Here are the Pink Promises and Moondance blooms this morning. You can see the leaves are skeletonized a bit by the Japanese beetles from the past few days, but the blooms, which mostly opened last night and this morning, seem safe. 8-5-11 The roses are both flourishing and struggling with pests. Early summer I noticed the blooms seemed to have spots on them, and when I peeled back the petals, I saw the frantic scurrying of thrip larvae. I used "Eight" on them and it seemed to control the thrips. The bushes and leaves are very healthy, and they've grown to at least twice the size in height and width. Such beautiful blooms - just need to keep the pests off. In the next month or two I'll be studying best practices for wintering them. 6-2-2011 The spot in which we originally planted the hydrangeas is deceptively sunny. It's directly north of the house, and surrounded by shade plants, yet this particular 8 or so square feet gets constant...