garden on my mind, both burdening me. One is so negative I don't want to talk about it; the other is box and the current box moth infestation. This is my equivalent to John's losing gigantic climbing roses to a Polar Vortex: hard, and for a while you feel blackly discouraged. Last year we gave up spraying for box moth, which we had been doing for perhaps seven years or so previously. The resulting damage was real, but tolerable. This year, instead, the box moth has hit its stride. Some plants are completely defoliated, almost all have a degree of damage; my fear is, none will escape, either being killed, or so badly harmed they will lose all their ornamental value. We have perhaps 80-90 box plants in the garden, many used for hedging and a fair size. I love box, or I did back when I could grow it, and there's no ready replacement for it. All the same, I think I'm going to have to find one, My current idea, if it can be called that, is gradually to cull the box, cutting the worst-hit ones to the ground, and replanting with something (what?) suitable. If a plant isn't badly damaged, I'll leave it.

The garden is magnificent this spring, by the way.,box moth notwithstanding. My capacity for gratitude is at a low point at the moment.

Now, Rosa foetida. We planted this early on, in a part of the garden that, basically, was one of our (many) failures: the plants failed to grow, died, the weeds flourished, etc. So we did what we do, which was abandon that area and work in other parts of the garden where things were going better. This morning I went back take a look at it. Rosa foetida and its double but otherwise very similar relative 'Persian Yellow' were in fine fettle: healthy, suckering out from their original point of planting, full of buds and, in R. foetida's case, showing its first blooms. Fine roses, full of character and beauty. They're healthy in our climate, not particularly susceptible to the fungal infections that I gather plague them elsewhere. There were also a few other rose survivors, possibly the start of a renewed bed, and a clematis, not yet in bloom but a large-flowered kind, that looked quite happy. The weeds are more lush than they once were. I enjoyed the meadow flowers in the beds and walks--really, they are beautiful--and the shrubs and trees that back the bed are growing, and in time will offer protection and mulch. So, perhaps it's time to start thinking about starting work again on this area.