This is good and timely advice, Michael. I bought a soil moisture meter and found out I was watering more than I needed to. Saved me time, energy and money on the water bill. And maybe some roses too if I'd continued to over water them.

Maybe some people who watered this morning or yesterday will go out and give it a poke and tell us if they learned anything.

It rained yesterday and I probed ours today. Plenty of moisture down deep here so all seems good.

Michael, this is what I learned by using a moisture meter today:

A rose that I purchased in a pot and planted a couple of months ago had some yellowed leaves even though I have watered it faithfully. By using the moisture meter I learned that while the soil along the outer perimeter of the rose was moist the root ball was dry; not unusual since often the potting soil has a lot of peat moss that resists wetting once it gets dry. I layed the hose next to the main stem of the rose and let a trickle of water thoroughly wet the root ball.

My little $8.00 moisture meter goes only 8 in. deep, but is invaluable in this drought for checking moisture in the soil in different areas around a plant. It often happens that under the mulch you won't see if water runs off across the top of dry soil to where it isn't really needed, or just runs into a crack in the soil leaving the plant dry.

I also use it to check how deep the water is soaking into our small lawn, since beneath the irrigation the ground is bone dry all the way to the center of the earth -- or so it seems :-)

We had almost an inch and a half of rain several weeks ago (bringing the total up to 3 1/2 inches in the last six months) but the soil was only dampened in the top two inches. I was so surprised I dug a little hole to see and sure enough under the top two inches it was powdery dry.

Michael, do you think it is actually possible to over water roses IF there is good enough drainage? I am not talking about the ethical issue of using up a limited resource or the financial issue of spending unnecessarily on county water, but just of the ability of a rose to function.

Susan

If you have uniform sandy soil and endless drainage (internal soil drainage), I guess there's no way to overwater in the garden.

You can overwater pots because there is always a non-drainable layer in the bottom of a pot that stays saturated unless roots or soil wicking draw it upward. If you water every day or if the plant is over-potted, the bottom layer stays waterlogged. Theoretically a non-drainable layer could develop in the garden if you dug holes in a sandy yard and backfilled with compost or muck. I realize this is counter-intuitive. You can find an explanation of "hanging water table" at the Container forum.

Below is a link to a post concerning the non-draining layer in pots of which Michael speaks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Water Movement and Retention - Container Forum

Thanks for that link. I read through all of Al's posts last year and even purchased all of the ingredients for making his "gritty mix", but somehow I lost steam when it came to hauling the 100# bag of silica sand around and having to put everything on a perfect feeding schedule (since the mediums have no nutrient value of their own)

However, everything he had to say made excellent sense, and I'm wondering if anyone is using his mix to grow roses in pots?

Susan

Waving hello to Michael. As always you provide good information.

Hello, dear Patricia! How good to see your name.

found a great moisture meter /probe here

a very valuable tool!

http://www.amazon.com/Alien-Soil-Probe-Container-Interior/dp/B00MHN14O4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438842155&sr=8-1&keywords=soil+probe+interior

This year we have similar conditions to what I described in 2011 (drought with extra heat), but I haven't followed my own advice. I just kept watering as I do in normal summers. Consequently I have some roses that haven't grown at all since the first flush was deadheaded. These are in areas with relatively shallow, light soil over rock.

I am watching a new garden with deep heavy soil that looks awful--just raw clay fill dirt--but roses there are growing well despite the heat and with only weekly watering.

Our local nursery guy says a piece of rebar bent at the top should go in 10-12 inches in garden soil that is properly waterd. I can get mine in about 8-10 6 hours after watering so I feel that's pretty good. My soils clay though and it holds onto the water but it makes it hard to push the rebar for a small gal like me.

Kitty, sounds like you have a knowledgeable nursery guy. If you could find a rod with a smoother texture, it would work better.

Do you really not have rocks in your soil? That's a really strange concept for me. Even the beds that have been dug up and cleared of large rocks still have a lot of pebbles, so anything stuck in the ground like a probe has a decent chance of hitting something hard.

Thanks Michael. And Mad, no rocks here. Susan in Nashville

This is excellent advice. Especially since sometimes the water just doesn't go where it's needed. Sometimes very dry soil repels water and although you think it's soaking it, it may not be. I think I'll go get one today.