I live in a very different climate, but I have much the same experiences I read about here. I mostly have mildew on newly planted roses, next year there are hardly any trace of it. It seams to be the nature of conditions around her. How we water the roses might be very important. Drip irrigation often only waters the top 4 inches and roses have deep roots compared to grass and some other plants. Depending on variety, rootstock and type of soil they often go four feet down in to the ground if possible. That is probably why we get the advice to water generously every other week and not just a bit every day (newly planted is different). I have a few roses in pots and when I had them under a cantilever roof in the garden they milldewed something horrible. I had this problem for years. As soon as I placed them under open sky they stayed healthy. I watered every day so that was not the problem. I once heard an old gardener come with the advice to let the sprinkler go for about 30 every other morning to wash of anything that might get stuck to the rose leafs. Apparently this washed away any sticky sugary resins and mildew spores and prevented them from getting a foothold. This workes on mildew only and not black spot. I live in an area with lots of rain, and mildew is usually not a problem. I only came to remember this advice when I discovered my roses only get mildew under the cantilever roof. If you feed the roses a lot they are more prone to mildew too. In pots it is very easy to have some fertilizer in the water every time. Give them fertilizer only every third week or and see what happens, and something with at least the same amount of kalium as nitrogen. Good luck with your roses

Inna - In my opinion the amount of fertilizer you use depends on the humidity. People who live in Utah, Colorado, Arizona etc. - they mostly use 1/8 of teaspoon of fertilizer, because the drier air makes faster use of you fertilizer solution - soil dries faster, plants lose more water while breathing, (humans too - itch-scratch-scratch). So the plant doesn't utilise all the fertilizer - and the fertilizer salts accumulate, even the young leaves in a middle of the crown are covered with tiny crystals of salts. Reducing the amount of fertilizer helps. People who live closer to the oceans have higher humidity and for them 1/4 of the teaspoon per gallon is better - because otherwise - the plans starve - as Nancy mentioned in her post - the leaves become pale and they just do not have energy to bloom that much. So everything should be fine tuned to your growing conditions - is the soil to heavy? May be or may be not. Means it is quite close to be right, observe, try to use lighter soil for one plant - see if it likes it. One of the ladies from the club made an extensive research what plants like in her house - and she bought soil from Rob, from Violet Showcase, mixed her own with Miracle Grow Av soil plus perlite and vermiculite - and turned to be that Optimaras definitely prefer one mix, and some other plants prefer #2, and some #3. Go figure... Irina

If you're getting the Lux set, the gas dryer is fine. I have it and I hate dryers normally, and this one doesn't wreck things. You can add the "shrink guard" setting which reduces the temp near the end of the cycle when clothing shrinks from the damp to dry portion. My clothing doesn't appear any hotter than any previous electric dryer I've had and the huge bonus is, that my clothing is NEVER staticy. Ever. I have always had socks and towels and other items come out with static in electric dryers, especially in winter since I live in a dry, winter climate. The lux gas? No static, ever! It also has a "line dry" setting which is like drying outdoors. It fluctuates between air fluff and mild warm air like a warm summer breeze...haha. But it is great to dry things that you normally can't dry but so much better than air fluff which I find useless. The delicate cycle is also a low temp. I've felt clothing mid cycle and it's what I would expect for delicate. I would think they have a temp setting so regardless of gas or electric, it doesn't go above those temps for those cycles? Oh, and the jeans cycle rocks! Jeans come out SO soft. Jeans were always on the crunchy side in all of my other washer/dryer combos. This Lux jean wash/dry cycle is great! Note that I have never used fabric softener, bleach or any standard detergents. I typically use Country Save powder or Kind liquid. So stiff jeans were normal to me but these machines have done away with that. Not sure if it's the jeans wash cycle (extra rinses and a few other tweaks) or the gas dryer, but the family loves their jeans out of the Lux 70 set! And, great dryer. My only beef is the door opening leaves the vent completely exposed so if you are doing a small load, socks or t-shirts get stuck on top of the vent and everything else rotates around them and they just sit there staying wet. Large loads don't cause an issue. That all being said, I have changed my laundry set and have a new gas dryer coming in March (washer already here). A bit (no, a LOT) worried, that I won't like it as much as the Lux. Sigh. Already missing my jeans cycle.

Actually, if you use a syringe there's no need for a dispensing tip, sharp or otherwise. 1 teaspon = 5 mL. I would not consider it an extreme effort to measure the amount of fertilizer that's being applied - that is after all the way it is intended to be used. I have smaller bottles (~60 mL amber bottles) which I fill from the large bottle of FP and it's easy to go into the small bottle and withdraw the required amount. Syringing is much easier and faster for me then it would be to try to fill a half a capful without spilling or overdoing it! Plus, it's easy to modify the dosage strength based on weather conditions. The other advantage to filling the small bottle is, you don't have to open the big bottle everytime you want to do an application.