Japanese beetles have sent out the first "scout". We need to develop botanical controls; this afternoon I've read that red thyme, 4 o'clocks, mariogolds, and zonal geranimus slow or stun various beetles when they ingest them, or smell them. Allyl isothiocyanate (mustard oil) is the most effective, and at an 8% concentration of cabbage biomass mixed into the soil will kill 100% of the larvae. Two of the best sources of the compound is found in Brassica nigra, and Brassica junica. I'm don't know if any of these oils or extracts will harm roses or other plants we are trying to protect, but a concentration strong enough to slow them down so we can capture them would be a big help. (Alos need to look into potassium silicate worked into the soil or used as a spray.)

Just found a pdf on rust diseases in roses, at the end of it is are lists of roses that are prone to it, or not so much, or immune to it. It might help with the selection process.
http://ipm.illinois.edu/diseases/rpds/630.pdf

I also found a long "preview" of William Paul's book on the rose garden at Google Books, and read that Gallica roses need more iron in their soils, they found that the darker red and purple Gallica have a large amount of iron that could be extracted from their petals. the passage describes the growing fields so red with iron oxide that there was a sheen on them after heavy rains.

Snow, a little bit more, just a few flakes at a time, and we now have about 5 inches on the ground. I should know by now that winter comes late, with either rain, or snow depending on the year's weather patterns. We had a beautiful sunrise the other morning before the snowstorm. The next morning the trees were covered with snow, no grass, or leaves could be found, just a blanket of white. A cardinal checked out the hips left on Bayse's Blueberry by the kitchen door.

Ice, sleet, freezing rain, "thunder ice", tornado like winds, and the furnace went out at 2:00 in the morning to start it all off. But today, the sun finally came out even though it stayed about 30F. In all, we probably got about 2 inches, but the wind made some areas 6-8 inches deep.

We only saw a few large snowflakes for a few minutes, but everything else was some form of freezing precipitation. All very heavy and hard to shovel. I've gotten used to our "sugar snow", when all I need to do is sweep it away with a corn broom.