"Clip off most of the buds"?

Yes, no need to clip off the buds.

If you are able to water enough to sustain growth, you should be fertilizing for a peak in bloom during the fall, and again when growth starts in spring.

but aren't you supposed to pinch off the buds the for a while when the plants are new?

So I should fertilize now for them to bloom later this fall? or should I wait till next year when they're more settled.

if I fertilize now, what should I be using?

Well, after 7 months they should be big enough to have a blossom or two. I hardly do that pinching though, unless the plant really is a small stick. I think sometimes that just pisses the plant off, it thinks that something is eating its blooms and tries to produce more...

I usually do 2 applications of some root-growth-encouraging fertilizer after planting and then normal routine of about 2-3 fertilization a year (make that 4 for you with longer growth season). The rest kind of depends what you want the plant to do, I like slow release fertilizers and always pick those that can not cause the burn.

Miracle-growth-kind for chemical, alfalfa tea for natural so far are my fav., but the later stench is really of epic proportion... and by that I really mean EPIC LEGENDARY FOUL STENCH - and I change baby diapers on daily basis, so I do have something to compare it with. :D

Yep, even cat poo is a fragrant comparison!

so basically, now I should be using Miracle-growth-kind OR alfalfa tea on all the roses. I can do that.
Should I do the ones I planted just a couple months ago...? or just the ones that have been in the ground for 6-7 months? I just don't want to do the wrong thing and stress the plant out or burn the plant.

Thanks you guys!

I guess I'll stop pinching buds then?

Nobody here can know what is in your soil. Effective fertilization depends on adding exactly what, if anything is needed. How do your plants look, are they nice and green?

Most of them are growing a lot in the last month or three and are green and happy looking.

My Reine des Violettes (which is a tiny band) dropped all it's leaves though and never has been happy since I planted it, even though I tried to up the acid in that one area since my soil is alkaline.

A few of the roses have a little bit of brown on the tips, but I think this might be due to the strange heat spike we had a week or three ago. (it went from 70 to 110, and now it's back down to 75 degrees F again)
But even those, other than that, the leaves are green and they look pretty happy I guess?

If I need to, I can take some photos later.

When I planted them originally I put an allpurpose natural fertilizer in as well as some chicken manure and some bone meal, I think, if I can remember right.

I don't know your soil. Personally I don't use chemical fertilizers on my garden on any kind of regular basis. I might add something if I saw chlorosis, but I would try to tailor it to the problem deficiency. (In my garden that is likely to be high pH.) Otherwise, a yearly organic fertilizer plus generous organic mulch supplies all the nutrition my ornamentals need. The veggies get a second or third application, and some years a green manure crop as well, but that is because they are annuals that I keep harvesting and depleting.

Basically, fertilizer is like vitamins: if the plants are eating well in the soil, they don't need it. I, too, use only organic fertilizers. If I'm organized, the get it spring and fall equinoxes. But there have been years when they get nothing at all and do just fine. My RdeV looked like a starving kitten left out in the rain for the first three years, then she suddenly took off. She was planted in my best bed and everyone else was fine. If I knew why one plant didn't do well and others did or vise-versa, I would be so rich and popular I wouldn't have to work for a living.

aimee, as far as pinching the buds goes, there are those who do and those who don't. Experienced rosarians like Jeri do pinch buds on bands, with the idea that the energy that would be put in bloom production will go toward leaves. I have noticed though that on some of my roses where I pinch off the buds they seem to be producing new ones like crazy. The only fertilizer I use is alfalfa meal, which I pour on top of the plant and then water in thoroughly. I don't use the tea because it's too much work, although I think I've read that if you prepare it properly it doesn't have that bad smell. The alfalfa meal is just easier. If your bands have at least doubled in size I would apply about half a cup of alfalfa meal per rose. I'm no expert, though, and others may disagree. It's difficult to get a consensus on anything because we all tend to do things differently. The best thing is to try out what's comfortable for you and see how the roses respond. I personally use nothing chemical, whether it's fertilizer or any disease control method. Basically I just keep the roses that are healthy and bloom well with just water, leaf mulch and alfalfa meal.

Ingrid

Use one of the "Tones" for rose food--Rose Tone, or Holly Tone, or Plant Tone. They have lots of organic stuff in them, including some alfalfa. Follow directions for amounts on the bag.

Kate

Since you have a very young garden, I think your soil probably isn't self-sustaining yet. I would feed with one of the Tones now and really pile on the compost. As you add more and more compost and mulch over the years, your soil will get better. In your rainy season you might lose nutrients faster unless you have clay. That would be nice.

Sherry

Well aimee there really are loads of different brands of fertilizers, as well as quite some natural recipes (some even go as far as using human hair as fertilizer - no kidding, there was a thread about that in Beales forums).

There also are quite a few organic fertilizer brands - I am not familiar with US ones, but I am sure there are some. I like them, because they most of the time are not likely to cause burns and you can't go wrong with concentration, etc. - at least if you do not pour whole bag for 1 rose, when it is meant to be used for 20.

Professional nurseries however often use Miracle Growth and similar slow release fertilizers, because they are more cost efficient and are tad better to achieve a nicer plant during its early years. It is really a choice you make, to follow organic with zeal, or try other methods as well.

Aimee, the garden writer for the LA Times, Robert Smaus, wrote a book called 52 Weeks in the CA Garden in which he claimed that fertilizing with expensive chemical fertilizers was a waste of money in So Cal because our alkaline water and soils do not allow much uptake of the potassium and whatever that other stuff is(magnesium?) in the formulas.

If you can get good quality organic compost that is a safe and effective way to fertilize roses and it will help with your clay soil.

Renee