From what I understand lights are good but don't replace natural light, so keeping them cool slows growth, and produces stockier plants, it made sense to me, so I followed that advice. this made sense, as in this may sound odd but in 2001 and 2002, I got the opportunity to go to Kew Gardens in London, to do environmental survey's as part of my higher nursing degree, I went again because my dad had a stroke during the term and so I repeated, my tutor said, "oh you don't have to do Kew again, unless you want", and I wanted it was an amazing place, and I got to go behind the scenes, the hot houses work due to the heat pumped from below and the humidity, but! they are natural light, the Luminance, was way higher even in winter than shop light, we did Shops as well, I was exceptionally lucky with My tutor as her Husband is a famous Architect, and she has got lots of Brilliant contacts. with Basil, well er, the thing about growing is that until you plant, as see the growth, you have no idea, last year I did Basil, and realized, my idea of basil was shop brought, loads of plants in a tiny pot and even potting on they would die quickly, last year I grew it and was amazed how big one basil plant got, but then she bolted :-( so lesson learned is succession planting for basil and to be honest, I am rubbish at basil, they keep dieing on me? Digdirt, Loo's you have some insider info :-) even my 5 year old's get confused when I say "do you need the Loo?" as only Mummy and Daddy say that :-) where I am living, I am amazed by the amount of People, who have lived in the UK (okay near a US Navy and Army base) but even the guy who treats my lawn lived for 3 years in the UK, in the late 1970's. yes, interesting times ahead, I feel for Cleggy, the worse he was doing the more powerful he became :-) only in Britain can you do bad and become more powerful? hehe, we like the underdog :-)

In hot weather, I usually assume first that HEAT is the problem--the roses are thirsty and burning up! However, I would not recommend the Bayer Rose and Flower Insect Killer (nor most of the Bayer products), They specialize in overkill--so maybe we shouldn't be surprised that the tender buds and necks are not doing well. By the way, I doubt the Bayer Insect Killer will actually do much to kill off JBs--that is mostly a marketing ploy. And as for the other insects listed, most of them can be handled in less harmful ways (midge being the exception, I believe). Just ask here when you have a problem with, say, aphids, and we can give lots of good advice without resorting to Bayer Insect Killer. There is only one Bayer product I recommend--their Bayer Advanced Disease Control for Roses, Flowers, and Shrubs--for blackspot and related leaf diseases. I'm serious --that is the only ONE I recommend. But even then, just ask here and we can suggest some ways to keep blackspot from taking over your rose garden--without using sprays. (By the way--I can only get the Disease Control at Lowe's or online.) About your immediate problem, I suggest quit using the Bayer Rose and Flower Insect Killer and give your roses more water in hot weather. Let us know how that works out. For the curious: Bayer evidently has a new name. According to their online site, the products have been renamed BIOADVANCED instead of Bayer Advanced. Kate

Calm down! Spider mites are a very common pest of all kinds of plants, inside and out. I think your safest option would be to fill a little spray bottle with one part rubbing alcohol to three parts water. Mist your plants, concentrating on the underside of the leaves. You can do this every three days or so (more if they weren't seedlings). That should get them under control. Use the alcohol solution to clean the window sill, too. Spray the containers or seed flats. When your plants get older, you can use insecticidal soap applications.

Brett: it sounds to me as if most of what you are doing is right. The only exception is that it sounds like you started too soon. My plants get to about 12 inches tall in six weeks. Some of the giant heirloom types can be growing almost an inch a day at that point. They get very floppy when they get that tall. Each year I force myself to start later than the previous year. Our last frost date is around April 30, but I don't put my plants into the garden until two weeks after that. I started my plants April 1, and they are already four inches tall. I'm nervous that I started too early once again. In spite of all the talk on GW about putting out plants earlier because of mild temps, our 10-day forecast calls for lows in the low 30s on most days. In your situation, I would transplant to larger, deeper pots and bury at least 3 inches of the stem. I would also increase the hours of light to 18 and add a small fan. I really think you need to wait until the soil temperatures are over 50 and night time lows are reliably above that before you start a week of hardening off.