Anthony, "...the soil im using is Pro-Mix BX but it dries out very fast." Premier's Pro-Mix BX is good stuff and I would be using it myself if I could find it here in this area of Kansas. I used a lot of it when we lived in Maine. It retains water better than the bark-based stuff I am using here. However, BX has a very limited amount of nutrients, and is designed to nourish seedlings for only a few weeks. I am treating my fast-draining medium as if it were a hydroponic substrate and watering it with a dilute solution containing a complete hydroponic diet. Since my operation is quite small compared to yours, I can afford to use premium quality urea-free nutrients like Better-Gro's Orchid Plus and Better-Gro's Orchid Bloom Booster, but that stuff costs about $7 a pound, so for greenhouse quantities you would probably be looking for a cheaper source of nutrients. My hand-pollinated zinnias love the orchid food. There are a lot of commercial-sized hydroponic operations, so there are hydroponic nutrients that cost much less per pound. Most "complete" nutrient formulas, like Miracle-Gro and Better-Gro, don't have calcium, because if they did it would precipitate with the phosphates and sulfates in the solution. Both calcium phosphate and calcium sulfate are relatively insoluble in water. I discovered the need for calcium nutrition the hard way a few years ago, after my indoor zinnia plants developed severe calcium deficiency symptoms growing in Pro-Mix BX, even though BX does have enough calcium for a few weeks. I ordered a pound of calcium nitrate from EveryBody's Garden Center and, by feeding calcium nitrate solution separately, I solved the calcium deficiency problem. With the added calcium nitrate, my zinnias became quite healthy and went on to produce big blooms indoors under my fluorescent lights. Since I dilute the calcium nitrate to one-half teaspoon per gallon, a pound of it goes a long way. Plants use a lot of calcium, and it is classified as a macronutrient instead of as a micronutrient. I later learned that if you predilute the calcium nitrate and predilute the other nutrients, that you can combine the solutions without precipitation. But it is OK to apply them separately, too. ZM

Ann's idea to contact your county agricultural extension agent sounds like just the ticket to me. We contacted our county extension agent once a long, long time ago, in trying to find out why we were having a problem with growing azaleas and rhododendrons in one particular area of the yard but not in others. With all the budget cutbacks they might not still do that, but it's a wonderful service. Someone actually came out to see the problem here onsite and didn't charge us anything to do it. The fellow who came out was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with. He almost instantly guessed what the problem was, semi-confirmed it by shifting a few plants within the ground from pushing gently on their stems, and sent some soil samples off to the state lab for confirmation: a moderately heavy infestation of nematodes (the bad kind of nematodes) that were eating away at the roots of the plants. I know this isn't your problem, but your roses might have something that a local county agricultural agent can diagnose just as quickly there. Our service was free, and I assume yours would be too, or at least not too expensive. Even if your agent isn't quite so sharp as ours was, you still probably wouldn't lose anything by spending a few minutes with him/her. We've had two (very mild) cases of downy mildew here. I double-checked those photos and the roses didn't have any ridges on the canes. But perhaps ridges might have appeared if the disease had gotten worse, so telling you this might not be especially helpful--unless you can look or have pictures of the plants in different stages of coming down with the disease. If the ridges are there from the very start of noticeable symptoms, then it likely isn't downy mildew. Your county extension agent is just the right contact for checking out Ann's other ideas regarding the potential for verticillium wilt and sudden oak death. Since they affect plants other than roses too, he might have had a better chance of hearing first about the presence in your area of those diseases before someone mainly concerned with growing roses would have. (I hope it's neither of those diseases. Fingers crossed for you.) One other obvious thing to think about that I didn't think to mention earlier... Try analyzing in every respect the locations of each of the plants that have come down with the disease, and be sure to tell your extension agent about the locations of the goners and whatever connections you might be able to come up with from an analysis of those locations. Example: You have your 180 plants spread among 6 different beds, but all the plants but one that died recently were located in the front beds as opposed to from the back of the house (maybe more likely something like a gradual spreading of chili thrips?). Or, you have losses in all your beds, but they all are located near the new stone edging you've given your beds (maybe too much reflected heat added now?). Or, your losses are in front and in the back, but started out only in those beds that you added some extra bags of ___ to last winter to improve the soil (maybe the bags' contents weren't insect/disease free). Or, your losses are all in places less protected from an especially cold winter that might have set up the roses for succumbing to the first disease to come along. Or, the losses are all close to the swimming pool (spilled some chemicals intended for a pool there?). One other suggestion that might help would be adding mycorrhiza, though it's some trouble when you already have the rose planted, and if it's something like verticillium wilt it might not help enough anyway. I once added mycorrhiza to two ailing established plants and I don't think I'd ever bother with that again, though I do still think mycorrhiza is overall a good idea and we use it when planting a new rose, when it's relatively easy to use. Those two roses I was hoping to help were virused and no amount of adding anything would have changed that. With this kind of (extensive and serious) problem that your roses are having, it might amount to a situation such as ours was. Or maybe not; it's hard to know, especially since the problem is still unidentified. In favor of adding mycorrhiza... would be the firm conviction of someone very knowledgeable in organic gardening circles that plants with this added boost actually can more easily repel disease, and that it's not simply a matter of additional pathways for more water and nutrients (that's a good hedge during droughts and also especiaally severe winters). You can't know whether or not a plant thus reinforced can repel something as serious as verticillium wilt, but if you are willing to go to the trouble, it's unlikely to cause harm. At least what I did in adding it to our already-planted roses caused no harm at all that I could see. For adding to established plants, use something like an especially large and long pencil for punching holes in the ground. (I had an extra knife sharpening steel that was about the diameter of two and a half pencils and it worked perfectly.) You want to punch 4-6 holes in the ground all around the rose, starting from maybe 6 inches out from the center of the plant and directed at the center of the plant maybe a foot down. Pour a small amount of mycorrhiza into each hole, and then spread the dirt back into and over the holes. You're counting on at least one root making contact with some mycorriza, either directly from the hole placement or soon as it grows some more to that spot. If you do decide to try mycorrhiza, be sure to never use any fertilizer that is higher than 1 or 2% in phosphate, as this will harm the mycorrhiza and might end up killing the plant that will have become somewhat dependent on the mycorrhiza working for much of its water and nutrients. One last thought: I still think it's a good idea to water very deeply every now and then if you can, because of the potential for a soil PH that is too high in a low-rainfall climate. This would be true even if your roses have enough water available for takeup; what you want is a flushing of the soil downward to get rid of any salt buildup, if one might exist (though it sounds as if you're giving a good bit of water). In a desert climate, there ought to be plenty of dry soil underneath the plant to take up the excess coming from a heavy watering, and a system flush is unlikely to make matters worse. If this summer was a bit hotter there than in the previous years where you've not had these problems, a higher-than-ideal PH might combine with the main problem, whatever it is, and make it worse by creating extra stress overall. If you are able to fill some watering cans for spreading water around while doing some deep watering, it wouldn't hurt to add a tiny bit of cider vinegar to the watering can, just on a guess that your soil's PH is very unlikely to be too low already and that adding a tiny bit of extra acidity probably won't do any harm. Big beautiful roots likely means no severe root-eating nematode problem. That's all I can think of. In spite of lots of people thinking about your problem from afar, I doubt that you are going to figure this out via internet suggestions. But if possible, do post pictures. The county extension agent idea is probably by far the most important suggestion to try. Best wishes, Mary

