I have four rose bushes on one of the borders of my lawn. All of the rose bushes develop some symptoms of Black Spot during the growing season. I just cut off the infected canes and throw them away. I noticed yesterday when testing the sprinkler system that a lot of mist gets blown back onto the leaves of the roses as the lawn is watered (I water the roses separately, at the base of the plant, so as not to get the leaves wet). My lawn (Midnight, Rugby II, Award, Blue Velvet) is infested with leaf spot and melting out disease. It'll probably need major (50%) re-seeding this fall. The farther away from the roses you get, the better the lawn looks, though even in the healthy looking areas one can find leaf spot lesions on the blades. Have I created good conditions for development of leaf spot and melting out fungus in my lawn by having those rose bushes so close? Humidity here is very low, but when I do water (every five days when the temperatures are above 90F) the leaves of the roses will get very wet for several hours at least. I just can't figure how my lawn can be so fungus infested in such a dry climate. I don't fertilize until mid-May (and not again until September), I don't water frequently, and I've applied cornmeal to the lawn. If I removed the roses completely and replaced them with shrubs or something would the fungus problem improve, or would I do just as well treating the rose bushes (and the soil beneath them) for fungus (chemically or organically) and keeping them pruned very low? Or, is the Black Spot fungus on the roses completely unrelated to the Drechslera poae and/or Bipolaris sorokiniana on my lawn? Thank you

I, too, found the yellow spongie stuff on an old tree stump this AM. It wasn't there yesterday, so popped up overnight. It is spread out like an irregular pancake. I'm wondering why it's there in the first place, and if it should be destroyed. An earlier poster has said not to worry about it. It is rather interesting!

The 'fungus' is actually lichen. Completely harmless and completely unrelated to the die-back. There are many things that can cause a lilac to die-back. In your case, large mature stems of common lilac are particularly susceptible to lilac borer. Stressed trees are also more susceptible to the borer...how much salt does your DOT put on that road behind the lilac?

Your problem right now is possibly due to lack of deep watering and a hungry soil. You're absolutely right to pick up the dead leaves because that does help to cut back on reinfection. For the soil, if you can add a good thick mulch of well-rotted garden compost (so you can't tell what went into it) and some ancient, no-smell-now steer or horse manure which is all crumbly, mixed in. About one bucket of manure to four buckets of compost. When autumn comes put about a two gallon swish of wood ashes around each plant. That's ash from untreated wood only. The ashes add potash and that helps strengthen the plants against disease and frost damage, too. You'll probably find that you'll get black spot again toward the end of the summer when all manner of fungi start showing. Just use one of the recipes already supplied. And, for next year - start with a well-fed soil. You can repeat the compost application in spring once growth has begun - but keep it back from the stems. The compost you put on now - and in the autumn - will be what the roses will be calling on for goodness to grow with. The spring application won't really become available until further on in the season. If your plants are getting too dry, you may also have a scale infestation along the stems. You can reduce this with winter oil or even soapy water and a dishwashing brush scrubbed over the infested stems. Prickly work - but worth it.