I think Kate misunderstood me. The public looked at me as BAD, NOT you. This happened 15 years ago when I was spraying my roses with chemicals. A neighbor walked to me and said, "why do you even bother growing roses with all these spraying?" It's even worse now, like the protest of bee keepers in France against Bayer. My observations do not apply to anyone else, since it's different with them. If I live in a hot area, I would pile up the bark mulch. But I live in a wet area - where it's more conductive to fungi growth. My defense is with the OGR and the fragrant Austins. These get the bad rap of black-spot prone, poor disease resistance - and less people bother to grow them. I did not want to buy Radio Times and Wise Portia because of the bad reports about their poor disease resistance. They were the only ones available, so I had no choice. Now both I and the bees enjoy these. I have never seen any bees on Knock-outs. We tend to reject certain roses as being disease prone, rather than seeing what we can do to protect them. The fault lies in us, and not in the roses. How did these old fragrant rose flourish in the old days without chemicals? Chemicals get the bad rap. Roses get the bad rap as NEEDING chemicals. Then Knock-outs take over the land. I'm trying to find a way to break this cycle, making roses to be more environmentally friendly. Lainey2: you don't have to dig down to get to the bottom. It's a big pile higher than a house. Actually it's easier to get the bottom, most aged stuff, since it's at your height. You would have to climb up a big mountain to get the fresh manure on top.

bright, filtered light is correct. low humidity can also be the problem. my 'Escargot' and other rexes get brown spots sometimes. other than looking bad, the plants are usually okay, though. also, i recommend bottom-watering. -ming

Yes that's it!! You guys are the best! I looked it up online and yep, it looks just like my plant. Glad to hear it's normal. Thanks!!!

The white stuff are whiteflies and their eggs, we have an infestation problem with them in South Florida. Whiteflies are from the tropics and can carry a disease called tomato yellow leaf curl virus. Leafhoppers also carries it. Once your plant is infected with leaf curl virus, the plant will almost stop growing and not produce anything, there is no cure. I'm not saying whiteflies definitely carry the virus, they may not, but it is something I've very wary of. I was not able to grow tomatoes for the most of 2015 because of them. Whiteflies like warm temperature so there are much less of them during the cooler months. They prefer shade, warmth, and protection from wind. They are attracted to nightshade plants, the virus infect nightshade plants such as tomato, pepper, goji, potato, basil. But they are attracted to a wider variety of plants while not infecting them, like the "bidens" plants (common lawn "weed"), brassica crops, banana and other type of leaves that may provide good shades. This season growing tomatoes in spring with the cooler temperature I have less problem with them. Also with mulching and keeping the plants healthy reduces my pests issues. I notice whiteflies like to attack the lower sick leaves, so I pruned them and maintain a good airflow in the bottom.