Hi Sherry, Have you ever tried adding native nitrogen-fixing plants to your rosebeds? I don't know much (like zip!) about Florida natives that fix nitrogen, but I found a few pretty quickly on a Google search--the small partridge pea (annual) and Elliott's milk pea (perennial). Both of these were on the website of the Florida Native Plant Society (link is below). Maybe this wouldn't do a lot, but it might give just a little boost to the soil so your roses could possibly benefit from mini snacks throughout the year. I use a variety of nitrogen-fixers in my garden. Many are California natives, with some non-natives that like the climate here. I have palo verdes (love this tree so I have 3 Parkinsonia 'Desert Museum'), Lotus scoparius (deerweed), Lotus crassifolius otayensis (Otay lotus), pink fairy duster (Calliandra eriophylla), Santa Catalina Island Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpis traskiae), lots of California lilac (Ceanothus cyaneus, spinosus, tomentosus, 'Snow Flurry', 'Zanzibar', 'Lemon Ice', 'Diamond Heights', 'All Gold'), as well as non natives like white Bauhinia, various clovers, Austrian winter peas, birdsfoot trefoil, etc. Guess I'm just a lazy gardener who would rather not have to add stuff to the garden if the plants can do my work for me.;) My plants are lucky to get a little fish emulsion--although a small number get a mild powdered organic fertilizer occasionally. Many plants I feed nothing. Don't know how successful this would be in a much different climate/soil. Here I have mostly sandy loam, with some strips of the garden being clay or sand. Both the soil and water are alkaline and rainfall is low. The only problem being that the city water is high in boron with varying effects on plants. Melissa Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Native Plant Society

welcome to the down under ... i tend to go to the systemic extreme ... on a VALUABLE plant ... i would recommend just getting rid of a euonomys [WAG for sure] ... they are a plague on such [scale in general] ...... and not worth harming mother earth ... when THINKING about chemicals.. you MUST start with a plant ID ... then a bug ID ... and then discuss ALL the remedies .. including removal of the plant ... i mean really .. is it worthwhile to spend $20 to 'save' a plant you can buy or replace for $10???? pic of plant and scale please ... ken ps: a month or so back we had a post from AU.. on some bush i never heard of.. that was being swallowed by scale.. anyone recall that plant.. piggley wiggley or something down under-ish??? lol ...

Lilly pilly can be prone to scale infestations - this looks something like a type of cottony scale. A more detailed close up of the insect could confirm. If manageably sized, I would recommend washing these critters off your plant as thoroughly as possible. You could then treat with a horticultural oil or Neem oil to prevent further problems.

Possibly scale, check the branches and see if there's a little, hard, bug infestation that's hard to remove, though you can flick them off with your finger nail sometimes. If there is, there's also likely to be ants travelling up and down the tree, they 'milk' the scales for their secretions. 'White' oil is the treatment - it chokes the bug and prevents it from sucking. You should also apply a ring of petroleum jelly around the base of the bush to stop the ants. I sometimes use a commercial insecticide but a lot of gardeners believe that's a no, no, now-a-days on account of possible damage to friendly insects.