Instead of trying to change the soil structure by digging in around the plants, I would try adding organic matter to the top and let it work itself in over the winter.

I would add some chunky compost or aged cow manure several inches thick. Then a mulch of shredded leaves on top. The worms will break down the material and work it through your bed.

veilchen,

That's what I thought, so I'd been doing that for the last 5 years, and, it seems as though the organic matter disappears and the soil still does NOT retain water...this is the technique I use on all my other beds, and it normally works. I will continue to add organic matter...lately, each time I empty the chicken house, I've been putting it here, but, it still is not holding water.

Robert

Robert, I was just reading on the Container Gardening forum about a product called Turface or Turface MVP....apparently it can be used in containers, gardens, or spread over athletic fields...lasts forever and holds quite a bit of water. Apparently there are a couple of other similar products but I can't remember their names (it's buried deep in the container gardening forum threads, among the many LONG discussions over the best media for planting in pots.) ;~D Anyway, this stuff sounds pretty interesting and given how fast organics are breaking down for you, might be just the ticket for your situation?

The water retaining granules that might be "turface" don't go anywhere, they are too large to move much. Their addition would be a way to keep water and yet retain the super drainage that rugosas prefer to heavy clays.

Living down here on a sand hill I can tell you from experience that ``amending the soil''is like flushing it down the facility.lol The water takes it right below the roots.
I found that instead of fighting the sandy soil its far better to work with it.Miracle gro [liquid ]every couple of weeks and lite water every other day or so in dry times.Heavy watering is self defeating as thats money down the drain.Feeder roots near surface to about six inches down.Water below that won't help.Instead encourage your roses to develop wide thick root mass by watering and applying nutrients a little past drip zone.This will enable your roses to make better use of water available to them.

I happen to be a fan of clay loam top soil. It holds water and nutrients which translates directly into dollar and other resources we don't have to spend. Unfortunatley, your median represents the intersection of a couple of problems.

If the soil on your whole property isn't sandy, something is fishy about this median being so different. Construction crews dump all manner of building materials around buidling sites. You could very well have a median filled with left over builders sand covered with two inches of "top soil." Have you done the soil in a jar of water test on the stuff in the median? As this link mentions, one of the big problems with sandy soil is that it gets so hot. They don't call them he11 strips for nothing

The next problem is finding a good quality top soil. I'm fighting that battle constantly. Just when I think I've found a supplier because I had a load that was decent, I order up a couple of truckloads for a big bed and they send me a bunch of junk. Be sure to test out a couple of top soils first. Ask the landscape supply houses for samples right before you're going to buy. A lot of them change seasonally and from load to load. Ask specifically if the load you're ordering will be the same stuff as they sample. Do the jar test on your samples to be sure you're getting decent stuff.

Rugosas are suckering, so I doubt they'll mind your raising the soil level...tho you might mind after they create a thicket. How many roses are in there? If you wait until they're dormant in winter and either bareroot them or wrap them in burlap, you could replace a good portion of the soil or maybe mix it. It's done all the time, big PITA that it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Soils type test

I'd guess there are about 20-30 roses in this area...I'm heeding all advice...thanks.

Robert, what is the real problem? Is the water draining down and flooding the roses at the lower end of the area? Is it draining down to the lower part of each rose, and sitting there? I tried to plant 12 Mr. Lincolns years ago in straight compost, and they all rotted and drowned, so I can appreciate your problem, but you are talking about a huge area. How did it get to be so pourous?

Are there areas where you could just replace the soil with real top soil? But then could that make it worse because the true top soil could encourage the plot where the rose is to hold more water that could drown the roots.

You have great pictures, so why don't you show us what you are talking about?

Sammy

I always benefit from other people's questions here. We have very sandy and acidic soil, hard to keep the nutrients in place here, also. Thanks for the idea, Pete, of extending the fertilizers to the outer reaches of the driplines to make the roots work toward the food!

