I have tried it Betsy, for both spring and autumn feeds.
I love it! The roses are thriving with lots of strong growth and are continous bloom machines. Even several roses that were on death row have sprung to life and are looking sensational. I have ceased to use foliar feeds this year as I found that whilst they promoted lush growth it was very soft, so Sudden Impact and lucerne mulch is all they have received this season. My roses have never looked better. I have around 150 bushes and found the 10kg bucket was enough to cover them all.

Wow, melda, I'm sold. Thanks! Especially taken with the soft growth issue, beacuse I'm a no-spray gardener, and the trick is alway getting the damn rosies to grow, and grow fast, without too much collateral damage to thin membranes from the usual fungal and entomological suspects.

Does this stuff have seaweed in it, or do I continue with Seasolly-type products? I can look all this up, of course, but lazy today.

Betsy, I look at Sudden Impact as sort of the meat and veges of fertilisers, whereas something like Charlie Carp as a dessert/snack. I use Seasol as a tonic not a food source. It is a root stimulant, and works wonders on newly planted and ailing plants.
I think you will be pleased with Sudden Impact. It has been trialled by Rose Societies of SA, NSW and VIC and been given the thumbs up. I read somewhere I think (senior moment coming on!)that some additions have been made to the product to suit each states indiviual conditions.

Interesting how we anthropomorphosise (well, YOU try to spell it) fertilisers. I see Seasol as the perfect stock base that feeds the soil and sets the garden scene, Miracle-Gro as the meat that enriches it, Fish Fert as the vegetables that add flavour and vitamins, and epsom salts as the herbs that add the depth.

Soemone just reminded us all somewhere in these messages that fertilser isn't food per se - photosynthesis provides the food - but I persist in my childish analogies. In any case, Sudden Impact sounds like my kind of "recipe" ;-)))

Hi, I have used sudden impact twice this year (without using other fertilizer); there are more strong new growth and flowers but some of my roses (say Peace, Q. Elizabeth, Marlyn & Mother's Love) seems to become more prone to black spot (but my David Austin Roses doesn't seems to have such problems). I don't know whether it's my "illusion" or not; may be it's all due to the hot summer this year and nothing to do with the "Sudden Impact". Any advice?

Betsy
If you grow roses in Foxground (were you moving to there at least part time?) you will not need it - here (which is similar) the occasional manures and/or compost [with burnt tree limbs for potash] are enough to produce wonderful blooming. I do not use any fertilisers as they are simply not needed ("if it's not broke ....") and they cost when you have a lot of roses in $ and time.

I heard about it on the radio and thought I'd give it a go. I was shocked to see the price but I must say it did my roses good. Lots more growth and a few more flowers. Is it worth it? I am still out on this one. Some days I think yes and others .....

Sudden Impact is the only fertilizer that I use. After all it covers everything that they need. I buy it in a 40kg bag. Much cheaper.

Where do you get it from? What type of stores?

Thanks

Brissy

Bunnings stock it as do most garden centres.

Brissy Qld.
I am a member of the S.A. Rose Society and they buy Sudden Impact for members twice a year. It costs $35 dollars for 40kg. In the shops it costs almost that much for a 10kg bucket.

Just be careful with Sudden Impact if your roses are in pots. I lost a couple after fertilizing with Sudden Impact in spring when the new growth was starting. I think that it was a bit, Ok quite a lot, stronger than the Dynamic Lifter I was used to using. I am being very careful with it now!

Kevarose, you have a magnificent country garden, I have a white-trash pot ghetto at Foxground at the moment! Poor South Coast roses are like the weekender also-rans; hope to get them in the ground before next Spring, though. Still will be city gardeners on a ountry patch, hwoever, - sorta our version of Green Acres, minus the pig. But you are right: I must get into a more local method of fertilising. I must admit, though, that I love all this packaged junk.

Which brings me to Lizzie's point. Finished reading the instructions on SI, and the manufacturers do have a big caveat on using their product with bare roots - as in DON"T DO IT! So I will try the stuff out after the first flush, I think.

Betsy

You have such a way with words. Regardless of how large or small the land your weekend is on, Foxground is very rich soil and with a bit of manure, you will be surprised how little else you need to do, especially if you also have plenty of natives to bring all the birds. There are lots of cow and horse paddocks around there but even if you don't have the time to go and cajole some from a farmer (and with your way with words I am sure you would charm most) you can always buy cow manure in a bag at the local rural supplies in Berry - they also have bales of hay by the way at good prices - Old Creamery Lane just past the Berry Sourdough bakery. They have red clover hay at only $13 a bale which I buy for my ponies as a sometimes treat - it makes jet black manure and I wonder if it is good for gardens. It would be easier to spread than lucerne as it is very loose. They also have garden lucerne by the bale for about the same price.

