The Monterey Cypress, resident in our neighbor's yard, overhangs a huge swath of our property. It's shed needles are everywhere.
Roses planted where the needles are most numerous tend to struggle.
HOWEVER, I observed that they use pine needles as mulch in the ARS gardens near Shreveport.
It's logical to use them, as the garden is in a pinewood forest, and it seems to work OK for them.

Jeri

Pine needles make an excellent mulch and are commonly used all over the South. They certainly do not "poison the soil." They may cause a slight lowering of pH compared to some other mulches, but that would easily be remedied by a light application of lime.

Since the pH is usually quite high in Southern California anyway, the lime would not be necessary. I think pine needles are not common around here because there are just not a lot of pines. Mulch is local. Around here it is mostly redwood from mills in Northern California, or Eucalyptus.

We have been laying them on our Memorial garden downtown for over 30 years, so yes, they are great mulch for roses. As they pack down, they break down and enhance the soil. One of the best things about them is, around here, we are loaded with pine trees, so pine straw, pine needles to you, are cheap, cheap, cheap. For a poor rose society like we are, that's great news.

I had never heard of pine needle mulch until I moved to my present location, where the majority of gardeners consider it the mulch of choice for EVERY purpose -- including roses. And yes, the needles are used just as they fall from the tree, not broken down or compressed in any way.

The mulch available locally is from two varieties of pine, the loblolly and the longleaf. The latter is superior, but is not as readily available and is more expensive. Both of these varieties are of the genus 'Pinus'. The Monterrey Cypress is a 'Cupressus', which is closely related but not a true pine. I have no knowledge about the usefulness of Cypress needles as mulch.

I've come to prefer pine needles as mulch around roses because it's so easy to move it around when I want to incorporate amendments, fertilizers etc into the soil, & because it's so simple to completely remove each spring before starting over with a fresh layer.

"Mulch is local."

Or rather, mulch should be local.

Michael,

I think I like the 'mulch is local' dictum', but could you elaborate?

I wonder what that means for central Delaware. Most especially, though, I wonder what that means for my rose-gardening siblings in Maricopa County, AZ and Dona Ana County, NM.

I don't like pine straw because it breaks down too fast and tracks in the house. I use pine bark chips instead. The only places I use it is on my two hillsides because it's the only mulch that will not roll down the hill.

I've found pine needles to be a superior mulch for a variety of reasons. Buford points out one of them above ... it does not float/wash away. But the most important reasons are that plants & soil love it & it's attractive in the landscape. Mulch that breakdowns quickly many be undesirable for a person, but is an asset for the soil.

Randy

Thanks to all for your advice re: pine needles for mulch.
Very encouraging, since I have free access to lots of them!
(But didn't want to "poison the soil!") Now I will go start raking them up! :)

"Mulch is local" is purely due to economics. It doesn't have enough economic value to justify the cost of shipping it very far--in other words, it costs more to ship mulch long distances than the price it brings.

Well, some people import cocoa hulls or cypress bark from far away. It's environmentally wasteful as well as economically wasteful. Use by-products and waste products from nearby.

thank you. in the meantime i did find an article online too. i felt since they had a lot of holes in them that the rose bush would freeze but the holes act as insulation. can't find that article but found another which i just posted. and they control black spot on the leaves. i have some new dawn roses that have it, but i have been using grass clippings and have not kept it 3 to 4 iches from the base. the article also said to put it 3 to 4 inches high around the roses. then it said in the spring pull it away from the roses to warm up the soil. i used it around my azaelas also, but now realize i need to pull it away from the base of plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: mulching roses

We live in Oklahoma City. I planted loblolly pines down the sides of our land, in part, to use specifically as mulch for our many rose bushes. Roses prefer soil acidity of around 6.5 percent. Pine needles are roughly 3.5 percent acidic. So, with an average soil alkalnity, or an even slightly acidic to acidic soil , pine needles are an optimum mulch for not only roses, but most flowering plants and shrubs. I'm a casual/lazy gardener, which means that I plant perennials, re-seeders, shrubs and tubers/bulbs. My research and calls to my local county extension indicate that pine needles are perfect for my uses. I rake the needles, and spread them around my plants, in places, in long streaks of piles on side beds. This is easy, and nothing else is required! I just do a little patting down and smoothing of piles and I have beautiful beds, almost ZERO WEEDS, and year long mild acidity, as well as nitrogen as the needles break down into rich, dark soil!