Did you pick up the MAC at a house in Westchester about 6 years ago? If so, that was me!

I toss some alfafa pellets at or near the base of the plants and let the rain soak them in. Sometimes add a bit of compost or manure. Otherwise don't fertilize much at all.

I have this problem, for example with plants like 'Old Blush' that are clothed to the ground and have very sharp thorns. I'm thinking about limbing it up a bit, just so it's not so painful when I have to get in under it to weed. I did limb up my 'Mutabilis' because it was smothering 'Fantin-Latour' on the terrace below it. I still have to see how that will work out, but at the moment it looks promising. Also, heavier clothes and gloves could help.
Good luck!
Melissa

I would think that even just throwing some handfuls of fertilizer under the bush (or alfalfa like suggested above) would be helpful and super easy. That's what I do with shrubbery around here. Just fill a bucket and commence to tossing!

Lynn

I broadcast alfalfa as my fertilizer. It is pretty easy; no crawling around involved.

However I do think that pruning off the rust-laden foliage is probably wise. If only a few of them are so afflicted most years, you might consider taking the offenders out to make your life easier.

Great thought, Lynn, I'm going to "commence to tossing" today. :)) Where's that bucket?

Sherry

For lazy me, pouring a cup or two of alfalfa meal over the middle of the plant and then hosing down the plant so it all gets on the ground is as good as it gets. The roses seems to like it a lot. No scratching in or removing mulch or any of that frippery. It all gets down to the soil in the end. Alfalfa meal rocks!

Ingrid

I'm with Ingrid's method.

But let's go a little further.

Glenna's roses are 10 years old, and she lives in Southern CA.
Current El Nino conditions to the contrary, she is soon going to be faced with watering restrictions.

The more you fertilize, the thirstier your roses are going to be.
A 10-year-old Mutabilis or MAC doesn't NEED fertilizer -- or shouldn't, unless you've pruned it hard.
(Out in the garden here, "Smith's Parish" is already covered with bloom. We haven't fed it in years.)

When the rains end (and they will) you really should begin to "train" your roses to need less and less irrigation.

Start watering for longer periods, but space the applications out. Eventually, in most areas, you can get those roses down to maybe one watering a year, as the roots push down deeper and deeper.
Your Austins will always be thirsty devils, but mature Teas and Chinas, and Noisettes can grow and bloom with less irrigation than we think. And they don't need a lot of fertilizer to bloom, either.

Jeri

In my experience, the short answer to your question is "NO". However, if you don't feed them, you also should not clean up any "leaf litter" or other "messy" fallen production of your garden! We moved into our home when no one had fed or cared for the approximately 50+ old roses for over 40 years. The weak ones had died, of course, but the really old ones (similar types to what you have) were thriving on the natural "food" that is produced from the normal vegetation debris that turns into mulch when left alone (every noticed that no one "feeds" the plants in the wild? How do they ever survive?).

If you can throw in handfuls of alfalfa pellets, that is of course great, but even that is not necessary with old roses, if you don't "clean up" around them.

We have lots of trees that shed leaves all over our garden, and for several years we have only able to get them off the lawn, but not the beds, and have also been too busy to feed the roses. You know what? They are thriving! Also the weeds are less!

Jackie

YES JACKIE! YES! YES!

Jeri

Sorry, Sherry, you will have to get your own bucket....but if you are ever passing this way, you can stop by here and I'll fill your car with cat litter plastic buckets! I save them and have a bunch - so handy for so many things! Then you can commence to tossing or whatever strikes your fancy :)

Mutabilis, Penelope and Climbing Cecile Brunner grow great without fertilizer. So do most of my Knockouts.

Jeri and Jacqueline,
This is the direction I hope my garden is taking as well. I think it still needs the hay mulch because the soil was so poor in organic matter to begin with, but as the roses and other shrubs and the trees grow, as the whole garden is more thickly planted, I hope that in time it won't require much additional amendment but will meet its own needs. This year while pruning I cut the prunings into small pieces and put them under the mulch or around the plant. NOTHING organic is thrown away in our garden: it all gets recycled.
Melissa

Last year I tossed alfalfa pellets. Since I was out this time around, I figured I'd use what I have on hand. A mostly used up jar of Osmocote from last year's potting jobs would work well with all the rain. Just a spoonful per bush in my front garden. Then some mulch. I won't feed again until July (if I remember). The roses are on their own for the most part and seem pretty happy. This is the kind of garden I love, no fuss!

Melissa -- I think your garden's going to be Heaven. :-)

(Oh, and I do understand bad soil. The stuff up here is one step from being decomposed granite. I think it's decomposed sandstone, with plenty of ancient ocean salts.)

Jeri

The amount of fertilizer needed is related to the amount of prunings, leaves, and flowers removed. When you remove waste you are removing nutrients from the system. Some of my roses are cut way down in spring (owing to winter damage or strong upright growth) and then make 8-10 feet of growth over seven months. It requires fertilizer, However, if the waste were shredded and reapplied as mulch, as Melissa suggests, less fertilizer would be needed.

Organic fertilizer applied over the mulch will take a long time to start working (except for the potassium), but if you keep it up, the rose will be fed by what you put down a year or two ago. Decaying mulch also contributes.

Soil with clay content needs much less fertilizer than sand or silt soils.

Thanks for all these great suggestions, everyone. Alfafa pellets, here I come.

My foliage stripping is, alas, related to the rust business here, where I'm 8 blocks from the beach. Mutabilis and MAC are quite resistant, but the rest try my patience at times -- even Iceberg. Oh, and Scentimental (which has very little scent -- go figure)is quite clean. But things like Abraham Darby just send out the rust alarm. I don't know why I don't shovel prune them. Wait: they smell great.

I do trim the plants down, especially those 14-foot shoots, because my yard isn't all that big, and the plants need to be kept from taking over. But the trimming isn't really radical. I can't compost the leaves with the rust, though. Oh, wait: maybe I should pull those roses out? Nah. (see my problem? Circular thinking and a fondness for some roses).

Jannorcal: Howdy! Yes, the MAC was from you, and it's currently eating my garage. At least 10 feet tall. I'll try to post a picture when it's in bloom this spring.

One last question for all you folks: where do I buy alfalfa pellets?

I wasn't aware that roses that are fertilized require more water. Where have I been? Since my roses are very young I naturally would like them to grow as quickly as possible. At the same time there is the watering issue, and that's not going to go away. What to do? I'm determined to mulch as much as possible although during the summer so much of it seems to blow away or disappear somehow. But ultimately that may be the only fertilizer my roses get.

Ingrid

I got my alfalfa pellets from a feed store, I mix the alfalfa with some water in a bucket, let it sit a couple of days (smells horrible!!), and just water the bushes with that, along with throwing some epsom salt every once in a while. Probably overkill, but they seem to love it!

I wasn't aware that roses that are fertilized require more water. Where have I been? Since my roses are very young I naturally would like them to grow as quickly as possible.

*** Ingrid, generally speaking, fertilizers push topgrowth and bloom.
If you're talking about young, immature plants, you're always better in the long view to promote root and plant growth for the first few years, rather than soft growth and bloom.
It's a balance, of course, because heck, you WANT blooms.

Jeri

Jeri, Heaven's my destination! Actually, my mental image of how I want my garden to be is the garden of Eden.

Ingrid, a very wise forum member, I forget now who it was, once said, "The best fertilizer is water". What a great truth.
In my garden the mulch just gets eaten up, apparently, and I have to add more every year or so. But the benefits remain. We have clay soil, and I think the main thing it needs is organic matter to make excellent, if heavy, soil. Your garden's requirements may be different.

Melissa