New for 2025 - obtained from The Friends of Vintage Roses.
This rose is grown by me as a curator of TFOVR.

New for 2025 - obtained from The Friends of Vintage Roses.
This rose is grown by me as a curator of TFOVR.

The Japanese Beetles just keep on coming! Over the past several years I have noticed a decline in the number of Beetles attacking my gardens. Every beetle I see I spray and kill it, thus preventing them from going underground and laying their eggs. But I can't get them all, and I can't prevent them from visiting my gardens coming from my neighbors' yards. We have 1.5 acre lots here, most of that is lawn, so the beetles have plenty of room to flourish. And my Rose Gardens are like fine dining to them. This year seems worse than years of the recent past, for reasons unknown.

I am walking the gardens, spray bottle in hand, some 3x per day now. On a hot, sunny day I might nail over 100 in that initial pass. and then 25-50 on subsequent forays. I am learning their habitat - I think (and perhaps have read somewhere) that they attract each other with their smell. It is not unusual to see a party of 4-8 beetles together on a bloom munching and reproducing - we call this a "party." I love to see this since I can kill many beetles all at once with only a few trigger pumps from my spray bottle. Those that I spray on my final pass of the day typically die in situ, that is, still on the bush/bloom. I try to shake them out the next morning. The insecticide I use - Eight - does not kill instantly. But every Beetle sprayed will eventually die. They really do love hot, sunny days. Their activity level when it's 90+ degrees and sunny is 10x that when it is at only 75 or 80 degrees. They are the ultimate warm-blooded creature.

My roses overall have never looked better. The effect of the alfalfa tea from 10-14 days ago can be seen in the longer, stronger and straighter stems. It's amazing how alfalfa tea helps roses. Not having any midge damage to speak of this year has resulted in many more blooms and much more color in the gardens. I could not be happier, other than having more deadheading to do.

Now, if the Japanese Beetles would just go away! There seems to be more of them this year and they have some new favorite roses - Over the Moon, Marijke Koopman, Apricot Candy and Marilyn Monroe. But they can and do attack any rose.

Observations:
– Wildfire had thrown up a few stems starting in mid-June. They could very possibly be the rootstock -- Dr. Huey. Time will tell.
– Margaret Merril (2 bushes - own root) both have small stems, one with a small bud forming. She's alive, but barely, and will be unlikely to survive winter unless a lot more growth comes along.
– All others damaged by winter are coming on strong now.

I forgot to mention that I gave every bush some more Great Big Roses yesterday. GBR is a compost extract - I learned about this product from Kimberly (The Rose Geek). Label instructions are to use 4 ounces (8 TBS) per gallon of water and then give a pint around the bottom of each bush every few weeks. I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to give only a pint (16 ounces) to each bush. So what I do is use my Ortho hose end sprayer set at 2 ounces per gallon and try to give one quart (32 ounces) to each bush. That works out to twice as much water as the label instructions but the exact same amount of product per bush. I have done tests (using GBR with some bushes and not with others) and it does seem to enhance growth. It's essentially feeding the soil rather than feeding the bush as it has only miniscule amounts of NPK. I really like the product and it's very easy to apply using a hose end sprayer. I wish the alfalfa tea was as easy to apply!