Is this the Yates Spray you're using? http://www.yates.com.au/products/disease-control/concentrates/yates-rose-shield-insect-disease-spray/ If so, it says the fungicide is systemic, meaning it absorbs into the plant and incorporates into the sap to provide the protection for two weeks. Spraying more frequently than that can damage foliage and over expose you, your pets (if any) and anyone else coming in contact with the chemicals. If your roses continue mildewing after the systemics have reached their "sap levels", you have other issues at work. Water stressed plants can also experience diseases because of the stress. You can force them to mildew even when the conditions aren't proper for the disease by keeping them too dry. Not necessarily that you aren't watering enough, but the reflected, radiated heat from surrounding surfaces "cook" the water out of the plants. Perhaps the pots are over heating from the air temperature, direct sun shining on them or the radiated/reflected heat from walls or the patio floor? Growing other plants in the pots with them also increase the competition for water in those soil balls. The traditional conditions favoring mildew are cool and damp. If your roses are mildewing when it's either hot and humid or hot and dry (and nights aren't cool and damp), that sounds like water stress induced mildew to me. Are the roses mildewing worst closest to either direct sun exposure on their pots, or closest to the hottest walls where the sun shines most directly, for the longest period of the day? If they are, that also helps point the finger toward water stress induced mildew. Might these also have the ground cover growing vigorously in their pots? That ground cover is using water the rose seems to need to help prevent the mildew. Yes, some roses are much more susceptible to mildew than others. Your local rose garden center/nursery should be able to point you toward those varieties. You can also find out that kind of information about many roses on Help Me Find-Roses. You can make a list of what's available locally, then check Help Me Find to see if there are statements about their disease resistance on the site. But if you've used your systemic spray properly for several weeks or longer and these are still mildewing, the other possibilities I've offered could easily account for why the problem isn't clearing up. You may want to take a look at their placement on the balcony to see if by moving them around, you might alleviate some of the greater heat these might be experiencing. You may also want to consider removing the ground cover and any other companion plants from the pots of the roses which continue mildewing. You might also need to increase the size of the pots they grow in. If they're too small, the plant will consume all the water they can hold, or it might cook out too quickly, leaving the plant "thirsty", inducing it to mildew. Once thing is certain, I would not suggest using the Yates more frequently than the label instructs. You should have enough of it in the plant sap after several applications and a few weeks for it to begin working. It won't remove the mildew on older foliage which already show symptoms, but it should prevent the new foliage from mildewing as long as it is used properly. I hope it helps. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Help Me Find - Roses

Dry rootballs are often the result of textural differences between the soilless potting medium or claylike field soil the plants came from the nursery in and the soil on the new site. If the rest of the bed was moist with the heucheras only being dry then it was something like that - something involving the heucheras specifically - and not the overall conditions. This should have been apparent when these were dug and pulled apart(?) but heucheras specifically are prone to weevil larvae gnawing the roots off and leaving a sort of nearly rootless husk sitting on top of the ground, unable to keep itself turgid without diligent watering - and maybe not even then. The same thing is common here with primroses.

Camarillo- I have a couple Japanese cukes that are growing nicely- w/tiny cukes on them. I'm worried about the tomatoes developing the same problems as always- and I'm even trying different variety- one Early girl, 2 Momotaro and one heirloom- Siberian, I think. They look like pictures of health with blossoms and some fruit BUT!!Now I'm seeing some curling leaves w/ subtle brownish color in leaves- and a couple wisps of this white fuzz, like the kind that comes from aphid attacks on my hibiscus, which I eradicated with soap water last year... any tips? My little okra seedlings look terrible- one green, one yellow leaf.About to give up and start from seed AGAIN, in time for the hot weather they're mssing....thanks!!

Liatris, The main branch of the society is based in Bundaberg which is a bit closer to you than the Sunshine Coast is. We have meetings on the 2nd Sunday of the month (usually but can vary) and have held meetings so far from as far south as Howard to as far north as Gladstone. For interest meetings are held in members gardens and some public gardens. I will email you with the details of the next meeting if you like. Andrew.