Sunday, July 12, 2015

Dewdrops on Roses and a Bouquet of Beetles

It has been five weeks since I saw the first Japanese Beetle of the season.  I rely on my system of strategically placed traps in the yard and morning and/or evening trips to the garden with my Bucket of Death (soapy water) to drown any beetles that I find on the roses.  I would like to say that the beetle population has peaked, but I'm not sure that that's true yet.

"Aunt Louisa" from the Leonie Bell Noisette collection at Tufton Farm.




Fortunately, the high beetle concentrations are only in isolated areas of the garden.  Some roses are eaten practically to nothing on the new growth, and on any flowers that I have neglected to remove ahead of time.  Most plants have a few beetles, and some have none at all.  I am thankful for small blessings like this.





This morning, I took my camera with me on my beetle hunt, to capture the sparkling dewdrops on the roses.  Beetle hunting is a nasty job, so I try to distract myself by concentrating on the beautiful things around me ... and by taking sadistic satisfaction in how many beetles end up in the bucket and how few escape.  Japanese Beetles have no major predators in the US, which is why they are such a plague.  I wish with all my heart that some type of bird or bug would learn to look upon scenes like this as an opportunity for an easy and tasty meal.

Rest assured ... every single one of these beetles ended up in the bucket after I took this photo.


Let's not dwell on the nastiness of Japanese Beetles ... let's look at another pretty rose to take our minds off of it.

"Unrootable Red China" which, despite its study name, is quite easy to root.


Five weeks of Beetle Season down, probably three or so more weeks to go.  I can't wait till it's over.

16 comments:

  1. Glad you still can show us some beautiful roses from your garden. Wish you a lot of success catching and drowning the beetles.

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    1. It is very satisfying to know that the beetles don't get all of the flowers ... and to see how many of the nasty creatures are in my bucket at the end of each trip to the garden. They are ones that can no longer damage my roses, or breed and make more beetles for next year.

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  2. Roses with dew drops gorgeous! Japanese Beetles...ugly! Catch those things!!!

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  3. So that's the solution. I need more roses as a distraction from the wretched creatures. This I can do.

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    1. I have been told more than once that I have an annoying habit of continually trying to see the bright side of any bad situation.

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  4. The healthy roses are gorgeous, but that photo of the beetles is both horrid and awesome at the same time. Glad you got 'em!

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    1. In the heat and humidity of a Virginia summer (which is nothing compared to your summers, I understand), it's good to get out early and see what there is to see. An advantage of this is that the beetles are sluggish and seriously easy to gather up and drop into my bucket. Fish in a barrel, it is. Very satisfying to see how few of them escape.

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  5. Beautiful roses still blooming in your gardens in spite of the beetle invasion.

    My favorites this time are Aunt Louisa and The Unrootable Red. The red reminds me of the FL Cracker Rose/Louis Philippe.

    Have a wonderful week ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Unrootable Red is a lot like Louis Philippe! Those red China roses can be very difficult to tell apart. I have the Florida rose that I rooted from cuttings at my uncle's house. Theirs came from her mother's garden. I love passalong plants!

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  6. Nightmares. Nightmares. I hope you're right about more rain making them worse, because it could mean that us folks in almost arid Kansas could annually keep their numbers to manageable levels. God knows I've got enough Rose Rosette to fight already.

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    1. Nightmares, for sure! I just know that I have more beetles in years when spring is wet and the ground is soft, and fewer beetles when it's dry and the ground is baked hard. My neighbor and I think that dry, hard ground makes it more difficult for the adult beetles to emerge from the earth. I'm a kind soul, but I sort of like the mental image of the beetles struggling, and failing, to dig their way out.

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  7. Hate hate hate those beetles....when we lived in Ohio, we used Bacillus on the grass to help reduce their numbers. Moles and turkeys eat the grubs, too. We still had to pick them off the roses....but we only had 4 bushes, so it wasn't so overwhelming. Love looking at your pictures. Wish I had room to grow more roses at our new place in Hampton Roads. We had several here when we moved in, but they had all gone to rootstock, so we had to dig them up. Only one left, red, and I can't even hazard a guess as to it's name. Want to add another, but just can't decide. So many lovely choices. Leaning toward an old fashioned rose right now.

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    1. It's a vicious cycle ... beetles, grubs, mole tunnels, more beetles. At our place, with dozens of acres of fields and grass, treating to kill the grubs isn't really feasible.

      If you ask me, I think that EVERYONE needs to have old fashioned roses in their garden. :)

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  8. Those damn beetles!
    :(
    Love that Pat Austin rose!
    :)

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    Replies
    1. Pat Austin is a lovely rose ... such an unusual, lovely color.

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