Well it could be that they are stretching towards the sun, how much sun do they get in a day?

A good pruning will keep them compact and bushy, but wait to do this chore in the spring.

Sharon

Re mini roses: I was at Walmart 2 weeks ago and they had big flats of mini roses just come in. They put all their plants on sale for 50 cents so I bought 24 pots (only $12). This included some unique colours I hadn't seen before in minis.

What we do is repot up 4 or 5 together in a deep rich mix. This way we can enjoy them for the rest of the season. Then we'll bury the pots in mid-October or so. They develop good, strong roots and in the Spring we'll leave some in the pots for display and plant others directly into the garden. The potted plants will bloom a lot earlier.

We pot them up in various sizes of those black plastic tree tubs and insert them into a larger decorative planter or pot. We also do this with pots of tulips, lilies, etc. As one plant is finished for the season, we insert another.

Alpiner, your roses must be gorgeous !

I don't know where I would bury pots for the winter. Do you bury them in the flower beds?

kuzari princess

crazy_gardener;

"... it could be that they are stretching towards the sun, how much sun do they get in a day? "

Thats what I'm afraid of. I just moved them last year hoping they would get more sun. They get about 5 almost 6 hours of sun a day from 9:30ish to 3:30ist. I dread moving them again.

kuzari princess

KP that should be enough sun, especially since it is mid-day sun. My Champlain was new last year, and was a sprawling mess with spindly canes (own-root) and too many flowers for them to hold up. But this year it has toughened up a lot and I think it will continue to as it gets older. I personally haven't noticed roses to get leggy from lack of light, they just don't bloom.

Roses are much happier in all day sun but 5-6 hours is sufficient, I would just wait till next spring and give them a good pruning.

I prune all of my roses hard in the spring. By that I mean I leave only pencil sized stems. But if they are all small I leave at least 3 and prune down to about a foot.
My thought would be maybe not enough water. Roses love water and they are heavy feeders. I only water mine once a week but I totally soak the ground. I also feed mine at least evey 2 weeks. Well that's the plan any way.
Did you plant them with lots of peatmoss? Do you put manure on them in the spring?
I'm finding lots of thick basal breaks on mine now since I watered with alfalfa tea.Maybe it is worth a try.
Shelley

Thank you everyone!

Now I have a new question, how do you use epsom salts on your roses?

Sazzyrose, I looked up the recipe for alfalfa tea but don't think its feasable for me. DH is already feed up with my gardening addiction so I think a garbage can of stinky solution would be more than he could bear. I do give my roses manure as well as Rose fertilizer and chelated iron. I will try watering them for longer periods of time

Northspruce, your discription of your Champlain last year sounds like mine now and gives me hope for the future. My Therese Bugnet did nothing for her first two years but is filling out nicely this year and has lots of strong new canes.

kuzari princess

If you don't want to try the tea just mix epsom salt with water. My roses do get leggy later on. I just put a stake in the ground and tie them up with plant ties.
Shelley

I use Epsom Salts on my roses, once a year I dissolve 1 Tbsp in 4 Gallons water per rose bush. I don't even know if this is right but they don't seem to mind.

Epsom Salts add magnesium to the soil which is usually lacking, and can often make the roses develop strong new basal shoots as Shelley suggested. The best thing about it is ES is super cheap and you can get it at the drugstore.

I love this forum and learn so much. Everyone shares their experience and gives good advice. I will definately add Epsom Salts to my shopping list.

kuzari princess

I bought two roses this year, Morden Blush and Winnipeg Parks. These are my first roses other than a super hardy unknown single yellow rose I picked up at an exchange.

I was was just searching for advice on how to use epsom salts and found this thread. Do all you rose lovers (that I know are on this formum :^)), concur with the 1 tbsp to 4 gallons of water per plant? And is this a good thing to do in their first year? Also, when is the appropriate time to apply it?

Manure and peat moss were also mentioned in this thread, but kind of left open ended...are these good things for roses? I have heard not to over fertalize the first year of planting, but my soil is so sandy I have to add a fair amount of manure and peat moss to every new hole. Is this fine or should I use less manure and more peat moss? help!

Thanks...and links to other related threads are very welcome.

I probably use close to the same amount of epsom salt on my bushes once a month. Use it at planting time as well. You can also just sprinkle it on the ground.

