Powdery mildew

After a little reading today, I learn that spraying seaweed on my roses' mildew may have just spread it -- or at least, a better tack is fungicide, which I applied today.

I also learned that powdery mildew was first recorded in 300 B.C. by Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle who founded the science of botany and was occasionally so literal he was thuddingly dull, a trait I have some sympathy for.

Given the intervening 2300 years of study and treatment, you'd think I should've been able to diagnose and treat the disease a little better, but nooooo, I have to go reinventing the wheel. But the cool thing, as Jay and I were saying, is that 2300 years ago, somebody walked out to his garden and had the same problem I'm having.