Think of liquids as the equivalent of a candy bar. Quick energy but not long lasting.

Organics are like fat & protein and chemical granulated is like simple and complex carbs.

Organics are slower to "digest" so to speak, but feed over a long period of time.

You can toss handfuls of granular around the base and rake it in very lightly, or just cover it up with mulch. Always water well afterwards.

I scratch granular fertilizer into the soil about 1 inch deep. Be careful not to destroy any feeder roots.
I use this tool:

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I'm a fan of Bradfield Organics. it's a powdery granular fertilizer that I place around the base of my roses; 1 cup per foot height.
I've had good results with it so far. I like the organic option because I have pets; safer for them :)

once the shrubs are in full swing, how do you get to the base of the shrub to mix in the fertilizer

Very carefully, unless you wish to look like a victim of cat scratch fever.

I put on the leather rose gloves & pull the wood chip mulch back with my fingers, like a rake, and put the fertilizer down in a ring around the rose. I gently scratch it into the soil with my fingers & replace the mulch. The mulch is what keeps my soil loose enough to be able to do this.

One caveat: I plant my roses with adequate space on all sides so that I can tend to them this way. I'm able to walk between and around all of our roses.

I just throw the Espoma Rose-tone (or Holly-tone, or Flower-tone) under the plants, water in, move along. I don't scratch in, I don't dig in, just put it on top of the mulch and let the Soil Food Web take care of everything else. If I have to lift up a branch or two, I just put on my gloves.

LOL...it sounds painful
Thanks for the tips!
Dale

Painful....lol

I am with diane_nj, no sctaching in for me. I use Rose Tone and just toss it around the plants. I don't even water it in. Usually try for when rain is expected. If not, the rain comes eventually. Honestly, all that work is not necessary.

I have contacted the manufacturer on the organic granular product I'm using and they told me 1"- 2" deep for there product is recommended by them for best results.
Other fertilizers can be broadcasted right on top of the soil, depends what your using.

Oh my! dcrosby there is no need to get to the base of the shrub. With the organic fertilizers, just distribute them in a broad band within the drip line. The same is true when you water; you want the roots to spread out wide so water all the area within the drip line.
I use a shrub rake to pull back the mulch; sometimes a hand rake if access is tight. To me scratching in means just that, very shallow.
Shrub rake is perfect for this job, it moves the mulch & does the scratching. This is like a leaf rake but with a much smaller head for reaching in under shrubs; the handle is standard length.

Yes, you don't want any fertilizer, organic or not, at the very base of the shrub. You want it out around the dripline - where rain would drip off the outer ends of the branches. In a band centered on the dripline, about two thirds inside and a little bit outside. That's where the roots that pick up nutrients are. The roots at the very base are structural anchor roots, they won't pick up the nutrients.

With roses I always scratch it in just enough that it doesn't show anymore. With rhodies and camellias I would agree no scratching in fertilizer at all, they have very shallow roots and are very resentful of scratching, but roses are a bit less delicate than that.

I use a five gallon bucket with about a 1/64 inch hole in the bottom, fill with water, add a fully dissoluble fertilizer, one to two Tbs, fill the bucket with water and let it leak out to the rose. Takes about 2 hours. I have three such buckets, they water very slowly while I am frolicking about.I have about three to 4 inches old bark mulch around the roses. I do this about twice weekly this year since we have had no rain to speak of since 2010! The roses and small trees brag on this method all the time! :-))

For many years I was convinced that only organic fertilizers would do for my roses. I owned several horses at the time, so quantities were not a problem. I changed my soil from greasy clay to a nice crumbly loam over ten years.
Then I started reading posts by diggerdave. Digger used to post on this forum several years ago. He used only Miracle Gro on his roses. He posted some great pictures in zone 5.
I still mulch and use all the manure I can find. Now I add chemical fertilizers in the spring and Miracle Gro as a foliar fertilizer throughout the growing season. The chemical fertilizers have really made a difference in rose growth and bloom.

Here is a link that might be useful: diggerdave's garden

i'm thinkin' that i'll go with the rose-tone per instruction/advice and maybe use the mg liquid as a growing season foliar feeding additive.

I'm in the DiggerDave camp on fertilizing. I use 30 gallon garbage cans filled with water and add 1 pouch of miracle grow (MG). I then use a sump pump to fertilize all the roses (450). 20 seconds per plant distributes 1 gallon of fertilizer. I add liquid organics as I find them throughout the summer, but always as an add-on to the MG.

Well, I took the title of this thread literally until reading all of the posts: should you fertilize with liquid or granular? That is with both being fertilizers, not organic supplements. I use liquid, because it's more certain to get to the spot you want. Granular fertilizer can be swept away or collect in one spot after a drenching rain - not good.

As for organic supplements, I'm a real believer in Mills Magic Mix and still use it. It's great for creating more basal shoots than anything else. I don't scratch it in, either. The first time I tried that was horrifying when seeing all the feeder roots I tore up. I shake it out in the drip ring, a little dab close to the canes, and then cover it all with another layer of mulch. If you time it right, you can schedule it at the same time you need to replenish the mulch anyway.

You guys are also correct that it's not enough. You also need some chemical fertilizer at strategic points during the growing season (between flushes - more in Spring, less in summer heat and stop on Labor Day). That promotes the best steam, leaf, and consequently, flower size growth.

I start off the season with organic intentions. I'll scratch in rose-tone once a month, and toss around some alfalfa pellets and manure throughout the beds. I don't mulch until around Memorial Day since I'm usually planting seedlings around that time.

Then as summer heats up, we get busy, all sort of creepy insects start hanging out in the beds, and things really fill in, it isn't as easy to meandre around scratching in rose-tone. At that point, I usually realize I'm way off schedule, so I start using MG.

Since my roses are mixed into beds with other shrubs and plants, I think this August I may experiment with MG Bloom Booster on my spring flowering shrubs since they'll be developing flower buds at that time.

I do like a mix of organic and chemicals. Though I really do prefer the organics, they seem to work better in the spring and early summer when we have a lot of rain. Things get dryer in the summer, and since I'm watering anyway, I figure I might as well just go for the MG at that time.

One caveat though: We get hit extremely hard by Japanese Beetles around the 4th of July. The little monsters can hang around until October some years. So that is another reason that it doesn't really matter to go around with the organics. The JBs are just going to eat everything anyway. *sigh*

well i put down the rose-tone today and i have mg on hand
wish me luck!

dale