We have bought and fed some of our roses with SI. Too early to see results yet but at $15 per kg, it's very dear. Does anyone in Vic know where to get it cheaper? We got it a Bunnings in Berwick. K-Mart here don't stock it.

I rejected the idea of buying this on price. Yes it does seem to have the right ingredients, but Sudden Impact has no monopoly on that claim. A varied diet of other products (all cheaper) is superior.

For that kind of money the best job Sudden Impact seems to do is fleece the buyers! (no disrespect intended to those who bought it).

I tried it and was impressed. But at an old rose conference in England, the Frenchwoman who grows 000s of wonderful old roses in Lyons swore by nothing but lots of potash and mulch! Just thought: she must be on alkaline soil there - but then the Brits all swear by tomato food for roses and it is high in potash. Sudden Impact is EXPENSIVE...but it certainly delivers results

I saw this Sudden Impact in the big bucket at Banksia Nursery in Wantirna and it was so expensive I just walked away and though, no, roses are tough, they couldn't need THAT much money spent on them !!! I was about to try Dynamic Lifter - about $8 or $9 for a bag about 3kgs I think, just at Safeway but haven't bought it, not yet anyway. I just mix bagged organic compost with potting mix and slow release fertilizer when putting the rose in the ground, then use Rose Fertilizer (pellets) in spring and summer to assist flowering. So far, so good.
Janine

I was also trying to find something unique and good for feeding roses, but ended up with my own solution. I use the mix and treatment of:

- two different slow release fertilisers (one for new roses, one for established roses)
- dynamic lifter
- liquid fish & seaweed food
- manure (sheep, cow)
- epsom salt
- traces of primary, secondary and other necessary elements

I vary the amount of each ingredient according to season and rose's overall condition. I have a calendar in my shed and make all notes there so I know when the time comes for certain food and/or treatment.

Plus, when planting them, I also remove all the poor soil and replace it completely.

So far, I'm very, very pleased with results. I believe this give roses variety of food and tastes and it seems they just love it. They all grow and bloom like mad.

I find this to be much cheaper but also more versatile.

- Tom

Sounds expensive. They use it at Flemington I believe so it must work well. I think I would rather go Tom's way though. I would prefer to go completely organic but keeping the organic matter up to them is a problem - and hard work, so I try to alternate between the two. One thing I have noticed with my own roses is that extra potash is necessary in one form or another - either in a Fruit or Flower fertilizer or just potash mixed in with Blood & Bone or used solubly with manure teas. ( I'm a miser and make teas instead of using Charlie Carp!) The blooms are much bigger and there are more of them. I've noticed that the complete citrus and rose foods which I believe are similar, don't produce the same effect as Fruit & Flower. I read somewhere that potassium deficiency makes rose more vulnerable to fungal disease too.
What slow release foods do you use Tom?
And has anyone use plant tablets?

I have used many things over the years on my roses, but must admit my roses have been SENSATIONAL this year using Sudden Impact. However we have had a alot of rain this year, so not sure whether this has influenced the flower production. I have used it on pots, in small amounts and have never had so many flowers. Where is a cheap place to purchase this product??
Bronwyn

I was told to use SI by a lady who runs a rose nursery and she's pretty honest, I've yet to try it as I have newly started growing roses and she recommended letting them get established first and just use stuff like seamungus amongst other things until they are. I have heard Qld rose society recommends it as well..

At the moment, I just switched to Yates 'Dynamic Lifter advance for roses'. It's a couple dollars cheaper than Sudden Impact, and supposedly, has a greater percentage of N:P:K than Sudden Impact. I will keep you up dated in the fall. Hoping my roses have autumn flush.

I'm waiting to run out of my other rose fertiliser (forget what it is, some yates thing I think) before I buy Sudden Impact...but in the interim i've been boosting my roses with a neighbour's worm juice. Good god, don't they LOVE it. I'm growing in subtropical Australia (byron bay), on the beach (yep), but in pots...so there's plenty to combat...but really this Worm Juice is really causing them to thrive. Maybe I wont even need SUdden Impact? ...or maybe I'll combine the worm juice feeds iwth Sudden Impact and win all the rose awards in the world? We'll see...

The Rose Societies recommend Sudden Impact because the get paid to endorse it the did no testing before endorsing it.
If Flemington use it they would be getting it far cheaper than the exorbitant price they charge us.
I use Yarra Complex 20kg bag from Landmark and potash to harden the soft shoots.

I'm perfectly happy with the results I get from my mixture of blood 'n bone, fowl manure, sheep manure, dolomite lime, all mixed in a bucket with a handfull or two of sulphate of potash. Covers my dozen roses and they thrive on it - heaps of full flush blooms and very healthy foliage.