More garden visitors

Unless you're growing certain species roses (like R. glauca), you probably won't be encountering the tiny rose-gall wasps shown in my previous post.  The galls might sap a little energy from a rose bush, but the diminutive wasps are kind of fun to have around.  Our next guest, however, is definitely welcome in our rose gardens.  If you see "soldier beetles" among your roses, treat them with kindness and respect -- they are preying upon aphids.  Soldier beetles fly around like larger versions of ladybug beetles.

Here's one that I just saw in my garden.  Check them out on Wikipedia; additional photos can be found on Google Images.