Sherry, I don't know anything about growing roses in Florida, but maybe the following thoughts about dormant oils will be helpful. Horticultural oils are basically refined mineral oils. They are mild insecticides, miticides and fungicides. Oils can burn rose leaves when sprayed at high concentrations or at high temperatures (around 90 degrees or so). When roses are dormant and leafless, horticultural oils can be sprayed at higher concentrations (typically 7 1/2 to 10 tbs per gallon rather than the 2 1/2 to 5 tbs per gallon sprayed when the plants are in leaf) and this can lead to more effective control and this is the basic idea behind dormant oil sprays. Concerning insect or mite control, I wouldn't spray anything until I knew precisely what I was trying to control. Up here in Michigan, about the only pest that overwinters on the above-ground parts of a rose are scale insects. A dormant-strength oil spray can be effective for scale, but if I didn't see scale on the canes, I wouldn't spray. Concerning disease control, I would suggest that if you plan to spray modern synthetic fungicides, there is little to be gained by also including an oil spray at any time of the year.

Compared to plants like roses, rhodos and azaleas are not big feeders. And contrary to what fertilizer companies would want us do, the Azalea Society says that organic matter such as acidic mulch is fine and chemical fertilizers may not even be a good choice; just remember to add more mulch when yours has decomposed enough. See the link below: http://www.azaleas.org/faq.html#fer If you use chemical fertilizers in order to compensate for soil problems, I would suggest fertilizing in early spring; see the link below: http://www.rhododendron.org/fertilizing.htm To increase your NPK Soil Levels, try using some organic ammendments as they decompose slowly and last for a longer time period. In this order, I recommend the following items: 1. Organic Compost (found at Lowe's, HD, etc), 2. Cottonseed Meal (found at local organic stores), 3. Liquid Fish (has a little of all trace elements like magnesium, etc) or Liquid Seaweed (at Lowe's, HD, etc). I do not recommend alfalfa at this time of the year because it has a growth hormone and you were concerned about long winters. Optionally and only if you know of someone who can give you some Epsom Salts and some Gypsum, I would give your rhodos' soil a one-shot-only of them until your next soil test next year; that will add some more useful minerals to your soil. It is unusual but some types of azaleas & rhodos do bloom this time of the year. The Azalea Encore Series are one very common example but there are others which will do that as the summer temps go down. I am currently enjoying this reblooming period myself. Iron Chlorosis: Greenlight Iron & Soil Acidifier is a product that I use when I am out of pine needle mulch (hard to find here and costs $10 a bale) or my alkaline Ph returns in full force. That product does not have any Nitrogen (NPK is 0-0-0) and, in late Fall or during Winter, it will not force the plants to grow new tender shoots that the winter might kill. I have seen it a big stores and local nurseries. Regarding Camellias, I feed them some blood meal (high in nitrogen) in March; cottonseed meal or canola meal in May and July (lower nitrogen, higher phosporus & pottasium just before new growth buds begin to swell) and then bone meal in September (high on pottasium, good for the roots). The above information on Iron Chlorosis also applies to camellias. For more information on fertilizing camellias, go to the American Camellia Website. The link below will take you to a webpage with information on Camellia Care: http://www.camellias-acs.org/qanda/caring.asp Hope that helps you, gammaray. Luis

Schmoo, The stored nutrients are from the previous fall. Autumn fertilizing is supported by science. The imbalance would be created, for example, if the soil was already rich in phosphorous. If you applied a 'complete fertilizer' making phosphorous over abundant this would suppress plant growth by making micro nutrients unavailable. Here is Whitcomb, Establishment and Maintenance of Landscape Plants pg. 452 "The widespread practice of applying 10-20-10 or 10-10-5 or similar "complete" analysis fertilizer, without the aid of a soil test to see what is needed, is asking for problems." on pg 454 "The best time to fertilize most existing woody landscape plants is in the fall." He discusses how wet, cold, poorly aerated spring soil will not support optimal nutrient uptake.

Hi tropicbreezent, I live in Boynton Beach west of the Turnpike, I have never had my soil tested. Realistically that would be the logical thing to do to determine what type of nutrients and ratio to put back into the ground. My trees produce very well and the varieties I grow are delicious. I would fertilize monthly from March - October perhaps a quarter of the reccomended amount each month up until October at which time I would apply a larger amount with a heavier ratio of potash. TB, my thinking is that I probably only need to fertilize the trees 2 or 3 times a year and water as needed and cutting back on watering from October to February. This winter we had near record rainfall in Palmbeach County. I don't know how that extra rain will affect production this year. I often feel that I throw everything at my trees but they would do just as well with less. I'm trying to find the right balance of fertilizer and schedule to go by. In my surrounding area there are several of us that grow mango trees. Our fertilization plans are all almost the same except one neighbor who does much less but yet has high productivity and very tasty mangos. tropicbreezent thank you for responding and giving your advice, I certainly appreciate it.