redecoratingmom, I notice you live in Georgia. Do you spray your roses with fungicides, or are you willing to? You have to remember that Plain Talk is nearly fifty years old (1964). It was bred from Spartan and Garnette, a rose bred and released at the height of chemical use in our gardens. Spartan was created by crossing Geranium Red and Fashion, two of the rustiest roses of the forties. From experience in my climate, neither is very black spot resistant, either. Garnette was a polyantha (early floribunda) of greenhouse florist production. It is highly susceptible to mildew, even in arid climates. I know you're not that hip on ground cover roses, but perhaps you might be better served by something like Crimson Meilland? You can see it and read more about it at the link below. It's supposed to be black spot resistant and supposedly two feet tall by four feet wide. It says it's a perfect companion for Knock Out Roses. I honestly believe something like this is going to server you significantly better than an older variety like Plain Talk. If has been bred and selected for landscape performance without chemical intervention. It genetically wants to be the size you desire and you can FIND it. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Crimson Meilland

I understand, Seil. More than 25 years ago, I would leave an overhead, oscillating sprinkler going over large areas of my Newhall garden, requesting the community gardening staff to turn them off when they left for the day, on triple digit days. The horse manure mulch disappeared quickly. The foliage was huge, plants even more so, and they flowered amazingly. Water was cheap and plentiful, so not an issue there and then. There were no disease or insect issues. The plants were fully clothed in very dense, durable foliage and there was no such thing as sun scald nor Flat Headed Apple Borers which became great issues once that type of watering had to be discontinued due to availability and cost. Black spot and mites were frequent issues with the own root plants we propagated as volunteers at The Huntington. I learned early when bringing home any new plant such as those to pull off all of the foliage before bringing it into the garden. I had an area in filtered sun under a tree where I kept a pile of horse manure. I'd clump the newly arrived own roots in their pots together, surround and fill between them with the manure, often inside them as mulch, then overhead water until new foliage began developing. No mites, no diseases and the plants exploded into growth quickly. A bit of hardening them off in larger cans and higher levels of heat and light and they were ready for planting once they'd filled the five gallon cans. Growing them up in larger cans also permitted me to move them around to see what position was best to their liking. It often made quite a difference. At the beach, I had a number of customers who regularly used my "proprietary blend" of Ultra Fine and Miracle Grow sprayed every two weeks except between the middle of July through the middle of October. In the Perma Fog, it prevented disease, eliminated the constant aphids and saw flies and kept really terrible things there, like one lady's beloved and hated Paul Neyron, viable. He caught her heart in books and she was determined to grow him. He languished until I suggested the Ultra Fine and MG foliar application. She had severe bronchitis, but made sure she brought me a bouquet of beautiful Paul Neyron from her bush! Used during the heat, that mixture did burn, but when there weren't heat and light intensities to contend with, it worked wonders. NO way I could have ever used it in any garden at home! I tried it once, learned my lesson the hard way right there and then! Anything presented as being even slightly phytotoxic WILL burn here. I am in total agreement with your walking the roses daily. I can't imagine having them unless I wanted to walk them every chance I got. Each has its own personality, likes, dislikes, needs and will quickly let you know if you don't provide them. It's the best way not only to head off problems early, but also to detect sports. They can happen so quickly right in front of you and seemingly behind your back. A big part of the serendipity for me! Kim

Well sorry for the super long update from July on this post âÂÂplus bringing it back to lifeâÂÂ, but I have been very busy and barley taken care of these since then âÂÂalmost gave up but not thrown in the towelâÂÂ. HereâÂÂs what I did to fix the problem. First thing I did was took out the mulch âÂÂon top of mixâÂÂ. âÂÂWhich I found out from a grower is the worst thing to have in a pot unless its stone or rubber makes ez mold to form.â Then I flushed it out, untill the top roots where showing. Then covered the roots with fresh dry soil. The next day, I took 1 TBS of lime in and sprinkled it into each bucket then gave half a fert+water dose to each one. âÂÂI basically thought âÂÂand wasâ This was my worst pepper growing season, I ever had.â Reason behind it more rain than normal. Plus it being under a citrus tree didnâÂÂt help. I walked away for a few days to see what may happen. And as I thought the only new peppers IâÂÂm trying to grow will die first... and of course it was my TS. Now my BJâÂÂsâÂÂor now IâÂÂm pretty sure they are its sisterâÂÂNaga M is loving it. The CJH are small âÂÂexcept 1 âÂÂnot in photosâ which I saved to baby since her mother died recently to a dog leash âÂÂehâÂÂâ¦..is doing fineâ but the last few cold snaps, and with frost, we had here set off all the super hots. And now they are producing like crazy. I know this is not to be expected this time of year even in Central FL thatâÂÂs for sure. But what can I say there mom is over 2 years old and she started out in the cold lol. I know they might not look as great as everyone elseâÂÂs but they all gave me about 60+ pods harvested and still growing more.â Btw harvested them before pictures and realized I forgot I had to share with my fellow pepper growers about this. And left a couple on.â Sorry about the delay, I have been very busy. And on that note PEPPERMEISTER1 is definitely correct. It is hard to kill them. But if you put them under a citrus tree for some shade. âÂÂThey will dieâ P.s. PEPPERMEISTER1, Sorry late response. Had lots of holes in bucket to let them dry up. Just rain way too much. If I known it was going to be a wet season âÂÂand not dry like the past few yearsâÂÂ, I would of used the 5-1-1. But Im not always here to baby them. But, thatâÂÂs why I always take the strongest, healthiest and most producing, plant seeds to grow next year. After this fiasco these seeds probably grow into plants that can take a crap load of abuse lol. Also these pictures was taken today 11/29/12

I bought a Hydrofarm FLCDG125D Fluorowing Compact Fluorescent System to supplement the light. I will go reading on the artificial light board, but if anyone has any advice for position and duration of using the light while the plant is in a slow growing period would be very much appreciated. I don't necessarily want to disrupt the plants yearly cycle or fool it into thinking this is spring or summer. I just want to make sure it can make plenty of food for itself. I've got all the ingredients for gritty mix on the way. I'm not re-potting the fig yet as I said, but I desperately need to re-pot the yucca and two snake plants so they will be my first gritty mix experiments. I love feeling like a mad scientist. I've got Zoo Med Reptile Bark Fir Bedding coming for the pine fines, will get a bag of napa floor-dry tomorrow, and have some #2 cherry stone coming in the mail. (Is this OK?) I read Al Tapla recommend either grani-grit or #2 cherrystone as 1 part of the gritty mix and I hope I ordered something that works. I've also got some dyna-gro foliage pro on the way. Not going to fertilize the fig until I know that I can properly drain the soil, but will start using it on the plants that I re-pot this week. The one very badly shriveled and browned leaf on the fig (the one with the burned looking edge pictured above) dropped today. It was much smaller than the rest of the leaves, a little yellow, and near the interior of the plant. I guess I won't be concerned unless the plant starts dropping more healthy looking leaves. I turned it a full 90 degrees a few days ago. The foliage is very unbalanced. Looks like the previous owner never rotated it so the leaves on one side are noticeably smaller and paler than the other side. I think I will leave it like that for a couple of weeks and then start doing 1/4 turns every week or two. Should I be concerned about more leaf drop from turning it like this? I'm worried that the side that's used to getting more light will protest. When I flush the soil, should I stuff a wick very deeply into the soil from the new drainage hole, or does it just need to be in contact with the soil at the bottom? Thank you so much for your time if you've read this far!