When I started growing roses 28 years ago I began my passion with 20 highly rated, disease resistant roses. They were a combination of hybrid teas and floribundas. I still grow many of those same varieties today.
At the same time the vast majority of rose growers were using chemical foods to fertilize their roses. Rose systemics with fertilizer were very common and in the beginning I used them, also. But not for long.
Those 20 roses I started with (a gift from my father for my 20th birthday) had, over the course of 5 years, grown in to several rose beds with over 200 roses and hundreds of perennials, bulbs and annuals. I joined the American and Seattle Rose Societies, read everything about roses I could get my hands on (in between getting my bachelors degree in English, getting married and having my 1st baby.) I lived and breathed roses…and my baby, of course. During that time the articles in the American Rose Magazine began touting the benefits of using organic ingredients like fish meal, cottonseed meal, blood meal, alfalfa meal and a host of other organics. Rose systemics were now looked down upon by serious rosarians. Why? Because the most important thing you can do for your roses is to “feed the soil”. Chemical feeding does nothing to the soil and if you want your roses to produce at least 75 blooms a season you need to replenish the soil with the nutrients the rose has used to produce all those flowers.
Many customers I talk with have what I call “dead soil”. It is the result of years of chemical feeding. When they plant a new rose the first year the rose will do well, often because they purchased a #1 grade rose and the 2 year old bush had been given excellent care prior to its purchase. But by the 2nd or 3rd year instead of their rose getting bigger and better it instead becomes more disease ridden (despite its high rating and reputation for great disease resistance) and produces maybe 30 blooms instead of 130. Why? People will purchase a wonderful rose and then they will falter when it comes to the care. I believe it is more a lack of correct information than anything. They often use what I call the “I don’t know fertilizer” which translates to “I don’t know what, how or the last time I fertilized my roses”. Very often their fertilizer came in a big box from a discount store and is either 100% chemical or has a couple of the less expensive organic ingredients like alfalfa meal and dried poultry waste. There is nothing wrong with these ingredients as long as they are coupled with the more expensive organic ingredients mentioned above.
A great organic rose food is more expensive. I estimate that to give your rose bush the very best you will spend between 8 and 10 dollars a year per rose bush. It surprises me when people think that is too much when in turn a rose can produce over 100 blooms during the growing season and be wonderfully fragrant at the same time. Are 8 or 10 cents per bloom too much? Hhhmmm…your decision, of course. Fertilizing organically also enables the rose to be much more disease resistant thus the money you spend on disease control will be less and if you have been using toxic chemicals your environment will be much safer.
Listed below is my calendar for “feeding the soil” and then experiencing fabulous, heavily blooming, amazingly disease resistant roses from June until November. The dates I use are not etched in stone. As long as these steps are accomplished during the growing season you are in business.
Early March: As I prune my roses I apply, to the base of each bush, 4 cups of my Terosa Ultimate Once a Year Fertilizer. Water in well.
In April or May: I apply, to the base of each bush, 2 cups alfalfa meal and ¼ cup Epsom salts (for each rose). Water in well.
In July or August I repeat the above treatment.
DO NOT FERTILIZE WITH ANYTHING AFTER LABOR DAY.
In late October I put 3-4 cups mushroom compost, regular compost or a good rose mix on to cover the base and/or the bud union of the rose to keep it warm during the winter.
The alfalfa/Epsom salt mix is by no means a complete fertilizer. It is a compliment to your fertilizing program.
If you desire you can liquid feed anytime from April until Labor Day. I prefer seaweed, fish fertilizer or any good liquid organic. Seaweed has been known to keep aphids away because of the strong taste.
Give your roses 6+ hours of sun, 1-2 inches of water per week and follow my fertilizing program and I am confident you will be thrilled with the results.
Remember: If a rose is always diseased consider “shovel pruning” it and replacing it with one of the newer, disease resistant varieties.
Now go “feed your soil”!
Terri Hiatt works at Peninsula Gardens as a buyer, designer and rose expert. She teaches gardening classes both there and at Tacoma Community College in Gig Harbor and is the creator of Terosa Ultimate Once A Year Fertilizers. She can be reached at terrihiatt@hotmail.com.