When I plant my roses, I always use lots of peat, a couple hands full of manure and a couple handfuls of bonemeal. After planting,water with a fertilizer that has a high middle number like 10 52 10 for the first time and for the next 2 weeks after fertilize with the same stuff. Then fertilize once a month with 20 20 20 until the first of Aug.

I actually do this with most of my plants.
Here is a link for epsom salt. Just click on gardens.
Shelley

Here is a link that might be useful: epsom salt

Toots, if your soil is that sandy, you might have problems with nutrient leaching. Fertilizer nutrients don't bond to sandy soil as much as clays and your fertilizer could be washing away when it rains. In your case, I would recommend adding lots plain clean topsoil instead of peat moss.

I have silty/sandy soil now too and I don't bother with peat moss anymore. I used to use it to loosen clay. I know it helps retain moisture but so does manure. Manure is great to add to the beds but if you add it straight into the rose planting hole, make sure it's well diluted with soil or it could be too much for the baby roots. Bonemeal is good to put under the rose because it releases slowly and adds phosphorous for root development. As Shelley said, just a couple of handfuls of each and mix it around.

BTW I don't have a problem with peat moss, it's JMO that topsoil would be better for the sandy soil.

Be careful if you're going to use synthetic fertilizer for your roses, it usually has magnesium sulfate to their formulas, and if your going to add epsom salts as well, it may be too much of a good thing.

Aged manure is wonderful additive to sandy soils, same with leaf mold, homemade compost and peatmoss. I spent the whole day unloading 2 truckloads of 2 year old black gold (horse manure) to the new beds and spreaded around the roses and perennials. After all the work, now I will need to take a nice hot bath in some epsom salt ;)

I also add the alfalfa tea/epsom salts once a year to my roses in the spring.

Sharon

Thanks guys. Lots of info there. I'm curious to try the alfalfa tea, too, but not sure if I'll get around to it this year. Next year... :^)

Good idea Northspruce. I will dilute the manure with some soil to avoid putting to much in at first. There is some mixed in already cause of how it was loaded, but its still quite nitrogen rich.

Thanks again!

I have rich top soil, so what works for me might not work for you. One word of advise, do not use the alfalfa tea until next year on your newly planted roses. It'll make them grow instead of settling in.

Toots, I've always added alfalfa the first year when planting a new rose, just stop fertilizing beyond August, you do not want to encourage excessive new vegatative growth as the roses must begin to harden off at this time for the winter. Also let the the hips develop, don't cut them off, this will signal the rose to get ready for the winter too.

Here is some instructions that you will get if you ever order from Cedar Hollow Rose Farm....

To the soil in a wheelbarrow add the following and mix well. Well composted/rotted manure, compost, a handful of bone meal, alfalfa meal, bloodmeal, rock phosphate and 1/2 cup Epsom salts. All of these are not mandatory, but please use some bone meal, you will never be able to get under your rose bush in the future so it is very valuable to prepare the soil well.

Sharon

Well, I planted them today. I mixed up manure, peat, my sandy soil and some clay based soil and threw in a couple handfuls of bonemeal. I watered the hole down, then with epsom salt water as I refilled the hole. One rose got planted alittle deep so its sitting in a bit of a bowl...just a bit so I'm hoping it will be ok. The root ball was totally falling apart on me so I didn't want to lift it out again.

And Sharron, you will be happy to know that I not only got the roses mulched, but most of the flower beds mulched too :^) I ran out of material to finnish, though :^(

Thank you guys for your responses.

Oohh. Difference of opinions. I guess we stick with what works for us. Everyone's soil is different so different things work for different gardeners.

Here is some more difference's of opinions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alfalfa tea on New Roses

Yeah, I kinda think there's leeway on what's best for planting roses... sometimes if I'm in a hurry I just shove em in the ground. Some of my best roses have had the least fussing. I think location and growing conditions after planting do more for the rose in the long run than what you did or didn't feed it. (oh no, another opinion! LOL!)

Shelley, I hope you don't think I'm dissing your opinion? Difference's of opinions is what makes this such a wonderful forum that we can agree or disagree our own experiences and share with each other.

Sharon

Sharon, gardening is trial and error. What works for me, might not work for the next person. And heck, sometimes when I figure I've got something cased, it doesn't work for me again either.
I too love this forum. And I do love to disagree.(personality trait)
So all is good.

Shelley

humble input...its very constructive to get the different opinions. The middle ground is sometimes a good place for a newbie to start and then take it from there. :^)