There is no need of envying your neighbors roses for being free from disease when you can have yours the same way by starting with a spray pest control program as soon as the new growth is a few inches high. This should be done once a week and after each heavy rain. Old timers prefer dusting over spraying… but that is not very green friendly.
For them dusting was so much easier and quicker. They would use a two-quart dust gun with a three-foot extension tube so they could reach into their rose beds whether they had flowers, roses or whatever. They also used and all purpose dust mixture which contained chemicals like: ferbam, sulfur, DDT, aramite and rotenone… all of which are only a memory. Their version of dusting was like a lady powdering her nose… just enough to take off the shine, but not enough to be seen.
Summering the Amaryllis
Do not attempt to rush the season by setting out tender plants before the ground has warmed up and before all danger of frost has passed… this includes dahlias, tuberous begonias, and the more tender annual plants like ageratum, flowering begonias, geraniums, impatiens (or sultana if you prefer to call it that), fancyleaf caladiums, callas, potted plants of amaryllis or any others that may be damaged or at least stunted by frost or cold weather.
In case your amaryllis did not bloom this year, as soon as the ground warms up repot the plant and put it in the best soil you have in a sunny spot. Leave it out next fall until after the tops have been bitten by frost, meanwhile you can work on repotting houseplants. If it is large enough to have four or five good sized leaves, it should be sure to bloom next winter. Next winter flower bud will be developed in the bulb some time during the summer.
If small seedlings are disappearing, and if you have holes eaten in the leaves of your plantain lily you can suspect slugs. Go out after dark with a flashlight and you will find the slimy little things eating like mad. The prepared baits sold under trade names and containing metaldehyde are very efficient but that which you have kept over from last year may have lost its strength. Again old timers dusted with snailicide which contained both metaldehyde and chlordane (possible cancer causer) which would get both the slugs and that other often unsuspected pest sowbugs (pillbugs). In shaded areas particularly you will probably need to keep a watch and control action about every two or three weeks throughout the season to really control them. You will never get rid of them, but you can keep their damage down to a minimum.