Organic fertilizers are broken down into the compounds that plant roots can actually absorb via microbial action--the microbes being present in the soil. In colder weather, the microbial action slows waaaaay down, so your organic fertilizers are not going to be breaking down quickly in winter, and won't be doing much for the plants until spring when the soil warms up again.

Thanks for your response hoovb. I was also thinking about "the problem" that you mentioned that organic fertilizers are not breaking down so quickly in winter and won't be really accessible for the Tea roses before the soil warms up again. That's why I asked what organic fertilizer people are using, if any. I am wondering if organic liquid fertilizer like fishemulsion/seaweed stuff would work at this time of the year.

Still I am pondering the question in general: does is make sense to fertilize Tea roses during the winter? Do you hoovb or others here on GardenWeb do it using organic or other fertilizer? Any input is greatly appreciated.

Christina

Christina, I deliberately did not fertilize after October because I was afraid of the freezes we get killing off the new growth. Little did I know we'd already have several freezing nights (and even hard freezes) by mid-December! These tea roses are still and always growing, and you don't get freezing temps, so I would think you should feed them with something, maybe Milorganite. I have read that in Florida we should fertilize monthly and in winter months with a half dose, because the roses do need it. The slower activity of the microbes will limit the amount of food the plant gets, but with your warmer winter temps I would think they'd get some benefit, and then as soon as the soil starts warming up in the spring their breakfast will be waiting for them. I would think the liquids would face the same limitation because everything has to get converted by the microbes.

Sherry

Give them a hit of Miracle-Gro if they look completely exhausted and you can't stand the sight of them. But...January is two weeks away. Why bother at this point?

However from these early rains, they should perk up. Rainwater seems to be the best fertilizer of all--I'm getting some stunning roses now courtesy of the rains of October. I don't fertilize much, once in spring if they are lucky.

How old are your Teas? They can take quite a few years to get established and bloom well.

Christina,

I am not really in your area so I hesitated to answer at first. Where I am, blooms in winter are more dependent on maturity of a rose (and perhaps type of rose) and the weather (rain+freeze=balled blooms). Some of my roses are still blooming quite well, others have a crop of horrible balled blooms, and others still have gone dormant. I don't think I could change any of that with fertilizer.

Hoovb, that made me think. Once in spring if they are lucky? Are you using a lot of compost in addition to fertilizer? I have been thinking about scaling down fertilizer application because fall bloom especially seems to be more a function of how much water they have been getting, rather than fertilizer, but I haven't yet become brave enough.

Masha

I actually enjoy my roses much more in the fall and winter because of the heat factor here. I realized I wasn't fertilizing nearly enough last year because of my sandy soil. Even the organics seem to go straight through in a very short period of time. I started fertilizing once a month with organics and continue right through December, then stop, as our first freezes are usually in January. However, as Sherry stated, we have had freezes in December this year, so I didn't fertilize in December. The monthly applications made a huge difference in the growth rate of my roses and the amount of bloom.

When the first freeze was looming, I cut all the blooms and had vases full all over the house. It smelled amazing and was just a pleasure to have that many blooms in the house. I normally don't cut that many because I enjoy them so much in the garden. So far, none of the new growth seems to have been damaged. I had a lot of damage last year to new growth, but it was a very unusual winter here.

Hoov, isn't that the truth. Roses love rainwater. I try to use rain water in barrels exclusively, but we had a horrible hot dry summer and I ran out :). But we had a very rainy September and a warmish fall, so I was rewarded with a very nice fall flush, especially from the teas, which just finished a few weeks ago when we finally had a hard freeze. I had many blooms frozen solid on the canes!

I think I should get more rain barrels.

I fertilize my Tea roses in early to mid- October because I know they will bloom from early November through mid-December, in the San Francisco Ca, Bay area. It is Dec. 17 and they are all in full bloom as if it were May

Luxrosaa

Hoovb, that made me think. Once in spring if they are lucky? Are you using a lot of compost in addition to fertilizer?

Yes, as much compost as I can give them.

Amen to rain barrels, Buford!

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