Debra, good that you know what they are! Mine are usually very distinctive, I think I was more disappointed b/c my backyard has been taken over by mass amounts of seedlings due to an ..obsessive month or 2 on LA last year ..so I was trying to trade daylilies that I have similar ones.. and dont' think "I have a great..plant that MIGHT be pink..will interest many ppl.LOL" My mom and dad are visiting me and they're GREAT gardeners, so I was hoping to have tiny yard looking vibrant and artsy and just generally cleaned up b.f they get here.. and it's not going to happen. Maybe they'll feel sorry for me, their organizationally incompetent daughter and help. :)

Every time I read a post detailing escapees, I wonder what it is I'm doing/not doing that causes my worms to stay in the bin. With the exception of that one time this summer I fried a bin in the back of my van, I've never had a problem with herd stampede. I monitor moisture and heat VERY carefully including leaving the lid off the bins at times. I don't use a light to keep them in. Although I pipe in nature sounds of birds chirping and chickens clucking, and have pictures of fish propped in full view on all sides of the bin, I'm not sure of any deterrent factor, but..... As a matter of fact, I believe allowing the worms the opportunity to leave is a bin-monitoring tool itself, although I understand your dilemma and would do the same thing in the same situation. Your description of the stinky, wet condition of the bin might indicate too much moisture, however, I've had some pretty stinky, icky bins and the worms didn't seem to mind (although I suspect they don't perform maximally in those conditions). Do your bins produce leachate? It is my personal opinion that worms don't need as much water as everyone thinks. I base that on observations of healthy, surviving worms in 35 gal plastic trash cans I use to store "finished" vermicompost in. After 6 months, moderate numbers of worms of all stages of maturity, and cocoons, are present in those moisture-deprived conditions. (Probably just enough moisture to enable the compost to "clump up" when squeezed) On last thing, recently I had a BSF larva infected bin I was maintaining, and experimenting with, and because of the larva escape probs, I placed the 18 gal bin into a 30 gal one with only the 4 vent holes underneath the upper rim of the bin (which I covered with window screen wire). The BSF would crawl out of the inner bin into the outer one. I would retrieve and remove them to the great outdoors. All creatures inside the inner bin did fine, and the bin contents didn't exhibit significant anaerobic symptoms, with less than maximum, "free-flow" type, ventilation. So, go figure. There's a whole lot of art in this science of vermiculture. Chuckiebtoo