The weather is in flux right now with strong wind and occasional hail storms with still some frost in the morning which is not unusual for this time of year.
Fewer aphids this year and the ones that are on the roses are being quickly taken care of by the lady bugs, wasps and a number of birds migrating through the yard this spring. I see no real need for any other measures than to let nature take care of it self when it comes to controlling "pests". Aphids do some of their own brand of pruning. I was taken in by the misguided fears at one time but realized after working on a farm for half a season that all things come into a balance within the ebb and flow of predator and prey.
The other morning I was just standing in the rose garden taking it all in and waiting for those reluctant bushes to bloom and put forth there startling colours and shapes. Thats when it came to me there is more to a rose than it's blooms. The foliage and prickles have there own appeal and variety of colour ,shape and character to be considered also.

We still have some early morning frost which "burns" some of the more tender under developed leaves, mostly the tea roses. I mulch with a good layer of leaves rounded up from here and there and they are almost gone now being drawn into the soil by an abundance of worms. There are some new basil breaks poking there way up through the mulch so my conclusion is that the roots are finding what they requirer.
It's the end of April and the roses are all growing and filling out nicely. I see that the Hugonis has started to flower but still a bit thin looking. Put a little steer manure around the exposed basil the other day and will have to wait and see the result.

Some light frost in the early morning and melting before noon. The days are getting longer and the ground will so be warming up. The tea roses are the first to put out buds which can be problematic if we get a late hard frost. The Gallica roses are holding back as well as most of the species roses. One exception is a found rose that puts out leave early around middle of Feb. My guess is that it has some Rugosa in it's lineage along with a strong R. nutkana or R. acicularus input. The two Mutabilis roses faired better this year in the milder weather but still remain small less than 3 ft. high.
I can 't wait for some of the nutkana crosses to flower it's been two years.
At the end of March now and the Nutkanas are pushing out new leaves they must be genetically preconditioned to this as most of the roses in this area are in concert with the ones growing in my yard.

The weather lately has been great for the garden and I see on the weather reports that its the same up and down the coast.