Anyone care to hazard a guess how many years it will take of adding hardwood and pine mulches at a rate of 3-4" per year on top of sand before the soil will really improve? Pete seems to indicate that it might not ever work well...

If you do the jar test, there is a mistake on the linked page. Don't use regular dish soap, because clay will be held in the suds. Use non-sudsing dishwasher detergent or salt. Also you need to shake for a long time--15 min. is often recommended--to separate any clay coating from the sand and to separate any clay granules--which will sink as though they are sand or silt. Also most instructions say to fill the jar 1/4 or 1/3 with soil and use a TB of surfactant.

Berndoodle is right about how careful you need to be in ordering topsoil. What you need is something heavy in silt and clay to mix 50-50 with the sand. Pure clay would be hard to mix; nearly pure silt or a mixture would be OK.

But Pete is right that you can grow roses in sand with frequent light watering.

Since I moved down from the north where there was pretty good soil I was shocked to see how fast things moved through sandy soil.I raked up all the leaves around here and mulched them,I cut up all the trimmings and deadwood I could find and cut that up,even buried mullet and whiting,tore paper up,chopped up pine needle and made barrels of quick compost.I worked all this into the top few inches of soil.
The microbes worked so fast there was no trace of anything a year later-gone and no use to plants.
What does stay in sandy soil is peat.The contractors dumped truckloads here and its still in the soil.Not sure what good it does.Some of the lumps were the size of basketballs.In another million years I might have diamonds.

Since rugosas not only are suckering but also like sandy soil (even beach dunes), I'd consider removing a layer of the sandy stuff and piling it on the rugosas, and then filling the dug-out spots with clay-loam and mixing it in, if possible. You'll end up with a patchwork of different soil types suitable to different kinds of roses that way.

Fortunately, microbes don't eat things down quite as fast here as they do in, say, Florida. Mulch as heavily as you can to keep the soil cooler, and plant well to keep the ground shaded, and you will have even less of that going on.

Pete, I dug a lot of peat into my silty soil long ago, and all visible traces were gone in six or eight years.

However, there is a slight residue left by any organic matter that is semi-permanent. It's called "stable humus" and is a black sticky substance that glues clay particles together and helps retain fertilizer nutrients. You get much more of this out of manure or fully made compost than you get out of peat, bark, and other undecayed materials. Soil that has been heavily manured will be changed for decades. I don't know if that applies to sandy soils.

I understand greensand improves water retention. I think I remember that the grains hold 3 times their weight. It's also a potassium source. Takes about 6 months to work. I'm in Florida with sandy soil so I hope it works. That was interesting info about the organic matter disappearing so quickly in sand. I made my rose bed in March in grayish sand with a lot of limestone in it. A week ago I had to dig out a Lemongrass plant that grew to 3' from a 4" pot since March, and I was amazed that my soil was black and had earthworms. Yippy! I threw everything but the kitchen sink in that bed. I just hope it's not all gone in a few years.

Sammy there is absolutely NO risk of the plants rotting in this area. I've been adding a 6-8" of either mulch, compost, manure, peat, etc...every year for the past 10 years, and it soon disappears... even after a good watering, the soil appears dry after a day. I'm thinking of adding some topsoil and continue adding the other ammendments on the top with the hope that they'll work their way down. I believe that down about 3 feet there must be some moisture retaining soil as I have crepe myrtles that are in the back of the bed that are doing fine with rare supplemental water. I had planted the crepes after I couldn't get anything else to grow, so I know the crepes aren't sucking out the water. Thanks for the responses.

Robert

I have places like yours. But I've found that roses like the sandy soil. If yours are suffering it's most likely they aren't getting enough water and food. There's no way around it: raised sandy soil will require extra food and water. But there are many other beautiful plants that will thrive under those conditions. Lilies anyone?

BTW, Crepe Myrtles are shallow rooted water hogs. They will contribute to your dry soil problem within their sphere of influence.