Without doing a whole lot of experimenting, I think by far your best bet with a commercial rose fertilizer is to just follow the package directions. But.... if you are applying other fertilizers at the same time, anything that supplies some NPK, then you have to make adjustments. The easiest adjustments to make are when all your fertilizers come with instructions for roses. Then applying fractional amounts of the recommended amounts for each fertilizer, where the sum of the fractions totals 1, should be your best bet (it occurs to me that the above sounds a little bit like a Sheldon Cooper summary).

So, what's wrong with a "Sheldon Cooper summary"? LOL! (Great show, one of the few which keeps me laughing from start to finish!)

As Mike said, do what the label tells you to do. As for how long to do it, how long do you want your roses to push growth and flowers? If you experience freezes there, I'd stop fertilizing with it six to eight weeks before you want them to stop pushing softer, easily freezeable growth, if that's a word? Kim

Campanula...

That was kind of nasty. I think you could have made your point better by suggesting another company that produces rose food that would work as well.

I do agree that I do not want to support Scotts ... I also do not want to spend the time and effort to make tea. I am already working too hard in this garden.

I know that when I was a newbie, I didn't understand how to grow roses well enough to also research the fertilizers or how organic fertilizers worked. There's a learning curve and with time, I know I have wanted to move away from using the chemical fertilizers. I also know that I have poor soil and the rule-of-thumb is that it takes about 10 years to build viable soil when you are starting out with the kind of soil I have in my garden. Yes, I am making raised beds and getting better soil in those areas is easy compared to working with poor soil.

My roses are starting to pop !

Smiles,
Lyn

Well, I wasn't promoting any brand at all. As with ANY product, use whatever the concentration and at whichever interval they recommend. That's why they print the danged instructions in the first place. I know, what a concept! Kim

I also don't want to make the tea and have found that alfalfa meal works quite well, especially since I water by hand. I water the soil first, pour about a cup of meal over the middle of the plant, and then water it in well. In a week I can see quite a bit of new growth so I know it's working. I just feel much more comfortable using organic products, and don't spray for insects or disease. With the right kind of roses for your area that's very doable and also cheaper and a lot less work.

For our new roses, just planted this year, we have been using fish emulsion. They seem to like it, so do the dogs when I get in....is that the harbor I smell.....

(oh and it is supposed to be applied monthly)

There are other brands of fertilizers but I do know they are getting harder and harder to find. Miracle Grow has sort of cornered the market and in most of the places around here it's the only one the stores carry. I like Peter's too but I have to order it now because no one has it any more. The other one that I use is the Spray n Grow products. What ever fertilizer you use always read the label and follow all of the directions carefully.

You don't say where you live but in zone 6 you should probably stop using any fertilizers by the end of August so that your roses can begin to wind down and go dormant for winter. If you fertilize late into the season you will get a lot of tender new growth that will not have enough time to harden off before winter sets in. All of that will die over the winter and the rose may not have stored enough energy to come back next spring because it spent it all producing that new growth.

Schulz powdered fertilizer is similar to MG and cheaper. It doesn't have to be "for roses." Nutrients are nutrients and all normal plants have similar requirements.

Yeah, you are right. Roseblush. I am hanging my head right now, Kaine. So sorry.
I ought to know when to keep my lip buttoned but some things just cause the red mist to start vibrating in front of my eyes.
No excuse though.

Zone 6, NJ. I normally give a feeding to the roses first, then my other bushes on the same 2-3 week cycle so I dont forget, etc.

If you can find Vigoro, it's nearly identical to the MG product and a whole dollar less expensive for the same size at Home Depot locally. Peters is also nearly identical. Whatever is least expensive is the best, honestly. Fortunately, roses (and other plants) can't read! Kim

I use Osmocote for roses, and do this in the spring, and am beginning to think I need to do more. I hate to say, but of my 200 or so roses, only the 'all the timers' (old blush, la marne, pinkie...while good roses) are the only ones blooming right now. It is that lull after first blush, and I think I might take some of this recommendation for myself!

Starting to see that I am all about amassing more, and not taking good enough care of what I have got!! (hangs head in shame) :)

campanula ... thanks for understanding. I've learned a lot from you and respect you as a true plantswoman. I, too, see red when I think about what Scotts knowingly did and took all of the documentation to my garden club today to spread the word. I am also going to take a copy to the person who orders supplies for our garden center up here in the mountains to see if she can order a different brand of rose food. (It's a small store with limited shelf space, but there's no harm in asking.)

