Very knowledgeable folks have already given you very good insights here. I can only add that it is perfectly natural for older canes to get woody and brown, red, or gray, as you're describing. It's not a disease. Some old canes are very hard and near impossible to prune off (is this what you mean by "petrified"?) while others that are dead will sort of splinter/crumble if you cut them. When these hard older canes cease to put out any new growth, these are the canes that one would prune off down to the ground in early spring. Hopefully this helps to rejuvenate the bush and stimulate it to throw out fresh new basal canes from the base of the bush. Younger canes bloom better. (Incidentally, alfalfa meal contains a substance, triacontanol, which can help stimulate a bush to grow new fresh canes, too. You can throw a couple handfuls around each bush in addition to whatever other fertilizer you're already using.) All this said, as others have pointed out, roses grow and bloom best when they receive adequate sun and from your photos, these roses don't have that... If your clients aren't interested in replanting the roses where there is more sun or limbing up some of the trees on their property, you could suggest replacing those that are struggling the most with roses that are reported to be more shade tolerant. I'm guessing they are growing hybrid teas? Two HT's that have done ok for me in a part sun bed are Bronze Star and Peter Mayle. I have read Granada is somewhat shade tolerant. Pink Gruss an Aachen grows in the shade of a deciduous magnolia here and gives a great first flush and scattered blooms in part shade the rest of the season. I have several David Austin roses that bloom well in part sun (Pat Austin & Molineux) and hybrid musks and albas are two other classes of roses to look into, for tolerating less than ideal sun conditions. Still, all these "shade tolerant" roses tend to bloom better the more sun they have. Your clients need to adjust their expectations of any roses they're growing if they can't provide a rose it's preferred growing conditions. I don't envy you that task. ;) Regarding your questions about the black fungus on the base of the containerized rose, perhaps I'm missing what you are trying to photograph, but I'm not seeing any fungus. My first thought, too, given the diameter of the trunk versus the diameter of the pot, was that this rose has just outgrown the pot and is possibly very rootbound. It looks to me like as this rose has grown it may have pushed up out of the soil, leaving a gap or hole. If you cannot replant the rose in a bigger container or rootprune it and replant it in fresh potting mix, you could at least add some compost and lime. (If that rose is still in the original soil from whenever the rose was planted, the pH could be far from ideal now...) Hope some of this helps. Dawn

