Spider mites latch onto roses in warm weather

Well, the summer heat finally arrived. The forecast for the next few weeks shows temperatures in the mid to high 80s. If you are participating in my prescribed practice of allowing a summer of rest for your roses, you still have several weeks to take it easy before a mid-season pruning. As a wise man once said, “Predicting things is difficult, especially in the future,” but one can only assume it will look a little like the past, especially with the weather.

So I’ll give it a try: If a mid-season pruning is done after the second or third week of September, you can expect two bloom cycles this...