September has frequently been one of the best months for my roses. They love the warm, but not sweltering days, and almost always put on one good last show before it gets too cold.

But things are a little different here.

When we first moved, I assumed the roses would do even better here than the townhouse, because of the wonderful, magical soil. But here they’ve had way more of a pest problem than we ever had at the townhouse.

Still – there are blooms

Quicksilver has proved to be a fantastic rose. It’s one of the climbers I bought to clime the arbour out front. It started later than the other rose I put on the other side (Eden), but it’s put our more blooms.

Both have grown incredibly well and have put up canes that reach the top of the arbour already. I’ll be tidying and tying these in next weekend to give them a little more protection from winter’s biting winds.

Out back, the only rose currently in bloom is Good as Gold.

The Japanese beetles seem especially fond of this rose, but despite that, she’s bloomed fairly steady all summer long.

Beside her, my other climber, New Dawn, only bloomed once, but like the other climbers out front, she’s grown some amazing long canes

She’s planted almost at the corner and has put one big cane down each side of the fence. It’s certainly going to make a big display next year.

All the other roses aren’t blooming but seem to be doing fine with the exception of one.

Poor Chrysler Imperial!!! She’s completely naked!!!! In addition to fighting beetles and sawfly larvae, she got a pretty severe case of Black Spot fungus (it’s been an exceptionally wet summer, so it’s not a huge surprise). Sadly, I didn’t notice or do anything about it until it was too late. I’ve got to get up there and clean up all the dead leaves, and probably give her a prune.

I’m not looking forward to it, because she’s a thorny one! But it’s got to be done if I want any chance of saving her.

There is hope though…

There is new growth. If I can get her cleaned up, nurture this growth, and give her some extra protection through the winter, I might just be able to get her through.