Got to agree with the above. That was my first reaction too since it is across the board - it is the classic look of way too much water/too wet soil. My only other thoughts as "possibles" is halide light burn or wind burn. But if in the greenhouse and unless your fans are set way too high speed ;) I'd doubt wind burn is the problem. Dave

I am sorry that this thread is going toward a direction that is not intended. It is almost funny to see how people would defend themselves over any gardening issues, which is a good thing actually. It is nice to see serious people giving their best to this thread. Thank you. You guys really know your stuff. First of all, I'd have to agree with pnbrown that, while being a good gardening practice, mulching is not for everyone in every situation. What I just said might sound redundant but if you try it for a few months in the place where I live like I did, you will come to the same conclusion that mulching is good for soil but does not solve my sandy crust problem at all. Soil crusting is a complicated problem(at least to me) . The crust on clay soil has very different behavior from a sandy soil crust. Clay particle is highly water absorbing and the crust on it just gives it more surface area for it to absorb and retain more water. If you mulch in this situation, the mulch will effectively reduce water evaporation from the clay crust, thus saving you a lot of watering in certain time of year. This is exactly what mulching is for imo: to preserve and reduce water evaporation in soil. Sandy soil is a water repelling in nature. Anything you put to cover it will add to the difficulty of it absorbing water. It is not a problem with water retention now. It is the problem of getting water INTO the soil. Mulch does nothing to help with this, and somehow makes it harder to water the plant. Even if you manage to soak a few inches on top the rest of the bed is still dry as hell. This leaves me no choice but to water my beds longer than usual during dry seasons which waste water. The breathe holes really stop surface runoff. The water disappear so quickly and not running down beside the beds like before. It is tedious job poking them every once in a while but at least they work. And if you apply fertilizer before watering the breathe holes it is even better as the fertilizer can go deeper and faster.

Sammy, sadly, the Rose Forum is highly ignorant of no-spray policies especially with regard to fungicide. And many have no inkling about ancient roses too. All they know about are hybrid teas, floribundas and Austins. Only the rose aficianados and rosarians know about the ancient roses. If it hadn't been for my friends Krista and Karen I would have been totally clueless myself. I so regret my choices of roses now... My local nurseries refuse to carry old ancient romantic roses, they will only carry Austins, they love their Austins, LOL! Sadly Sammy I have only the "boring roses". All of my resistant roses were resistant until September, with just a little blackspot here and there. Now when it gets cold however, the blackspot doesn't like it and will go away (which was in October). Sammy I am first posting photos of my beautiful Gemini, the rose that is now deeply struggling. But it is truly a fighter rose and has sent up multiple new baby stems and clean baby leaves. It caught severe blackspot basically overnight, with no warning after weeks of endless rains. It used to be such a healthy, vibrant and strong rose! Look how clean and beautiful the foliage used to be!! This may help explain why I hate and dread and blame the rain. Now here are the photos of the resistant roses that I have: Climbing America: Penny Lane Climbing Rose Tiffany: Special Occasion: Lincoln is very resistant, only one or 2 blackspot leaves in the worst of seasons-the fall. It has very cute lively big blooms but doesn't have enough maturity yet to have its classical blooms except for 3 blooms. Here is Aromatherapy: Fragrant Cloud is indeed resistant. LOL! I love the taste of her rose petals (I make rose petal jam) but it is no beauty. It is just a cheery lively flower, but I often hide her because her blooms are not exactly the most beautiful.

Wow! I love the first and second ones!! Do you know what the crosses are? That first one is so cool how it starts out with some coral-red tones and then changes to pink. And I love the veining! The red one is actually quite interesting too. I'm not a big fan of reds, but it's kinda cool with that sort-of proliferated-looking center. I would love to do some hybridizing myself, but just don't have the time. Maybe when I retire... Haha... I do enjoy collecting o/p hips and growing seeds from those. Have had a couple of nice ones, but most just look like their mommas. I have some new o/p's that I planted a few months ago that still haven't produced a bloom yet. Looking forward to seeing those. Keep posting pics of these as they mature. It's fun to see them, and see how they can change.