I am so sorry to read this from you and from anyone else, because here in Northern California it has been and is still being the best year ever. The roses have been and still are in full glory. Having more than 200 of them keeps a display constant and means never having to think that something is not blooming, because something else is. And the gophers have been limited by gopher wire and the moles? well who cares, they can't get through the gopher wire either. It is a glorious year here....

Hey Jim---good to hear from you again. The folks over in the Antique forum were wondering how you've been.

Yes, it has been a tough summer in the country's midsection and I believe also in a majority of the Eastern Seaboard. Too much sun, too little water. Now that the weather has taken a turn for the mild, the roses are looking much better.

Sorry you had a disappointing season, Jim. Other than the fact that my water bill was astronomical my season was fairly normal. Thrips early on, then some Japanese beetles and now cucumber beetles...oh, and plenty of black spot too...you know, the usual stuff, lol!

Jim, I suspect it's the lack of early spring rain and hotter than usual summer that are the culprits. I've been able to overcome this somewhat with lots of mulch and watering every day to every second day. Of course that only works if your water bills aren't outrageous. I've been paying lip service to mulch but did a lot more of it this summer and the roses really came alive. When new growth began and tiny buds became visible I took off all the buds so that the energy went into the leaves. It's really worked well for me and the roses are looking much healthier.

Ingrid

I was curious for those that did drag out the hose, did your roses grow taller than usual? Here near Disneyland, I get a spring flush Mar- Apr and then sporadic until Aug-Sept when the heat slows them down. After Halloween they start going again until late Nov. with some continuing to Christmas. So if it's going to be like that for you, maybe you can get a good last half of the rose year even though it was a bummer of a start.

Our spring was wetter than usual and I had more disease and ruined wet blooms than I usually see on the DAs and Bourbons.

A marathon of JBs!

Its been rough over here as well, though we've had a lessening of drought conditions.

I've got a flush of SDLM going and I'm in love! The only rose that looks good all over and keeps on truckin'. All the others are looking a bit anemic.

The summer of 2011 broke all records as far as heat is concerned here in Oklahoma. This summer we broke those records, and had drought.

I watered, but with months of over 100 degree temps, I finally gave up. I pulled out my tomatoes in pots, and set up an automatic sprinkling systerm. Now that the temps are lower, my school has begun, and the weekends are horrendous challenge. The weeds are probably 10 feet high. I feel like I am in a corn field. Little by little I am removing them the weeds, and admiring the roses that are doing ok. In the back we even had some morning glories. Have you ever seen how morning glories can totally cover an area, and even become entwined in all of the roses and bushes?

I hope the bad weather conditions are over, and we can get back to normal heat waves, and not a summer heat wave.

Sammy

I've had the best year in a long time for roses, shrubs and trees because we had record rains. I've only had to water seeds. On the other hand it was the worst ever for vegetables and fruit because of lack of sunshine. We have a glut of plums but they have very little taste. I canned a lot today and added madeira or brandy to the syrup to get at least some taste.

Sammy I have been through the morning glory takeover before. It wasn't so bad on roses like felecia but for the really thorny ones it's tough. I found that if you cant get to them right away, try to sever the stems as they come from the soil and then the whole plant will wilt rapidly so the sun can reach the rose leaves. Then you can cut the vines off with a clippers later but if you cant find time for that then by the time winter is coming on, the stems should be dry and brittle enough to break when you pull at them. Winter or spring pruning does away with most of the stems at that point.

The challenge is the next year when the seeds sprout. If you have a shop vac I would use it at the base of the roses so you don't have glories growing there. Then I use Karl's advice about cardboard and mulch to defeat the rest. Karl was a great help to me when I battled these guys. I still love them just not near the roses.