1) The only time foliar fertilizing should be necessary is when the nutrients you're attempting to provide are already in the soil, but the plant is growing so fast it cannot assimilate the nutrients fast enough ...... which is going to be 'never' in container culture (practically speaking). If you need foliar application of fertilizers, it's because your nutritional supplementation is inappropriate. Roots are by FAR the most efficient pathway for nutrients into the plant with very few exceptions, and those exceptions are unlikely to be something we would commonly grow. If you need foliar applications of nutrients, energy would be better spent trying to figure out what is wrong with your supplementation program. Why would foliar feeding promote disease - at least why above and beyond what wetting foliage with plain water would? 2) These questions require soo much qualification - E.g., you can fertilize with a full strength dosage every time you irrigate if you want to - if you run enough solution through the soil to flush all the old salts out so they don't accumulate. All plants use VERY close to the same ratio of nutrients, and they use the same amount of nutrients per unit of biomass, but all plants do not grow at the same rate. To complicate the issue, all plants, regardless of their growth rate do not tolerate the same levels of EC/TDS of/in the soil solution. So the answer can only be given on a per plant basis. Some herbs tolerate very high fertility levels and some do not. The same is true of other plants. 3) True in many cases, but over-watering and drought stress can cause the same reaction. 4) Left to their own devices, tomatoes will use roughly the same ratio of N:other nutrients throughout the entire growth cycle. Often, we wish to limit N to limit vegetative growth as a sink so the plant will direct more energy to producing fruits. 5) The best way to implement lime into a well-balanced, well-draining soil is by mixing the dried form into damp soil when you make it, then wait 2 weeks before planting in it. 6) What is and isn't acceptable is a very individual decision. What I might think is great, another person might turn his nose up at, and the reciprocal is certainly true as well. If I was writing what you did, I would have given some thought to listing the ingredients in order of volume, so I would have said "A mixture of pine bark fines, potting mix, and perlite is a perfectly acceptable mixture for most container plants in the correct proportions, preferably with a very heavy leaning toward the pine bark fines", but YMMV. Al

For every one of your questions there will be more than one answer. Every one does it differently. The trick is to find the ones that work for you. I water my roses when I can, morning, noon or night. I don't have a drip system so I use soaker hoses, sprinklers and the hose. I often spray off the leaves to keep them clean. Whether that helps with diseases, who knows, but I don't think it hurts. Sizes will vary greatly by zone and even by individual garden. Warmer zones have much longer growing seasons so roses can get larger. But even in my cold zone many roses have exceeded their "stated" sizes. Of course, many others never got any where near as large as advertised. So you really never know. Pruning does encourage new growth. Whether it gives them longer stems or not I think depends on the variety of rose. Exhibitors hope it will give them those nice long straight stems they need for rose shows. On some varieties it may work but some roses just don't have that type of growth habit in their genes. I got New Zealand last season and as a new rose it did have short stems. I may not get to see if that changes with maturity since I don't think it made it through my severe winter. It isn't a bad idea to let the supplier know that the rose was diseased when you received it. They may not do anything about it but they should be made aware of the situation. There's always a possibility that it came down with it during the stress of shipping and usually will clear up quickly once it's in the sun again. I know I often see roses lined up in the nurseries with black spot all over them. Sometimes the conditions of crowding, high humidity and little air circulation will cause such outbreaks. I don't let it deter me from purchasing because I can isolate it at home until it clears up. So don't be afraid to do a little experimenting and find the answers that work in your garden with your roses. Most of all don't get too caught up in all of the "stuff" surrounding rose growing and spend a lot of time just enjoying your roses!

Reading catalogs can become an acquired skill--if you spend lots of time doing it. Here are some things I have discovered as a result of years of pouring our garden catalogs. 1. Most pictures are touched up in some way, usually to increase the color saturation. 2. Check to see how often the catalog claims its roses are disease-resistant. If they do it a lot, then they are definitely exaggerating. There aren't that many disease-resistant roses, after all. In that case, only believe them if they say the rose is exceptionally disease-resistant or maybe very, very disease-resistant. 3. Note the typical phrasing an individual catalog indulges in. Austin, for instance, avoids negative words like "disease" even when they want to say "disease-resistant." Instead, Austin refers to how "healthy" their plants are (well, some of them). It either doesn't mention the "health" (oh-oh-disease-magnet), or specificies that it is "healthy," "very healthy," "exceptionally healthy," etc. Those last couple categories should be reasonably safe (although, as mentioned above, it may still depend on your region). 4. Keep reminding yourself that "disease-resistant" does NOT mean "disease-immune." Even very disease-resistant roses can get some blackspot, for instance, from time to time, but hopefully not a serious case of it. 5. When catalog copy says there is a faint, but pleasant fragrance, that really means that 90% of rose gardeners will be able to smell NOTHING from the rose. 6. Some things, only experience will teach you how to read. I have found over time that my roses in my region do stick pretty close to the listed sizes in most catalogs, so I tend to trust those figures. Southerners, in particular, often find that their roses grow much larger than listed in catalogs. 7. "Continuous bloom" I always take with only a grain of salt. Usually exaggerated. 8. If you are a relative newbie, do not confuse "hardy" with "disease-resistant." One has nothing to do with the other. Those are some catalog-reading tricks I've learned over time, but even then, I still go online and do more checking, on here, for instance, and at helpmefind.com. One thing I like to check in addition is informal comments and pics from real gardeners who aren't trying to sell me anything. I google up the rose I'm interested in, but add the word "garden"--tends to bring up webpages posted by real gardeners who are discussing the actual roses in their own gardens. Those are some of the most helpful comments. But it can still sometimes be a shot in the dark! Hope that helps. Kate

Here's the Snopes info on Corning/Pyrex. Hope there's something in here that helps. Here is a link that might be useful: Snopes on pyrex/Corning