I was thinking just what Jerijen said, amazed that Knockout roses could be decimated by blackspot. MScaradine, are your Knockouts the original Knockout, or one of the varients bred from it? Second question is: You mentioned your tea roses doing well. Did you actually mean the old garden tea roses or hybrid teas? I have just heard so many people shorten hybrid tea to "tea" that I'm never sure. They are completely separate classes of roses. I wouldn't throw out the Knockouts without giving them a chance to recover, perhaps to next year. I had a Belinda's Dream rose that had significant blackspot when I bought it and for a few months afterwards, but after that it was highly resistant. Thanks, Rosetom, for your information about Banner Maxx. I did not know it is the same class as the tebuconazole. I used that before I ever started with the Bayer stuff, so I still have a supply of it. I have also used manzate occasionally, so I'll remember to give that a turn every so often. I don't much care for the filmy residue the Manzate leaves behind, but that's a minor annoyance and doesn't last long. Anyway, I have not been too diligent this year about spraying, but, knock on wood, so far the blackspot has been easily controlled, so the Bayer tebuconazole is still doing its job. Yea, Modern Miracle, indeed! I think Ingrid has a valid concern about the enivornmental impact. It is easier, though, to avoid blackspot in a drier climate. When you live in the Gulf South, blackspot is a major issue. There are certainly a handful of old garden roses highly resistant to it, but none are immune. Also, there are a lot of old garden roses that I see blackspot here as badly as modern roses. so you have to do your research carefully. I find (selfishly, perhaps) that certain colors and bloom form and size combinations are just simply not available in old garden rose varieties. I am encourage, however, with how much improvement we're seeing, in the overall disease resistance of some select modern varieties. My fingers are crossed that this trend will continue. In the meantime, if we're going to use chemicals in the garden, the labels that say CAUTION are supposed to be less dangerous than the ones that say either WARNING or DANGER. Bayer has a CAUTION label. Mike

Your problem is that the pale pink flowers are overexposed, in a see of dark green leaves. This is what your camera will automatically do if you set it to the "automatic" or "point and shoot" mode. The key is to control the following: 1. The object lighting 2. The background (and foreground) lighting 3. Controlling contrast in your composition 4. Camera settings of speed, aperture and ISO. You need to experiment - i.e. "fool around" - with your camera. It's much easier to learn nowadays with the digital camera. In the "old days" of film cameras, one would have to shoot at different apertures, speed, ISO, take the film to develop and then see the results. And, of course, there is the cost of the film and the developing. I would start off with simple manouvres - try varying the aperture - which determines how much light is allowed in to hit the sensor for a given period of time that the shutter is open. The smaller the number, the more light that's allowed in. The higher the number, the less light. You can do this either with the manual setting (usually "M") or a selection on your camera called aperture priority ("A" or "Av"). Once you have "fixed" the aperture size, you then compensate for the variation in light hitting the sensor by varying the shutter speed, and the "film" speed - the ISO setting. If your camera has an Av or A setting, then, I won't worry about those - just switch to Av, select the aperture size and camera will do the rest. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is an Av or A setting on the Power Shot SD400 - you have to set it to M (manual mode) and get into the menu to select the ISO's. Refer to the owner's manual. An interesting impact of varying the aperture is that you will vary the "depth of field". The depth of field is the distance range of the picture where all objects will be withing focus. The larger the aperture, the narrower the range, rendering every thing outside of that range out of focus. You can use this to advantage, as, together with careful lighting, you can make an object "pop" out of the background, like this: However, it won't be much good if you want a picture of a whole bush or a whole bed - in which case, you would use a smaller aperture setting. There is an excellent on-line resource, DigitalPhotography.com, which gives fairly clear tutorials on the various aspects of digital photography.

Well I stopped in October as suggested and they are still thick and green. Hmmm...hannesdp, it would appear that the calendar for South Africa is quite different than for Texas! In April-May mine are just coming to life - not going dormant, and if I pruned hard in July as suggested, I think they would surely die!

I wouldn't cut back anything on plants that size. Definitely amend the hole, but mix the compost etc with some native soil. Yes, to watering. I water in the soil half-way through planting and again at the end and make a trough at the root line to help corral the water, then mound some compost over the canes. Depending on sun exposure, I would shade them with something such as lawn chairs or an umbrella at least until you start to see new growth.they may look worse at first, but soon little leaves will appear and you can fertilize with something gentle and organic. Many people recommend fish emulsion, but I've never used it. I don't see why you won't get blooms this Fall. Good Luck! P.S. I'm a newbie also, but have had good luck planting and transplanting throughout the summer.