I can not believe it has been eight months since my last journal entry. Where does time go? We are having a drought in California, so there is lots of talk about how to preserve rose bushes, but still conserve water. The best advise I have heard is to slowly reduce the water, since roses will survive a drought, they just will not produce as many blooms. Since I have a fairly sophisticated watering system, I will be able to control the amount of water I apply and will test the water in the soil often to avoid using more water than needed. I continue to battle disease and bugs. My biggest problem this spring was black spot. I believe it had to do with our warm spring with just enough moisture to keep the virus active. I continue to avoid spaying of any kind. Once I retire I am going to get into using good bugs to fight the bad. I found a company who sells beneficial bugs to add to the garden. I also am going to use beneficial nematodes in the soil. I am still 18 months away from retirement, so am going to continue to stick with a simple program right now. I can not wait to be able to wake up on any given morning and spend a few in the yard. This getting it done on the weekends is for the birds. I have added about 15 roses this spring. These have been mostly miniatures to fill in along walkways. I love my Sweet Chariot and Little Artist. There are several bushes that were in my first planting in January 2012 and they are taking hold this spring. America, Paul Neyron, Whimsy and Saint Patrick have been spectacular.

It appears my rose garden is likely in it's last display of the year. Around August I noticed lots of deformed leaves and buds. I believe my yard is infested with midge. I am struggling with whether to use chemicals or continue to use organic methods to combat the variety of ailments I have noticed this year. I was delighted to see several preying mantis, but the bad guys are outnumbering the good guys. I am going to do more research on dormancy spays to see if I can't start next Spring without as many issues. I just finished my last planting for 2013. I added Lavaglut, Playboy, Magic Carrousel, Scentsational, Jean Kennaelly, Flamingo, Dainty Bess, Sweet Chariot and Gloire de Dijon. I am only going to plant 3 bare root roses in February. This will hopefully help me focus on doing a good job or pruning, clean up and dormancy spray. I only have weekends to work in my yard, so I am going to need to be more stingy with my planting time. Especially now that I am over 100 rose bushes. (I am shovel pruning one!) It is windy and rain is expect today, so I am going to be inside baking cookies. Now that is a change for me.

I am finding I enjoy watching my bushes perform in the yard and to observe the various stages of each rose and how each is performing, more than cutting and displaying. I also have not been as enthusiastic in taking roses to the local rose society for our "Little Rose Shows". It seems the timing each month does not fit in with my desire to cut and groom my roses. Maybe I will get re-energized when we resume our shows in the fall. All in all the roses are looking great. My biggest enemies over the past 6 months has been black spot and thrip. The Thrip are especially noticeable on my white blooms. Next year I am going to consider a systemic to combat these conditions. I have a better idea after 2 years of growing roses, which roses get hit by black spot.

I have had a great time in my second year of rose gardening. I planted around 25 new bushes since January 2013. I am loving seeing the new blooms for the first time. Most striking so far have been Distant Drums, Blueberry Hill and About Face. There are only 2 bushes that are up for shovel pruning consideration for next fall. In my backyard I only have room for around 10 more bushes. My goal is to have 100 in the backyard. When I redo my front yard in 2015 I expect to put 10 - 15 up front. I am currently between flushes, but I have deadheaded and the plants look ready to go.