Ingrid ... someday I will have soil that is good enough where alfalfa meal will be enough to feed the roses. I am still working on building the soil.

Kim and others, thanks for the brand suggestions. I'll take those to the manager of the garden center, too.

Smiles,
Lyn

One thing that I buy by the bagfuls is composted Chicken Manure. Everything in my garden loves it - you can see the results in just a week or so. I apply it generously & have never had any negative effects from it (except for the temporary smell).

I used to use the chemical feeds and then gradually changed to more and more natural ones when I saw the difference it made with my soil. The chemical feeds are quicker and easier but the natural ones last longer and I never have to worry about the quality of the soil degrading over time. My advice, use what you bought and then slowly shift over to the organic stuff for the long term gain.

Somebody gave me a partial tub of EZ feed once from Rosemania and wow did I get roses from that stuff!

A gent who sells a product that enhances foliar feeding recommended Peters, or others, over Miracle-Gro though he says his product will work with Miracle-Gro also.

I have used Miracle-Gro, Algoflash, Vigoro, Shultz,(Mom like Shultz) Peters and others, sadly I used them depending on which container was handy at the moment, so there is no comparing.
They all work.
Use what makes your heart happiest, though my MG days may be over from what I have heard/read these past few days.

I've used Miracle-gro products with excellent results, but after getting a soil test, I switched to Scotts 32-0-4 Lawn Fertilizer--it is much cheaper when you need to feed over 200 bushes. No sense spending money on phosphorous if your soil doesn't need it. The plants are huge this year--they don't seem to mind the cheaper product. I found that I can quickly apply it with a handheld rotary spreader. Much faster than mixing liquid fertilizer. I've been refining my rose gardening to be faster and cheaper.

I typically use Mills Easy Feed, but since I'm becmong more of a slacker, the organic fertilizers work best for me, in particulat Espoma Rose-tone or Holly-tone (applied 2 - 3 times/year). I would be a little wary of applying MG every 2 weeks due to the amount of nitrogen.

Also, as others have said, "roses can't read", they don't know "rose food" from any other fertilizer, so don't spend any extra $$ just because it is labeled "for roses". Fertilizer is fertilizer. Some of the water soluble fertilizers have more trace minerals (I think Peters is one) than others.

And, if you can read, sometimes can't find any difference between the products, other than the name and pictures on the box!

I use Neptune's Harvest fish emulsion and Espoma's Rose Tone. However, one year I ran out of the Rose Tone and gave the roses tomato food. They loved it!

When you get down to it, there are really only about three basic types of fertilizers. Acidic, where nitrogen is the highest nutrient, significantly higher than the other two (citrus, camellia, azalea, rhododendron, gardenia and lawn); "tomato type" (rose and flower food, vegetables) where the phosphorus (middle number) is highest to stimulate flowering (other things, too, but primary one is flowering); and all purpose where all three are pretty even across the range. A 15-30-15 is fine for most vegetables and flowering plants which don't require the acidic pH. Acidic food, say 10-5-5, would be fine for acid loving plants as well as palms, grasses, bamboo, citrus and other acid lovers. To be able to sell more product, manufacturers make the all purpose which works fairly OK on most everything. Altering any one of the numbers gives extra stimulation to encourage various performances, but usually really aren't required. A Super Bloom, 0-10-10 promotes more flowering and fruiting at the expense of growth where nitrogen would stimulate growth.

Read the guaranteed analysis, including the various trace minerals and you will see just how similar most are. Some of the higher priced ones may perform a bit better due to what the source of the nutrients is, but for the most part, unless you're feeding something sensitive to the type of nutrient (for instance, Phalaenopsis orchids and blueberries which are sensitive to particular forms of nitrogen and require specific types) it honestly doesn't matter a whole lot where the nutrient is derived. Find out the specifics for the plants you're feeding and you can eliminate most of the types of fertilizers you buy. "Specialization" permits marketers to formulate and sell half a dozen products tailored for specific plants, when all you really need are the one or two types for most situations. And, most often, paying less for them won't materially alter the performance you'll see in your garden. Kim