Hello – We are Arboretum members and have a couple questions about our flower gardens. Thanks in advance for your assistance. We live in a 1960s home in Plymouth. We have about ½ acre of yard and garden. It has a number of large trees providing a mix of full shade to full sun over various parts of our yard and flower gardens. There are some places that get full sun – for the majority of the day. No sprinkler system, so we water sparingly throughout the season as needed. During dry summers like this, we cut the yard long and are fortunate to have as much shade as we have. Every year, one of our peony beds gets infected by powdery mildew. This bed gets good mid-day direct sun. However, this year we have it in several other flower beds that normally don’t have it. That includes some beebalm and another peony bed. We have been watering the flower gardens periodically, and have been asking neighbors and garden centers for advice. I just read your page at the U of M Extension website, which was very helpful. Based on advice from a garden center, we cut down the one peony bed that every year gets infected by the mildew. She recommendation regarding fungicide was in line with yours – in the spring/summer next year, wait for the first sign of it to show up, then apply the fungicide. We are a little concerned that we cut the plants down (a month ago). Will there be any risk in them coming back? Neighbors have told us part of the issue with the fungicide is that watering on the tops of leaves can trigger it to appear and/or spread. What are your recommendations with regards to watering? The other plants we have are generally still healthy under the mildew, so based on your webpage’s recommendations, we should not cut them, correct? When we do cut down these plants, should they go into the garbage or should we compost them? We have an active compost pile in a back corner of the yard where all of our tree leaves and kitchen plant waste goes. We had understood that the mildew can survive the winter in compost and then be spread around when we spread the compost the following year. What is your advice on disposal of infected plants? Thank you! Eric and Bugs Peterschmidt - Arboretum Members