Thanks all again for the input. I'll be trimming the lower older leaves tomorrow morning (since the plant resides at work actually heh). With regards to the pot, I'll likely keep it in the self watering one for now, and just take to watering it normally (i.e., through the top instead of through the resovoir) and we'll see how it reacts. I suspect that with proper water and the trimming things should liven up quite nicely. I'll be sure to keep you all posted. For those wondering what breed of brug this is I must frankly say I haven't the foggiest. This cutting was nabbed off a co-worker who also doesn't know where his original cutting came off of. Hopefully come summer i'll be able to get it flowering, although since this is still fairly young I'm not sure if I can count on that this early in it's life. Any tips on getting flowers out of it this summer? Thanks again and regards, Joe

My plumaria expert says that blossom booster or anything with such a high middle number is useless. In fact some of the threads by Al will agree. I use "Dynamite" 13 13 13...Even numbers right across the board. In fact most plants don't like such a high middle number, because your throwing the abilty off for the whole plant to be healthy, even the colors of the leaves by forcing flowers on your plants when you don't have to. How come plumies flower from the ground outdoors withou someone throwing so much middle number on them? In the ground, they are getting an even amount of nutriets to sustain over look, vigour, and health. I will send you an excert of why the middle number is useless. The "dynamite" has worked wonders for me. It is slow release along with micro nutrients and a well balanced fert. Just some excerts... "Whatever nutrients are available in excess, will be absorbed by the plant to a certain degree, and in some cases, this may lead to toxicity or even symptoms of shortages of other nutrients as toxicity levels block a plant's ability to take up other nutrients. Too much nitrogen will lead to excessive foliage production and less flowering. Too much potassium or phosphorus will not lead to ill effect, but will show up as a deficiency of other nutrients as it blocks uptake". "What about the "Bloom Booster" fertilizers you might ask? To induce more prolific flowering, a reduced N supply will have more and better effect than the high P bloom formulas. When N is reduced, it slows vegetative growth without reducing photosynthesis. Since vegetative growth is limited by a lack of N, and the photosynthetic machinery continues to turn out food, it leaves an expendable surplus for the plant to spend on flowers and fruit". "The fact that different species of plants grow in different types of soil where they are naturally found, does not mean that one needs more of a certain nutrient than the other. It just means that the plants have developed strategies to adapt to certain conditions, like excesses and deficiencies of particular nutrients.." "Most greenhouse operations will follow pretty closely to a 2-1-2 ratio of the primary macro-nutrients on most greenhouse crops with minor deviations based on tissue analysis and the effect of the growing medium. Most post-greenhouse fertilization will follow fairly closely to a 3-1-2 ratio, with some deviation. Again, this very closely mimics the range of the primary macros found in plant tissues". Read the thread......type in search.... "Fertilizer Program - Containerized Plants (Long Post) very imformative article". I never use blosson booster, and all my plants flower Profusely.... Hope this helps and greens up the leaves along with giving you nice flowers next time around..:-) Mike

Re-post the info. from the other thread: The problem with lime? Its high pH kills the soil bacteria that fixes nitrogen, so lime UNDO the effect of nitrogen-fertilizer like alfalfa. I put lime in Pink Peace's planting hole, since the soil was previously occupied by a large bush, plus I wanted to tone-down its gaudy color. The result? Calcium & other nutrients deficiency in young leaves, along with less petals and flowers that don't last long. Calcium could not be released since the pH is too high in the planting hole. Will have to dig Pink Peace AGAIN after its 3rd flush. Grafted Pink Peace gives me hell, compared to much-cleaner-own-root. I dug it up 4th of July since it black spotted on me, fixed the hole with compost & lime, it became pale & less petals after that. It's really hard to achieve balance of nutrients, so I'm better off using slow-released balanced stuff: red-lava-rock & pea gravel, compost, alfalfa hay. My GRAFTED Pink-Peace black spots be it wet or dry. Above pic, it's a calcium deficiency, since the young leaves are, "New leaves (top of plant) are distorted or irregularly shaped. Causes blossom-end rot." see link below: http://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1106.pdf I get tons of blossom-end-rot on my cherry-tomato: the one I forgot to put gypsum in the planting hole. Gypsum is questionable on top, but great in the planting hole, since it's evenly distributed, rather than gunking on top to burn roots. Below is a good chart:

Yes, some rose slug damage. No big deal. Squish 'em. In a couple weeks, predators come along and gobble any that are left. The somewhat distorted leaves could be caused by the cold you mentioned, or too much fertilizer (when a rose plant is new and small, just about any fertilizer is too much--wait til it starts putting out good, vigorous new growth). Try picking off some of the more distorted leaves (the plant will look better) and then see if the more recent growth has the same problem. If not, no problem. One word of warning. I don't know about the other roses, but Earth Song is not immune to blackspot disease. It will occasionally get a touch of BS, but compared to some other roses, it usually isn't real bad. But you may have to spray a fungicide to control it occasionally. Looking forward to seeing the pics of your blooming roses soon. Kate