Insects Find This Garden Rosy

It's the kind of rose garden that Joe South would write about.

The Grammy-award winning songwriter-guitarist who wrote "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" (popularized by country singer Lynn Anderson), has probably never seen this rose garden, though.

It's at the University of California, Davis, and it's an All-America Rose Selections (AARS) Test Garden.

Located on Hopkins Road, off Hutchison Drive, just west of the central UC Davis campus, it is one of 15 AARS test gardens located throughout the United States, representing a variety of climates. In fact, the UC Davis rose garden is one of three test gardens in California--the others are in Carlsbad and San Jose.

AARS, a self-described "non-profit association dedicated to the introduction and promotion of exceptional roses that will be easy to grow and require minimal care," selects and plants roses that have the potential to become a new variety.

"We use common practices for optimal growth and insect control but no fungicides for control of powdery mildew or dust in order to evaluate natural disease resistance," according to a sign posted at the entrance.

It is indeed an exceptional garden, filled with 30 new rose varieties, including hybrid teas, floribundas, landscape, grandifloras and one climbing rose.

The insects there would agree, too: the honey bees, ladybugs, katydids, and spotted cucumber beetles. The honey bees and ladybugs are beneficial; the katydids and spotted cucumber beetles are pests.

It wasn't planted for them, but it's theirs, too.

"I beg your pardon--I never promised you a rose garden.
Along with the sunshine there's gotta be a little rain sometime..."