Rose Gardening Advice: Fertilizing Roses
Fertilizing your roses regularly gives them the additional boost to grow stronger and faster. Getting some good rose gardening advice on how to fertilize is the first step to growing vigorous and healthy roses. There are two types of fertilizers: organic and synthetic. Synthetic fertilizers are nitrate based and organic fertilizers are nitrite-based. Nitrite-based fertilizers can only be broken down with microbial activity. The easiest way to understand the difference is that organic fertilizers feed the soil, which in turn feeds the plant while synthetic fertilizers directly feed the plant.
All fertilizers are composed of three natural elements: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and a few minor elements like magnesium and calcium, and several trace elements like iron, manganese, boron, etc. Nitrogen primarily helps your roses grow stronger canes and greener foliage. Phosphorus assists in growth of blooms and rose hips. Potassium concentrates on developing the roots and stems. Brown or purpled edged leaves manifest a lack of potassium and yellowed leaves could mean either excess calcium or lack of iron.
Some examples of organic fertilizers are crab meal, bone meal, blood meal, alfalfa, canola, and fish pellets, green sand, and kelp. Anything derived from deceased animal or plant matter forms organic fertilizers.
Always read and use according to the labels on the fertilizer bags. Incorrect use of fertilizers can cause severe damage to your roses. If the growth tips get too much nitrogen, they will attract plant-sucking pests like aphids.
Fertilizing your roses while planting, in the spring, and in summer. All fertilizing must cease at least six weeks prior to the onset of frost. When you plant your roses, check the soil and if magnesium levels are low, add some Epsom salts. A slightly acidic potting soil (pH 6.5) with addition of some alfalfa or canola pellets and bone meal is ideal for your roses.
Fertilize for about two weeks in spring after your plants start giving out new leaves. At the base of the plant, dig lightly for about 12 inches around the plant using a garden fork and then sprinkle or spray the fertilizer and cover with soil. Moist fertilized soil gives maximum benefit to the roots.
In summer, you could spray a liquid fertilizer every two weeks but remember to follow the instructions carefully. Avoid spraying on leaves when the temperature is high as it could cause leaf burn.
You can choose from several fertilizing devices depending on the size of your rose garden. If you have just 5 to 10 rose plants, you could easily sprinkle with your hand, or mix water-soluble fertilizers in a bucket of water and carry it around the garden, or use a hose-end sprayer. For about 50 roses, you could probably manage with a siphoning device that attaches a faucet to your tube, which is immersed in a bucket of fertilizer. But, this device clogs frequently and has to be cleaned thoroughly after every use and you can never be sure if it is delivering the right quantity of fertilizer to your roses.
Increasingly, experienced rose gardeners prefer organic fertilizers as they are long lasting and improve the soil gradually by slowly releasing nutrients into the soil even as they break down. This keeps roses well fed throughout the season and able to resist diseases and tolerate extreme weather conditions.
Exclusive Rose Gardening Magazines
Perhaps it’s the flood of articles on the internet that has taken it’s toll on rose gardening magazines. Or it’s just that there never were many exclusive rose gardening magazines to begin with. Whatever the reason, if you like the touch and feel of the rich sleek pages of a magazine dedicated to roses, you may have to be content with the ‘American Rose’.
The ‘American Rose’ is a self-acclaimed exclusive rose gardening magazine brought out regularly by the American Rose Society. This bi-monthly places a glossy 84 page magazine in the hands of more than 15000 subscribers spread all over the world. It boasts of stunning photographs and well-written highly informative articles by experienced rose gardeners. It covers all aspects of rose gardening including selecting, planting, and maintaining your roses. You can find almost anything you need on roses between the covers of the ‘American Rose’.
The American Rose Society also comes out with a bigger issue, the ‘American Rose Annual’, during the end of each year. In the November-December issue, you get 128 pages tightly packed with beautiful photographs and lots more articles. They follow a very strict process of evaluating each writer’s contribution that ensures that the quality of the content is always at it’s best.
A free sample of the ‘American Rose’ is available online on their website. Also, the American Rose Society offers two free issues of the magazine for everyone who signs up for a trial membership. The four months trial membership comes with a host of other benefits.
Of course, this does not mean there are no other magazines that cover roses! It just means that other magazines deal with all aspects of gardening and a wide variety of flowers. Not just roses. So if you are not very particular, you can check out these magazines:
Florida Gardening
Carolina Gardener
Mother Earth News
Organic Gardening
Better Home and Garden
The English Garden
Fine Gardening
All these magazines have a loyal subscriber base and get rave reviews from their readers. Just remember to select only those issues that have an article or two on roses!
