fungus

[orlando]

I live in Orlando Florida where summer time means daily downpours and high humidity. It seems that every year this time my flourishing miniture roses become infested with yellow fungus causing all the leaves to begin dropping. I spray them liberally once a week and constantly pick off the infested leaves, but it seems I am yet again losing my battle. Any suggestions on how I can successfully beat this?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Are you sure this is a fungus? Yellowing leaves can be virus, too much water, too little water, die back from black spot (yep, that's a fungus) or other problems too numerous to list. Is the fungus itself yellow or is that the resultant color of the leaves?

If it is fungal, try my patented (not really) method; mix 1 cup of milk in a gallon of water and spray it on your roses as a preventitive. Works well against a wide variety of fungal problems, and it's easy on the environment (lots of rose cures are not). Let me know how it works out for you; it's a winner up here, but you have much better conditions for fungal development than we have...

Scott