Water! And then more water and then water again. You need to flush their systems and they need a lot of water to do that. Don't be surprised if in the near future you see some very distorted looking growth on them. That is a symptom of herbicide damage. There may be some very reddish growth that resembles a witches broom and the leaves will be crinkled and distorted in shape. These are often signs of the Rose Rosette Disease but are also caused by herbicide spray. Just cut them off and let the plant regrow from there. It may take a couple of times but it should eventually clear up as the plant gets the toxins out of its system. As for the sawfly larvae, there are insecticides for it BUT at this point I would not suggest using any kind of chemicals on your roses because of the weed killer issue. That also includes fertilizers. They need time to recover before you do anything else to them. The saw fly won't do as much damage as adding a new chemical to the mix at this point. Don't remove any leaves either. They need the leaves to feed and shade the plant. You may not be able to save all of them but there is a good chance you can save some of them. I had a neighbor who sprayed RoundUp willy nilly around his yard and got my roses. It took a lot of time and patience and water but they did eventually come back. And please, make sure your husband can't get his hands on any more weed killer, lol!

well .... in my neck of the woods.. catalpa is a fully deciduous tree in winter ... IT IS SUPPOSED TO LOSE ITS LEAVES WHEN the LIGHT AND TEMP levels of fall tell it to go to sleep ... most plants that go dormant.. need to go dormant .. so HOPEFULLY the one of yours that went dormant.. will come back out of dormancy ... and it wouldnt surprise me if the other went into dormancy ... i am not an ID expert ... other will come by and give you the latin name of your plant... use that to google CULTURAL REQUIREMENTS ... of the latin name ... if these peeps fail .. there is a NAME THAT PLANT FORUM ... you may have to free them to the great outdoors.. if they can survive indoors the rest of this winter ... unless its still possible to put them outside in your zone ... i am not clear what DC means, zone wise ... if you love them as pets ... you are borderline on KILLING THEM WITH TOO MUCH LOVE ... be careful with that.. they are trees... we plant them in mother earth.. and given just a LITTLE care.. they can live for centuries... try to raise them in the house... and you are in for no end of trouble ... get the ID ... and we can go from there. .. happy holidays.. ken

Hi Anna I love starting seeds! cant say I never have failures but it is pretty rare. Different seeds germinate and grow quite differently. Lettuce is very delicate. Best sown in-place where it will grow although it can certainly be transplanted. I use a long nose quart watering can and water "around" the new seedlings or when they are older I use a "water-breaker" wand and kindof wave it around, never directly on the seedlings, just glancing sideways ;-). The mist setting wont put enough water in the soil. A few seedlings may lay down temporarily but not many. Lettuce doesn't need much sun. As far as planting depth it sounds like you did fine but then I also step on them after sowing to firmly connect them to the ground so they aren't too loose on top. Then a sprinkle of fine soil lightly on top to cover and water well. My problem with lettuce is I sow too many seeds (I let last years crop go to seed and have thousands) and they fight for space to grow. Twice a day watering is excessive. If your soil is that dry it needs amendments. Good luck. You can do it. Denise

Not to scare you, but that gardenia you have? It knows you want it to LIVE. THAT is why it's dying, just out of pure, unadulterated SPITE. It can read your mind you know. They sense fear and they WILL die because they KNOW you are a novice. Coincidentally, I was going to come on here to post what happened to the gardenia I sent my mom for mothers day, it produced a SINGLE small flower and had a second bud, but that turned black and fell off. Oh, and it's got spider mites as well. So much for 1800 flowers. I actually was able to keep a gardenia alive (more or less) for a few years. The plant terrified me, which I think helped keep it alive because it must use the aura of human fear as some sort of food. I kept the accursed thing partly shaded, watered it with dilute pee water (I tried blood sacrifices too) and it kept me 'happy' by putting out green leaves and actually threw me a couple of blooms just so I wouldn't throw it off my back deck (like I did with a banana plant). BUT...after a few years, it just started slowly becoming more decrepit (just because it could!), and then finally started melting into dust....I swear I could hear it giggling faintly as I wept over the lousy (expletive). If you still want to torture yourself and try to keep it alive, here is what advice I can give you. Take it for what it's worth. First. Prostrate yourself in front of it while chanting the following: "OH GREAT GARDENIA, Please grace me with one of your blooms! Please please please! I beg of you! I am totally in your power! I will do whatever thy asks of me!! Your wish is my command oh Great Gardenia!" Repeat three times for added oomph. Second. They love to be humidified, spritz with water all the time. I even got some cuttings to root, I put them in good dirt and put a plastic bag over them and they loved that. If you have a huge plastic bag you can put the plant in, so much the better. They like moist soil, but not wet. They like water, but not too much. They need to not be waterlogged, but don't let them dry out. Third. They need a 10 degree (minimum) temperature change during the day/night. Fourth. They do like pee, just don't eat a whole bag of salty potato chips before using the pee. I've killed pee loving plants that way. Tell them when you water them with it that this is one of the many gifts you will bestow upon the Great Gardenia if it will bless you with a single frigging flower. Just don't be sarcastic, they hate that. Fifth. Don't fertilize them when they have buds, or they'll laugh and drop them just like that. So far that's all I can think of. They also like acid soil, so if you do fertilize, keep that in mind. I have NO idea how these things can grow in the wilds of Asia. I think they are demonically possessed alien plants that came here on a spaceship for the SOLE purpose of driving nice, kind, well meaning gardeners into an early grave or the psych ward. While you're at it, look up the 'suicidal gardenia' thread. I think it's still on here. Good luck!!!!!