The roses have just started into their second flush of blooms. The Love and Peace (Hybrid Tea) are doing quite nicely. The double knock-outs are a bit behind on both amount and timing of blooms. There are also a few new roses in the mix this time. Dick Clark (Grandiflora), Dark Night (Hybrid Tea) and not currently making any good blooms several David Austins (Mustead Woods and Lord Braithwaite). The Japanese Beetle war of 2011 is also fully in swing. They seem to prefer the Love and Peace most. No pictures of the beetles though, I hate them too much. Rose pics below:

Love and Peace:


Dark Night bloom still closed (I had hoped for a stonger yellow back petal, but maybe the heat is supressing it):


Dick Clark:


What always impresses me is how temperature dependent the bloom color can be. Love and Peace for instance, becomes more red with the heat and bloom age. Even the same bloom will become darker over time. Here is a photo from spring for comparison.

Nice roses! The few JBs I have right now are eating my Knockouts and Double Knockouts, so I don't have any decent images for July yet.

MorpheusPA wrote:Nice roses! The few JBs I have right now are eating my Knockouts and Double Knockouts, so I don't have any decent images for July yet.

I really detest JBs. I'm guessing you have a lot more than I do. Personally, I get great pleasure spraying them with Neem oil. There is some suggestion that leaving the dead beetles on the ground deters future beetles from coming. Along the same vein, taking the beetles from your traps and blending them up with a bit of water is supposed to make a nice slurry that deters more beetles from coming. There is also the joy of grinding up the vicious little beasts. and the yuck factor.

nothing0 wrote:Those look awesome. I didn't know Dick Clark made a pretty rose.

The Dick Clarks are new for me this year, and one of the few I have that came in pots rather than as bare roots. So far I have been very impressed and expect them to really take off next year. Both the Dick Clark and the Love and Peace are AARS winners. http://www.rose.org/past-winners/ You pretty much can't go wrong with any of the winners.

I'm still waiting for my second blooms, I see the knock-outs getting ready but all the others are barely sending up new shoots (I pruned back to a 5 leaf, but did take about 8-10 inches off because last year they got way too leggy).

Another picture of Dark Night. This one looks better. The blooms in general are very dark red - one of the darkest I have seen. The yellow reverse accentuates the dark red. So far, the blooms are nice, but seem to fade fast in the heat. Might be the young age of the plant. Might be the genetics. Time will tell.

jglongisland wrote:I'm still waiting for my second blooms, I see the knock-outs getting ready but all the others are barely sending up new shoots (I pruned back to a 5 leaf, but did take about 8-10 inches off because last year they got way too leggy).

For my knock-outs, I really don't do much beyond dead-head them for appearance. In my experience, they don't really seem to care if you prune or not. On the Hybrid Teas, Grandifloras, etc. they seem to do much better with harder pruning than without. Even on them, I am not a really heavy pruner as long as shape is OK.

bernstem wrote:

jglongisland wrote:I'm still waiting for my second blooms, I see the knock-outs getting ready but all the others are barely sending up new shoots (I pruned back to a 5 leaf, but did take about 8-10 inches off because last year they got way too leggy).

For my knock-outs, I really don't do much beyond dead-head them for appearance. In my experience, they don't really seem to care if you prune or not. On the Hybrid Teas, Grandifloras, etc. they seem to do much better with harder pruning than without. Even on them, I am not a really heavy pruner as long as shape is OK.

My second blooms should arrive soon for the knock-outs, I think I have another 7-14 days for the others.