My favorite plant at the Research Park is in bloom,

The Red-leaf Rose, Rosa glauca, it only blooms once

but the foliage is great in arrangements and it produces

lovely rose hips. I finally planted one in the back yard

this year.

This rose is a favorite target of Diplolepis rosae,

the mossyrose gall wasp. These galls are sometimes

attacked by other wasps who replace the original larva.

I have also seen a downy woodpecker happily ripping
them open in the winter. "It's the hard-knock life!"

There is a great discussion on this wasp at

http://www.talkaboutwildlife.ca/profile/index.php?s=1838

"Some things that fly there be --
Birds -- Hours -- the Bumblebee --
Of these no Elegy."

                                            Emily Dickinson

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