Fertilize roses, yes or no?
SeniorBalloon
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Fertilizing Roses in Pots
Comments (35)Oops, sorry! I forgot to answer about rose hips. Flowering is ovulation. Hips are pregnancy. Everything in Nature is programmed to reproduce to perpetuate its species before it dies. When a plant flowers, it's simply trying to perpetuate its species. We dead head, cut off the spent flowers, to encourage the plant to continue ovulating in its attempt to reproduce. Most organisms won't continue ovulating when pregnant. What you want from the rose depends upon whether you let it form hips or not. Though I have no personal experience with this, it's often written that in more extreme climates, you permit the plant to form hips to help "shut it down", become more resistant to harsher, colder weather. I've been fortunate (at least to me) to not have lived and grown roses under those harsh conditions. Some write that allowing them to form hips during extremely hot conditions should help slow them down, reducing their water needs, during that extreme heat and water stress. Maybe, but hip formation also increases their water needs to form all that "fruit". It is fruit, distantly related to apples and some other stone fruit, and the hip flesh can be processed and used as people food. Ever notice teas and vitamins which contain "rose hips"? Yup, those. If you desire them for culinary purposes, do not use any systemics on the plants. There are enough toxins out there trying to poison you without your helping! If you want your roses to continue flowering as heavily as the conditions and their genes will allow, just remove the spent flowers as soon as they form and you are able. Allowing them to remain and begin setting hips would have no "benefit" that I can think of and the only down side would possibly be a reduction in their "beauty" to some and a possible slowing of their repeat flowering. If the rose is one whose hips are particularly attractive and you desire them for floral work or landscape ornamentation, let them form. If you want them to help feed the birds or other wildlife over winter, they're great for that purpose, too. Except, hips are VERY attractive to rats, mice and squirrels. If they are an issue where you are, be forewarned. If you are interested in raising new roses from seed, of course you want the hips as they contain the rose seeds. This is one of my seedlings. I have harvested the hips containing seeds from crosses on it I have deliberately made. I want to see if it makes decorative hips to add longer seasonal interest and perhaps provide self set seed to possibly raise to explore what else it may create. Knowing that helps provide information to possibly market it if it's found worthy, as well as direct me whether it is a worthy breeder. This is Basye's Legacy, a thornless, very healthy species hybrid which I've used for breeding. It is primarily once-flowering, though in this climate, it can provide later blooms. It is deciduous, leaving its autumn colored canes with its colorful hips. They look great in Thanksgiving arrangements. Gina's Rose, a Ralph Moore hybrid from Basye's Legacy. Gina repeats but she's also so outrageously fertile, she sets hips all over the plant which require frequent attention to prevent her from fruiting...if you want to prevent them. These are on one of my R. Minutifolia hybrid seedlings. They're pretty and it's rather remarkable it even sets hips and seed. I will raise some of them to see what else is possible from the cross. This is a sister seedling of the Minutifolia hybrid above. This one flowers all spring through fall and sets copious hips, containing very fertile seed. It is the seedling which has permitted second generation Minutifolia hybrids. These are some out back right now and they can be quite pretty. And, yes, you do see spider mite issues in some of the photos because they are an issue here. My conditions will not permit the use of oils of any kind or strength without high levels of foliage and cane burn. Add there are five small dogs of varying ages whose domain is shared by my roses and you can imagine the mess of oily, dirty dogs. Not to mention they eat everything. They LOVE rose hips as to them, they are tomatoes, their FAVORITE treat! I could wash the plants more regularly, but that also makes mud for them to run through, sit in, lay in and definitely walk into the house and on the furniture. If a plant contracts something worse, such as mealy bug, it is moved to an area I can keep the critters out of to be treated by more thoroughly washing until it's clean, when it is returned to its spot. So, if you want something from the hips, let them form. If you want more continuous flowering, remove them. Neither is "wrong" nor "harmful". It just depends upon what you want from the plant. Easy, isn't it? Enjoy!...See MoreFertilizing roses with organic fertilizer
Comments (9)Marlene, ideally I fertilize my roses organically with an organic rose fertilizer (three times a year) and alfalfa meal (2 times a year), since my soil seems to be very poor in terms of nutrients and I have the impression that they leach out quickly, too. I have read, that it is recommended to remove the mulch and put it back after you have applied the fertilizer and scratched it into the soil, but I have never done that. It is just too much of an effort for me. I just scatter the fertilizer around the rose on top of the mulch, scratch it into the mulch, and water it in very well. It seems to work just fine for me. I definitively know what you are talking about regarding that it is sometimes a pain to scratch the fertilizer into the soil and crawl around underneath the rose, to get it close to the center of the root ball, even though I only scratch it into the mulch :-). For that reason I have fertilized some of my roses just once this year! After reading about other people experiences here, I may try to only water the fertilizer in and that's it. I assume, that it might take the fertilizer a little bit longer to act, but that is better than to fertilize my roses not often enough, because it's just too exhausting....See MoreNew roses and Southwest Fertilizer run
Comments (2)Woo hoo! Sounds like a blast!! I just started pulling up pavers to continue a rose garden that I started this fall. The pavers covered 3ft of pure sand. No soil at all! I was so distraught. Now I'm just digging and adding soil. I kept thinking if I dig deep enough I would eventually reach dirt, but I just keep getting sand. I hope they do well in the amended 3 ft of soil I'm putting in over the sand. I may have to make a raised bed over the whole thing as well. I have Eden climber, but she hasn't bloomed yet. It's been 2 years. Everyone says she takes 3 years to get going so here's hoping. I too ordered lady Emma Hamilton. After seeing her at the golden gate park rose garden last summer while visiting the west coast I fell madly in love with her. I hope she does well in my climate. I don't know anyone who grows Austin's here in SoFL so it's all trial and error for me. Good luck with your roses!!!!...See MoreKnockout rose fertilizer question
Comments (4)Most "regular" fertilizers like Miracle Gro or any generic 10-10-10 pellets will add nitrogen and food for the rose. I go with about a 1/2 cup per well-established rose (don't feed new rose plantings), away from the base of the rose and under mulch or scratched into the soil, more if you have large or heavy feeding roses or highly porous/sandy soil (I think). You don't have to have anything specially formulated for roses, since roses can't read (smile), but you want to watch not overdosing the phosphorus in most garden soils. If I'm adding a standard fertilizer, I usually add a good handful or two of alfalfa hay (purchased from feed stores or pet stores in the small animal sections, if you only have a few roses). The alfalfa seems to add something extra in addition to the nitrogen that promotes healthy branching out. Special rose formulations of fertilizer usually have alfalfa already in them, but they're also a lot more expensive. None of the feeding is strictly speaking necessary if you have healthy soil and you're happy with the roses, but the food adds a little "zing" to the blooming. Just don't feed too often, as Diane mentioned, or you can get a lot of green growth at the expense of flowers. Once in the spring and maybe mid-summer if I feel like it is usually plenty for me. The liquid fertilizers like Ken mentions can be used more often, but at a weak dilution. Me, I'm too lazy for feeding that often as many roses as I have. Cynthia...See MoreSeniorBalloon
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