Daniel Hanna wrote:

In Mike wrote:
I noticed on three roses in seperate locations damage I've never seen
before. Something has chewed a perfect little ring around the canes
just below new buds. Anyone know what causes this? Another weird thing -
it's just one bud on each rose I've seen. Apparently, this is a
persnickety pest.

I get this too. It's a grub, not sure what kind (rose weevil? rose
borer?).

Anyway, systemic insecticides get rid of them, but in the meantime the
affected blooms are write-offs.

I suspect there are two culprits who can do this damage. I believe that
right now, in my garden it is a rose curculio because I found the holes
drilled in the flower *and* the little marking on the pedicel:

http://home.earthlink.net/~cbernstei...ulioDamage.jpg

The stem sawfly damage looks a little different on Baldo's site:

http://members.tripod.com/buggyrose/...ephid-dam2.jpg

Curculios are sure hard to see, considering their coloring. I can stare
right at one and not see it. Anyway, the cure is to hand pick.