Sharon, To confirm whether or not you have spider mites, hold a sheet of white paper under the affected leaves and shake the leaves. Little tiny red dots (about the size of the 'dot' over the letter "i" on this page, should fall from the leaves to the plants if you have spider mites. If you have mites, the easiest way to control them is to hit the undersides of the leaves with a strong spray of water from the water hose. I use a nozzle on the end of the hose that concentrates the water for a stronger "blast". You can blast the plants with water daily and it will help a lot. Spider mites prefer hot, dry, dusty areas so the moisture helps reduce their numbers too. I'd then follow up by spraying with a Spinosad spray following the directions on the bottle. You also could spray the undersides of the leaves with neem oil a few days later if you feel spraying with water and Spinosad doesn't help. When I have to use neem or insecticial soap or any other foliar spray (other than a fungicide or spinosad or compost tea/Garrett Juice) in very hot weather, I always spray one plant first, wait for 24 hours and watch for signs of foliar damage. If no foliar damage is apparent within 24 hours then I go on and spray the other plants. I am very cautious about spraying in high temps/intense sunlight because I've have some organic sprays like neem oil and insecticidal soap burn foliage quite badly in high heat/intense sunlight conditions. I'm not real comfortable with the late blight diagnosis simply because I've grown tomatoes for about 25 years as an adults, and for my entire childhood/young adulthood prior to that with my dad and other relatives and have very, very seldom seen late blight. Lots of early blight over the years, but almost no late blight. Do your fruits look pretty similar to the 'late blight' photo on the TAMU tomato solver Green Fruit Page? And, did you look at the Red Fruit page to see if there was a similar rot? Sometimes, especially when it is very hot and has been very wet/humid, I see "Red Fruit" diseases on fruit that's still green. The symptoms you describe sound more like anthracnose or black mold or maybe buckeye rot to me if you're only seeing symptoms on the fruit and not the foliage/stems. Usually if it is late blight, you'll see symptoms on the leaves as well as the fruit. And, the terms 'early blight' for alternaria and 'late blight' for phytopthora can be misleading, because they often appear at more or less the same time. For fungal issues on tomato plants, chlorothalonil, AKA Daconil, is the answer, but it is a chemical and is not considered organic if that is important to you. Good organic fungicides include copper and sulfur sprays. And, Daconil (you'll commonly find it in stores as Ortho Garden Disease Control) is most effective if used as a regularly-sprayed preventive from the first day your plants go into the soil. It helps control disease by coating the leaves/foliage and preventing the fungal spores from attaching to the leaves. It will not be as effective if you start spraying it now, but sometimes it can stop the diseases from progressing and spreading. One problem for which there is not a good solution is when you have spider mites in combination with fungal foliar and fruit diseases. Why? To control fungal diseases, you should do all you can to keep the vines dry. To chase away the spider mites, you should spray your plants as I described above. (sigh) So, it can be hard to do what's "right" for one issue when it contradicts the best solution for a second condition. If it were my garden, first I'd try to confirm the spider mite diagnosis. Then, I think if it were mites, I'd spray the undersides of the leaves as I described above. Then, I'd wait a couple of days and begin a regular 7-10 day interval spraying program, alternating copper or sulfur with Daconil so the fungal spores wouldn't develop resistance. If the ground isn't mulched, I'd mulch heavily to reduce soil splash too because soil splash carries fungal spores up onto plants. Because the heavy rains were followed almost immediately by intense heat while soil moisture and humidity years were still very hot, there seem to be oodles of fungal issues in gardens this year. Larry, I am sorry to hear you are having such a terrible time with the fungal diseases. The flooding rains this spring have been so hard on our gardens. Next time, if you think your plants are getting too large, just buy a big bag of a good potting soil and pot them up into larger containers. I have been able to hold plants out of wet, wet ground for a month or so beyond their usual planting time by potting the up into the largest paper or plastic cups I could find. Then, when it was dry enough to plant, I planted them late, but they took off immediately and looked wonderful and were setting fruit within just a couple of weeks of being planted. Mulching heavily with straw or hay on top of cardboard or newspaper also greatly reduces fungal diseases. I put down at least a 1" thick layer of mulch on top of newspaper or cardboard on the day I plant so the diseases are less likely to splash up out of the soil and onto my plants. As the season goes on, I add more and more mulch. Often, by the time summer's real heat arrives, I have 6" of mulch and that helps conserve moisture, keep weeds down and keep the soil cool. Everything you grow benefits from mulching, but nothing benefits more than tomatoes and related plants (eggplant, potato, pepper). Going organic is hard and the transition period can be frustrating, but it all works out. I didn't go totally organic in one year, but more gradually over a period of years. I still consider myself mostly organic, but not totally organic. I'll still use Round-up for places that I have hard-to-kill weeds like bermuda grass or poison ivy. I'll sometimes use chemical fire ant killers in the lawn, but nowhere near the veggies or fruit. I don't use Daconil or other chemically-based fungicides, but I would use them if I had an instance where I felt I "had to" in order to save my crop. Dawn

I just have to chime in on this one. I went through a period last year at this time where I had all of the symptoms you describe. I had so much flatulence, that I felt like the Good Year blimp. This was unusual for me. I finally figured out what the problems were. In my case, I found out that taking ibuprofen, alleve or vioxx for a few days caused a problem. Then I realized that the vitamins and herbs I was taking, Ginko Biloba and St. John's Wort, and even my multivitamin which contained some herbs, were contributing. I stopped taking the herbs and switched vitamins and voila, no more problem. Could it be you are taking herbs of some type in capsule form? I have taken licorice root in capsule form with no problem. I went to an MD who practices both traditional and alternative medicine. He recommended Licorice root to me because it helps with chronic fatigue syndrome. But you shouldn't take it if you have high blood pressure. Since it has estrogenic properties it may also help help with hot flashes. It is commonly used for stomach and bowel problems. I did not have any problems with the licorice root. Here's something else that I have found very helpful with the gut problem, fennel. I got some fennel tea at our local health food store and found it very helpful for the gas problem. It really doesn't taste bad either. At any rate, I seldom have the gut problem any more except for the week of my period. You will never convince me that hormones don't play a role in gut problems. Also, there is a little book I have found helpful it is called: "The Only Menopause Guide You'll Need" by Michele Moore, MD. published by Johns Hopkins Press. It's a small book, not very detailed, but informative. She discusses both traditional and holistic treatments for menopause. She notes that many women have "tricky gut" during menopause. Hope this helps.

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and I've used this forum to get answers to my questions all the time! I would like to return the favor now. I finally registered! I own a water softener company in San Antonio and have installed many systems for different kinds of water problems. I have found that there are many people who have questions but never get honest answers about installing a water softener or reverse osmosis system in their home. I would like to offer my advice through this forum for any do-it-yourself folks out there. I'm in San Antonio but can answer questions for anyone throughout the country! I also have a website that I can be contacted through as well. I will be available for questions on a regular basis through this forum. Thanks! David Torres