The toxic plant list helps me pick plants for outside, cuz the bunnies cant/wont/betternotiftheynotwhatsgoodforthem eat it. :) D

It is not just the shade of BW tree, There is more. BW tree releases a chemical, which I think is called Joglanole. This chemical exists in all part of the tree from root, to bark, and leave. Additionally, the root line might be even bigger than its canapy. I have read an illinois univrsity study about this, which has listed plants that are compatible and others that cannot thrive. Over the years, BW would contaminate the soil to the extent that you cannot change it. And there is no chemical to nullify that joglanole. Last year I planted tomato in a soils brough from another location. Tomato plants weredoing fine. But when thir roots reached the existing soil, they wilted and died' But there are a lot of things that are gowing just fine under BW tree, Automn olive, hawthorn, creeping myrtle (vinca?), something from hosta family, honeysucle,..But maple, pine, BW own seeding will not survive.

Well, it doesn't kill them unless they happen to land on the crepe myrtle. I had a very nasty experience with di-Syston a number of years ago, and did some research which included getting material from the EPA. They said that while it has some killing effect as a systemic its major method was to release a nerve gas. It is safer to use outdoors (I was using it in the house for a serious attack of cyclamen mites in my African Violets--very effective. Gorgeous violets. Nearly killed me. May be why my husband has Parkinson's Disease, which they think may be related to pesticides.) Outdoors the gas is more dissipated. There are safer systemics now, and Neem oil or Safer soap would be I think just as effective. I suppose the Safer soap would be better to help wash off the sooty mold. I find the birds do quite a good job of eating aphids, or maybe it's the anole lizards and other helpful wildlife we have since we stopped spraying. Oh, another thing I got from the EPA publications was that it is only effective for six weeks I think it is to kill pests, but after that it breaks down into something more toxic for people and pets and they didn't, at least at that time, know how long it persisted.

jjpeace (zone 5 US/zone 6 Can), thank you for the additional information. Particularly: " BS is a problem for me in late summer, mainly late august" I sometimes/often had put into my posts in threads like this that I got blackspot at the end of the season in what was then a 1000 no spray rose bed, but I was not concerned as I suspect that it is part of Nature's way of helping my roses prepare for winter. If you feel that your blackspot is appearing too early (are some of the rose leaves turning red, are other plants/trees starting to lose their leaves?) then I suggest that you try to determine what could be weakening your plants immune system at that time. Such as: are they not getting enough water or sunlight? There are external ways to help boost a roses immune system. The use of commercial harpin type products or salicylic acid type products (such as aspirin) come to mind. This link leads to a general background article which may be useful concerning boosting a plant's immune system: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/content/15/3/518.full.pdf Your PDF find command can locate specific places where the word rose appears.