Val: I went over this thread a 2nd time, really like the variety of flowers you have. Pink Drift is a French Meilland rose (my favorite). I like to learn from others .. like Khalid uses chicken manure in his compost ... How do you fertilize your roses to achieve so many blooms in hot climate & sandy soil? Plus your foliage look healthy too. Northwestrider made this comment in HMF:

" Pink Drift scored 8.75 in 2010 Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden trials.

http://www.nybg.org/gardens/rose-garden/performers-2010.php

*** From Straw: Do you stop fertilizing 1 1/2 month before killing-frost like cold-zoners? I'm tempted to use chicken-manure now, Sept. 7 .. just bought a bag from Ace-hardware that has zero smell .... previous Chickity-doo-doo from Menards reeked to the high heavens !!

Valrose: Your Dame de Coeur, Winter Sunset and Mystic Beauty are really very gorgeous looking. Thanks for sharing these wonderful pics

Hi Straw, I'm not much into fertilizing. I really go for getting and keeping organic material in my soil. Once the organics is composted and then start breaking down, they release the nutrients needed for healthy growth. I do this with a deep mulch. Its really the lazy person's fertilizing method. When I am starting a new bed, I apply fresh manures to the mulch around the roses, we raise chickens, sheep and cows so I have a very large supply. I add the manures to speed the decomposition of the mulch but I'm sure that the added nitrogen helps feed the roses too. When a bed is really new and the foliage is not a good dark green, I will fertilize with Milorganite or a slow release fertilizer to help the plants through the first year.

The Drift rose series is very popular here, we don't do well with Carpet Roses, so its about the only groundcover roses that we can grow. The amount of blooms that Drift roses produce make it a good rose for a summer color splash, almost on par with a bed of annuals. It hard to find annuals that can make it through our summers, so the Drifts fill a landscaping niche in Florida. While they are very resistant to blackspot, often the foliage has lots of Cercospora spotting.

I am very envious of some of the beautiful roses that you and others on this forum grow, but with my rose growing techniques, I need to stick with the healthiest and most vigorous of varieties that are adapted to my climate.

My fertilizer producers.

VAL: They are so CUTE !! Best pics. ever. Those cute animals made my day. Thank you !!

Came back to admire the cute animals ... are they all sheep or is there a brown baby cow in above pics? Sheep are the nicest-looking animals .. that's the 1st time I see them with less furry coat. My husband used to a white/black cat, he named it "cowlit" for "little cow".

About Milorganite: I have 2 bad experiences with that in my garden. I decided to go Organic for my lawn and put that in my Scott-rotary-spreader, the granules clogged up the spreader and broke it. So I had to buy another $40 spreader. Milorganite is high in phosphorus, so weeds on my lawn doubled in blooms and weeds spread like wildfire. So I spent hours pulling the weeds until my hands broke out in months-long rash.

That year I also tested Milorganite in pots for my 4 bands from Heirloom Roses. They broke out in blackspots from the high-phosphorus, which suppress zinc (an anti-fungal), plus they were stingy, since zinc is essential for blooming. Then they came down with mildew from the salt in Milorganite. That's my worst year on the record for roses in pots, despite using the ideal potting soil.

When Khalid asked me a question about shifting roses to the blue zone. I did some research and found that high-phosphorus shifts roses to the red-zone, but high-potassium shifts roses to the blue-zone. I tried UP the sulfate of potash NPK 0-0-50 Stephen Big purple, and yes, Stephen became bluish-purple, rather than raspberry-red. The link also stated that UP the phosphorus will DOWN the potassium. Thus if phosphorus is given, MORE potassium is needed, since phosphorus and potassium compete for the same absorption site in plants.

My best year for pots is with blood meal NPK 12-0-0, much higher in nitrogen than Milorganite NPK of 5-2-0. U. of Kentucky experiment with green house plants, using Peter's Soluble 20-10-20 came 1st, with Organic Omega 6-6-6 came in close second .. strictly based on the weight of flowers & plants.

But when I look at the pics. of their marigolds, Omega 6-6-6 look healthier & better-looking blooms. Organic Omega 6-6-6 is blood meal, bone meal, and sulfate of potash. Since roses need only 1/10 of phosphorus compared to nitrogen and potassium, I simply used blood meal and sulfate of potash, plus gypsum (for calcium) for my pots last year, resulting in the healthiest growth, even after the snow hit. Zero blackspots, zero mildew even with the cheap Sta-green potting soil that killed most of my rootings.

Valrose: your farm is so fascinating. I wish I could have one like this.

best regards

The brown animal in the foreground of the second photo is a sheep. These are breed called Katadin, they are hair sheep, no wool. The cows are a half size breed called Dexter. The donkey is a breed called Mammoth and she is horse size.

We have had bad experience with Milorganite in pots also. In pots we use a slow release non organic fertilizer that is similar to Osmicote. It is called Agricote and performs well for us.

I'd like to try blood meal in the pots. One question though, do you think that it will attract dogs?

Val, thanks for the info .. I like those cute animals.

I checked on Agricote: "Agrocote products are 100% N or 100% K fully coated products. They are based on Everris’ Poly S technology which provides longevity of up to 6 months for both potassium and nitrogen products. "

It sounds better than Osmocote. I tested Osmocote on my basil in pots, didn't work well in poor-drainage pots. When I researched on potassium, I found that it's not released from soil unless there's good drainage plus oxygen to roots. My clay is high in potassium, but in poor-drainage & compact clay, roses still break out in blackspots.

Blood meal will attract animals (dogs, raccoons, possums) if NOT watered in immediately. One time I mixed blood-meal with top-soil, and spread around Barcelona rose in the front. I forgot to water that in, and animal dug up the dirt .. didn't harm the rose, but made a slight mess on the sidewalk.

From that time on, I always water well after blood-meal application, and no problems with pets. Blood meal has iron, which works with nitrogen for fast green-up. Calcium helps with nitrogen-uptake, so I use blood meal together with calcium: as in lime or Azomite for BS-prone roses, or gypsum for pale roses. The ratio I use is 4 part blood meal at NPK 12-0-0, 2 part lime or gypsum, and 1 part sulfate of potash at NPK 0-0-50.

Hi Straw. I'll trial some blood-meal in my pots, thanks for the info.

Hi Kahlid . We moved to the ranch about 3 years ago and I love it. I need to be careful though, now I have unlimited space for gardens, I don't want my gardens to grow too large. I am finished expanding flower beds for a while.