If it rains 12 hours after you sprayed, there should be no problem. It only takes the spray 1-2 hours to dry, and once it is dry, rain doesn't affect it. Well, maybe I should first ask what you are spraying before I say that. If it is something like Bayer Garden Disease Control for Roses, Flowers, and Shrubs, all it needs is to get dry. Then rain doesn't matter. If I were getting ready to spray and noticed that the weather report said 30% chance of rain, I would go ahead and spray under most circumstances. A 30% chance of rain means that there is a 70% chance that it won't rain. I don't even let a 40% chance of rain stop me--unless it actually starts sprinkling out there. At 60% chance of rain, I figure the odds are now in favor of the rain--although even then, it may not rain--and I do not spray on that day. As for your picture, unless you can show me a more detailed, close-up picture showing blackspot, I would say that No, that is not blackspot. Some of the yellowing leaves could be older leaves which the bush is shedding, making way for young new leaves, or the yellowing could be caused by too much or too little water (either will produce yellowing leaves). However, some of the other leaves appear to be suffering from RMV (Rose Mosaic Virus)--there appear to be yellow markings on some of the leaves. There is nothing you can do about RMV--in fact, a goodly number of roses on the market are all infected with RMV. Most of us find that the symptoms (gold marks on leaves) only show up occasionally in the spring. Other than that, the rose seems to suffer no problems as a result of the RMV. (There are a few posters who take a different approach to the subject, however.) Hope that helps. Kate

yup, thats a mango seedling treefrog, thanks. Im in the smack center of CA in Fresno. I live in the central valley where we get LONG dry summers (typically above 110 degrees) and cool, short, wet winters (Dec and half of Jan). So far, we've had a couple of frosty mornings, but nothing to hard to protect any plants. There is only a bit of damage to dypsis lutescens, majesty palm, hibiscus and bouganvillea. Temperatures begin to rise quickly begining this first week of January so there is minimal danger for any more damage than what is shown in the pics above.

Chandra, With the frost blanket, they should be labeled when you buy them and the label should say whether it gives you 2-4 degrees of protection or 8 degrees or whatever. The row cover that I have that gives 8 degees of protection is heavier and thicker and looks more like a white sheet because you can't really see the detail of plants beneath it. The row cover that I have that gives 2-4 degrees of protection is more lightweight and more sheer and it is easy to see details of plants beneath it. If you have the lighter weight type of row cover that gives less protection, the next time a cold night threatens, you can put down two layers instead of one and it will give your plants more protection. A single layer of the lightweight row cover that gives 2 to 4 degrees of protection has kept tender, warm-season plants from freezing in fall even when the overnight low dipped much lower than expected and I thought the row cover wouldn't provide adequate protection. I have a lot of the lightweight row cover and use it frequently. I have much less of the heavyweight and only use it on very cold nights. Jay, I can't even get the thermometers in our yard to agree with one another, and all of them are mounted at about the same height and all of them are in the shade. Often, we'll see a 1 to 4 degree variation in the temperature they're reporting. Our local NWS Co-operative Observer is only a couple of miles NW of us but on slightly higher land so while his weather reports are similar to ours, they aren't always the same. The OKMesonet Station at Burneyville is maybe 7 miles NW of us as the crow flies, but a lot further by road, and sits at a lower elevation. It often goes a bit colder than we do at night, and we're often 2 to 5 degrees warmer than it during the day So far, in the years that I've really paid close attention to the weather, it seems that the weather data from the Gainesville Airport is usuallly closest to what we actually see here at our house. It still isn't too bad here this morning, but heavily overcast and currently 45 degrees which seems incredibly cold compared to the 85-90 degrees we had earlier in the week. I hope all the little grasshoppers are shivering out there in the cold. Dawn

I'd leave them covered. If you are worried they won't be able to breathe and might roast, use a rock or stick to prop up one little section of the potst tomorrow as you're leaving for work so hot air can escape if it builds up under the pots. I've left plants covered with plastic buckets (unintentionally because I left to go someplace and forgot to uncover them before I left) after a cold night, and they handled a sunny day with highs in the 60s just fine. By the time I got home, it was so late in the day that there was no point in uncovering them, but I peeked under the buckets and looked at them and they were fine. I covered up 90% of the 4 garden plots today and it all is staying covered until Friday or Saturday. I hope to get the remaining 10% covered tomorrow morning. We ran out of daylight, and ran out of energy too. It can be difficult to decide whether to leave something covered or uncovered. Trust your gut instinct. It usually is right. Dawn