I feed them with Mills Magic once every 2-3 months, depending on if company is coming or not, ha ha. We also have sand for soil and doesn't hold the nutrients well, so I'm sure you have real dirt for soil.
Nancy

3/4 cup of RT once a month is very generous feeding. Label recommendations are always generous, for the obvious reasons. If you go much over label recommendations, or apply the labelled amount to an unusually small area, you risk damaging the plants.

I usually do one cup of RT per month per plant, a little less for the minis and smaller own roots. If I have Mills Magic Mix, then one cup per plant twice a season. Liquid seaweed in every fungicide spray, which this year has been, um, three. I have some Mills Easy Feed, that will be applied either Wednesday afternoon or early next week.

Potted roses I feed monthly with half strength water soluble, a different thing every month starting about now. Roses in the ground I don't feed. I work off soils tests. If the soils is mature and needs nothing, I only feed a little calcium nitrate in early spring. If the soil is a young garden soil and still being developed, I develop the soil.

I throw a handful or two of rosetone under them when I remember. Probably about every six weeks...though I SHOULD do it monthly.

Hey, what can I say. I'm a darwinian gardener.

I use Rose-Tone, too. I give them about 1/2 -1 cup per rose (depending on size of plant) 3x a year: in late April or May (same time as I give epsom salt, to get the new growth going); at the end of June or early July, after spring flowering; and in mid-late August. Don't fertilize too long after August so you don't have new growth coming out when it's turning cold (altho I guess that's less of a problem where you live than it is here in Michigan). You can also skip the June/ July feeding -- I find it's more important to water than to fertilize in the summer heat anyway.

I also understand the temptation to fertilize a lot, but if you wanna do that, use compost. Remember that fertilizers eventually make their way into the groundwater. You want to keep that to a minimum. In the long run, compost is better for the plants and the soil than fertilizer.

Where are you folks buying this rosetone at? I have never seen it here.Been looking but no luck yet.

Jean

In our Memorial Garden downtown, we feed granular fertilizer once a month during the blooming season. Here at the house where all my roses are in pots, I feed some sort of soluble every two weeks throughout the blooming season.

Jean, Espoma doesn't have distribution much past the Mississippi River (they are slowly getting there). I think Dr. Earth would be a close equivalent for the western states. You can also take a look at Espoma's web page the the product and try to match it with something available locally.

Here is a link that might be useful: Espoma Rose-tone

I spent much money to use a 4 month timed release fertilizer for all my roses and now I find myself with anxiety because I really want to feed them and think they should eat SOMETHING (yes, alfalfa was given a month ago, yes, good compost too.)

Susan Tivoli, I think we all understand the compulsion to feed. Maybe they should make placebo fertilizers to keep us from doing damage. But you should probably trust your 4-month stuff.

I guess bone meal would make a good placebo fertilizer. Apply 1 TB over the mulch each month. Repackage in a coffee can that you've labelled "Green Monster Bloom Explosion." ;)

When I'm out in the garden watering/feeding the roses, I laughingly say "EAT, EAT!", all the while pretending I'm an older Italian grandmother trying to fatten up her kids and grandkids with lots of pasta! Must be from something I've seen on tv or the movies, I'm not trying to make fun of Italian people, so hope everyone has a sense of humor. Actually, my sister's mother-in-law (Italian) used to say this whenever we went over to their house years ago. She made the greatest meatballs & sauce, slowcooking them for days. Nobody could escape without eating her ziti & sauce. :0) Phyl

Thing is, we're animals and we think in terms of animal nutrition. If you want to fatten up a baby, you stuff it with custard. But it doesn't work that way with plants. Their energy comes from the sun, by way of chemical fuel manufactured in the leaves, which is the actual plant food. This fuel-- sugar and starch-- contains no fertilizer nutrients at all. It's carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that the plant gets from the air and the water, free. The substance of the plant is over 95% free stuff, cellulose stiffened with water, etc. Fertilizer nutrients are only needed for specialized molecules, spare parts for the machines in the food factory, information systems, and so on.

I got alot of flack for this before. But I know that
you do not need to keep feeding your roses. When I
prune back my winter kill I will use a three month
slow release. Usually Miricle Grow. (Got in trouble for that). It is 10 10 10. (In case I get more flack for that).
In mid August or a little later I will spray everything
in the guarden with MG with a hose feeder. Michaelg makes
a lot of sense to me.

John

I probably exaggerated some-- for example, there's a bit of potassium on the loose in every cell-- but it's basically true. People think of roots as being stuffed with phosphorus, but P doesn't have anything particular to do with root or flower development. P is needed all over the plant in small quantities as part of the information systems and energy-transfer systems, in order for the plant to get anything done. What's stored in roots is not P but sugar and starch. P is prescribed for root vegetables because these plants have small root systems and may have trouble foraging for P in the soil. Extra P is needed only for ripening seed, and we don't have much of that in the rose garden. Actually phosphate is the classic placebo fertilizer because you can use a lot of it without doing any obvious damage.

If you want to feed your roses water,water,water! Roses need water than the food we apply. Organics breaking down in the soil will get to the plants too so to keep it going water!