Yep, I also do the cotton bud with meths treatment (although it's fair to say I mainly use a wad of loo roll). I also use my fingernails as my citrus always succumbs to scale. As for sarcococca, I have never seen scale on one but my next door neighbour has a relentless battle against scale on her hydrangeas so I would guess there are quite a few woody shrubs delectable to scale. Also, by the time I spot scale, the insects have often departed, leaving only the scaly exoskeleton (or whatever it is called). Re-reading this, I am appalled at how ignorant I am about scale (and heaps of other pests and diseases). Living permanently in the delusional and optimistic gardenland (where, no matter how desperate, there is always next year), I tend to ignore pests and disease (P&D as my hort. tutor always referred to them) until I am forced to take action. Naturally, I will spout on about prevention being better than cure blah blah......while utterly ignoring my own advice..... So, Melissa, your moods are somewhat mercurial - could you also be afflicted by the eternal hope syndrome or am I being fatally presumptive?

Thanks Prof R...What you've said takes away some of the guilt I've had about his passing. I don't believe that he had a murmur before and he had recently gone through some pretty thorough exams trying to get to the bottom of what was causing his seizures. The only thing we didn't have done was an MRI, because they didn't have the capabilities at my vet, and we would have had to bring him to UT. Our vet and I made the decision that, even if we were to opt for an MRI and it showed a brain tumor, that there really was no reasonable treatment and we would just let him live out his days until it seemed like his quality of life was gone. He was a fighter and made it out of a horrible breeder situation. Part of his neurological disorder effected his balance, and we even had a little wheelchair specially made for him. He was a sweet little guy and we miss him dearly :( I think its wonderful that you work with a veterinary hospital. Ever since I was a little child, everyone told me I should have been a vet, and I greatly regret not going into that field and instead ending up in finance. I volunteer every weekend at a no-kill shelter and we also foster special needs dogs (how we came to acquire Dusty last year). Its not the same, but its my little contribution :) Tammy ps: sorry for hijacking gardenweb to talk about my Dusty!

Khalid wrote in another thread: "Then I stopped spraying even any organic matter. I gave more calcium to my roses which made the soft branches and leaves harder thus making it relatively unattractive for the pests. This reduced the affected bushes / leaves to a good extent." Agree with Khalid, folks in rainy climate lime their soil, either in late fall or early spring, depending on how many inches of rain they get. Rain is acidic at pH 5.6, as the pH drops, less calcium and potassium are available. The best lime to use is Espoma Garden Lime (sold at Walmart for $10 per 5 lb.). It has 20% calcium and 10% magnesium ... both are essential in keeping leaves thick so pests cannot invade. From the above chart, around pH 5.6 (rain water), less molybdenum, less magnesium, less calcium are available. Next nutrients that are less: phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen. I already posted in Organic Rose my experiment that I did with 2 identical Thai basil: I lowered the pH of one with acidic cracked corn (pH 4), plus gypsum (17% sulfur) .. that Thai basil' leaves became pale, plus THINNER due to less calcium and magnesium available. Then I saw blackspots on a Thai basil for the 1st time !! The other basil I planted in my alkaline clay (pH near 8), and it's twice taller plus really thick & glossy leaves (more available nitrogen, potassium, sulfur, calcium, and magnesium). But leaves were just a bit pale due to less iron at high pH, so I gave it blood meal, has chelated iron, and leaves became dark green. I once planted a bok-choy vegetable next to my patio with a limestone base, so the soil is very alkaline, pH 8. The leaves were dark-green, but its so tough that I boiled it for one hour, and it's STILL so fibrous that my teeth can't handle, let alone some tiny pests like aphids, rose slugs, or midge. Rose slugs (sawfly larvae) are very rare in my alkaline clay, unless I lower the pH with my experiments: Put acidic cracked corn (pH 4) in potting soil, and roses got rose-slugs from THINNER LEAVES in acidic rain (calcium, magnesium, and potassium drops when pH drops). Mirandy rose got a big-fat rose-slug on it for the 1st time. Why? It's next to a tree, and the tree robs the soil of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Plus tree roots secret acid, so the soil became even more acidic with rain (pH of rain is 5.6). Used molasses, plus vinegar, plus sulfate of potash (21% sulfur), plus gypsum (17% sulfur) ... such acidic solution made leaves thinner, plus the stinky molasses really attract sawfly which give birth to rose-slugs. CONCLUSION: The best solution for pests is to raise soil pH by using dolomitic lime such as Espoma Garden lime (20% calcium and 10% magnesium). My soil is dolomitic clay, so I don't have midge, rose-slugs (sawfly larvae), nor aphids, unless I use acidic fertilizer. When there's tons of acidic rain, I throw pea-gravel on top of roses that like it alkaline, pea-gravel has many alkaline minerals to make leaves thick, glossy, and to prevent pests.

Jess: Before you closed this thread and start a new one, I went through this thread again, specially the posts done in Feb. The size of bushes planted in Jan 16 (ie, just a month or so earlier than when you took the photos) is enormous. Some of them are unbelievably big for a bush that has just been planted just a month earlier. That's absolutely remarkable. What was the size and age of bushes when you planted them? When we buy grafted roses here, they are 5-7 months old grafts and the plants is just tiny with a strong centifolia root stock but mostly one single stem coming out of the graft (they are generally grafted on Rosa centifolia or Bengal Rose which is Rosa chinensis, in Jul / Jun previous year, during monsoon season). Nurseries try to grow them as big as possible by giving them a high doze of nitrogen and phosphorus based fertilizers but afterall, how big can they get in 5-7 months!! Really very impressed to see the size of your bushes and I am not sure it's gypsum and potash alone that has done it. There may be more to it, in addition to gypsum and potash... best regards