A Comprehensive Guide To Rose Gardening Tools
The right rose gardening tools in the right hands can bring out the best in even the most difficult roses. It is important that along with the process of selecting the most suitable roses to grow in your garden, you need choose sturdy and comfortable tools.
Most new gardeners become weary of gardening soon after the initial enthusiasm wears off. With roses especially, the chances of losing interest are very high if you don’t protect yourself from the thorns, and the constant aches and pains associated with weeding, mulching, etc. With the right tools, rose gardening can be a breeze.
Gardening Gloves: It is imperative that your gloves are not only sturdy but also fit your hands well. A good pair of leather gloves in the right size can keep the thorns out and save your hands from painful blisters. If you are not too comfortable with bulky gloves, you can opt for fabric gloves but with these, you run the risk of getting pricked.
Watering Wand: All roses need a lot of water to survive and with the right watering wand, you can keep your roses well-watered ensuring steady new growth and abundant blooms.
Soil pH Gauge: It is always good to check your soil conditions before you choose your roses. This gauge can help you measure the acidity and alkalinity of the soil and make necessary adjustments before planting your roses.
Moisture Meter: For roses to thrive you need to keep the soil constantly moist and in places where summers are very hot, this meter helps in ascertaining the moisture levels of the soil.
Short and Long Handled Digging Forks / Shovels: While planting your roses, you need to dig very deep and wide holes for the roots to spread out. These forks come in handy for not just planting but also weeding, and mulching. Forks with sturdy handles and steel tines last a long time.
Leaf and Garden Rakes: You won’t believe the amount of raking you will have to do around your rose bushes. For healthy roses, you need to keep the vicinity clean and these rakes help you clean out all debris, including leaves, from around the base of the plant and the rest of the garden.
Pruners & Loppers: Bypass pruners with their scissor-like blades are ideal for pruning roses without crushing the stems or canes. Loppers help you prune and trim thick canes of mature rose bushes and climbers. Make sure the handle is padded and feels comfortable in your hands.
Pressure Sprayer: This comes in handy for spraying pesticides, fertilizers, and other liquids, and can be a big tool when your plants get infected or face pest attacks.
Tools Sharpener: Just like anything else, you need to clean and sharpen your tools regularly. This tool helps keep all your tools finely sharpened making it easier to cut and prune your roses.
Five Popular Rose Gardening Books
How do you decide on the best rose gardening books to buy? A very simple method is to read the reviews of books on online book stores. You can also participate in rose gardening forums where you will find other members discussing the best books to buy. Here is a compilation of 5 rose gardening books that have drawn rave reviews.
The Rose by David Austin: A comprehensive guide for cultivating roses with beautiful illustrations and detailed descriptions. David Austin also gives his valuable opinion on each of the roses in the book. This can help you select the best type of roses to buy for your garden. He also describes how to increase your rose stock with cuttings. Judging by the favorable reviews, you cannot go wrong in picking up this book.
Roses for Dummies by Lance Walheim & Editors of National Gardening Association: This book is recommended by many as a very easy to read and informative book. It acts as a guide to trouble-free rose gardening with special tidbits on pruning polyanthas and floribundas. A must-have for all novice rose gardeners.
Best Roses (Amateur Gardening Guide) by Stefan T. Buczacki: A very detailed book on the different types of climbers, shrubs, ramblers, miniatures, etc. It carries the author’s personal thoughts and advice on almost any kind of rose. There is a lot of information on disease-resistant and shade-tolerant varieties. It even has snippets on various features like rose hips.
The Organic Rose Garden by Liz Druitt: An excellent guide to beginners living in Zones 6 upwards. It includes some background information on roses and gives detailed guidelines on growing roses organically. It describes how to prepare and design rose beds, how to buy, plant, and maintain roses without using chemicals, etc. The book is punctuated with humor and is written in a very easy style. It gives information relating to Zones, flowering frequency, size of plant, color and fragrance of blooms, etc, in a neatly organized manner. The book concludes with a section on rose recipes. The pictures are rather grainy in the paperback version so only pick up the hardcover if you are particular about the illustrations.
Otherwise Normal People (Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening) by Aurelia C. Scott: Although it was touted as a scandalous book, it turned out to be quite a pleasant reading experience. The book just reveals the things that people do to gain a competitive edge in the exclusive world of exhibition roses. Scott describes how a seemingly harmless pastime can become an all-consuming passion. On the downside, the focus is more on the newer varieties and has very little information on the good old garden roses. In spite of some factual errors that seem to have crept past the editor’s eye, the book makes an overall good read for rose lovers.
Choosing the right rose gardening books will help you choose the right roses for your garden.
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