Well, lilyfinch, I also do alfalfa tea several times per season. I usually do it after spring flush is over to jolt the roses back into flowering. Strangely enough, I do not find the smell foul or awful. It reminds me of farms and horses (and maybe stables.) Once I made the mistake of brewing a garbage can of it under our bedroom window. Still, we didn't hate it. The worst part for me is distributing it and being swarmed by house and horse flies in the process. I would never ever add the pellets to the soil because in my experience, some sort of fermentation occurs which could kill roots and plants. The hardest part for me is finding garbage cans in the yard that don't have cracks or holes. Last summer, I put a big plastic bag in one of the broken cans and it worked fine. I get two batches from each can. I do remember Pappu's thread--it is hilarious!

I remember reading this somewhere - "Roses are hogs - feed 'em". The article said something to the effect of never mind getting technical - just get a good fertilizer and feed regularly. For whatever reason I have remembered that. I can get MM Mix in Houston at Southwest Fertilizer - they also have their own mix that is very similiar and costs less. I am a member of the Houston Rose Society and in February, there is "rose week" where rose products are discounted 15% off. I go to Houston, lunch with a friend and buy all my Mills Mix then. However, this year they were totally out of it so I bought their mix. I have not seen any difference. I also use Rose Tone. I suppose because I dont feed just one thing, I cant tell if one is better than the other. I have a friend who is an expert gardner - he buys the cheaper K-Mart fertilizer instead of the Miracle Gro - says it does the same thing. I am sure no expert rose grower like so many knowledgable people on this forum, but I have had good luck top dressing with rotted horse compost [I raise horses so its in good supply] and using fish emulsion, the Houston Rose Society mix, Miracle Gro for Roses, Rose Tone, Mills Mix, Carl Pool BR 61 - or whatever else I find that looks good. Seems to work well.

Equal amount of the following: Bloodmeal Cottonseed meal Alfalfa meal Fish meal Mil-organite 0-46-0 (triple super phosphate) instead of dusty bone meal. 46-0-0 Urea- This works fast while the other stuff breaks down. It's an ingredient in Mill's Easy Feed, recommended as a supplement to Mill's Magic Rose Mix. A typical 20 lb bag of organic fertilizer sells for $20 to $26. Mixing it myself it's less than $5 for 20 lbs. The ingedients have increased in price considerably in the pastfew years. All these Items can be purchased at feed and grain stores, farm co-ops and stock feed supply elevators. Alfalfa meal is horse, rabbit, feed Fishmeal is sold as hog feed. Mil-organite is a commercial fertilizer available at many nurseries and garden centers. It's packaged Milwaukee, Wisconsin sewage sludge that's been processed to kill any pathogens. Local sanitary districts may manufacture their own product under other names. Warning: Heavy use of this type of product can cause a buildup of heavy metals in your soil if the manufacturer is using sewage sludge from a highly industrialized area. 46-0-0 (urea) is farm fertilizer generally sold in bulk but also available in 50 lb bags at farm co-ops. It's also used as a hog feed. 0-46-0 is a mined and processed phosphate rock. Cottonseed meal was readily available where I bought everything except the Mil-organite and I could have gotten that except I didn't order in advance. Blood meal is also used as a hog feed. It contains readily available nitrogen and iron. Let your fingers do the walking. Call around until you find a supplier. Some will order for you if they don't ordinarily stock an item and have it if you give them a week or so. Plan ahead. A local garden center near me can get all of these if I call ahead.

Rose Tone is readily available at most nurseries and big Box stores. It contains both high quality synthetic fertilizers as well as practically every organic fertilizer and soil amendment known to man (see link for the label ingredients). Mills' Magic Mix contains only a synthetic phosphate source, all the rest of the ingredients are organic-certified except for the sewage sludge. The recipe is equal amounts of Blood meal, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, fish meal, Milorganite, Epsom Salts and superphosphate, according to Karl Bapst. Mill's is harder to come by and usually has to be mail-ordered. It has an enthusiastic fan club which includes many well-known rosarians. Some people supplement Mills' Mix with liquid synthetics, a procedure recommended by Mills, himself. I don't see any reason to supplement Rose Tone with liquid fertilizers - you'd just be adding more of the same stuff. Which one is better? I suspect it would be hard to tell and I certainly don't know, I'm an Osmocote and alfalfa nut. Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Tone Label