The cheapest fertilizer is urea, diluted with 10 parts water. It does not smell in that concentration and contains all nutritients plants need. My husband keeps a chamber pot in the garage and collects his urine daily and puts it in a watering can in the evening. Of course, it's easier when you are retired with time on your hands.

It's certainly possible. It depends on what you want out of your roses. If your soil is good (sounds like it is) and you apply an organic mulch, they will do well and bloom. The 10-10-10 stuff is sufficient, but as you said, lacks nutrients. But that doesn't matter if your soil has these nutrients. Keep in mind that after time, the chemical fertilizers will cause a salt build up in your soil. I wouldn't over use the chemical fertilizers and maybe once a year, in the winter apply some compost, composted manure and the leaves as you have, to keep the soil healthy. Exhibitors and others who want more blooms use more intensive and varied fertilizers, but if you just want your roses to look good in the yard, you will be ok. Don't ignore watering, that is really more important than fertilizing.

Roses grow just fine with a combination of leaf compost and lawn fertilizer--the leaf compost is a mixture of lawn clippings and the leaves that fall in my yard, so the cost is very low.

In most gardens, micronutrients are seldom needed especially if you use some compost & organic mulch on a regular basis. However plants may exhibit micronutrient deficiency & this is usually because of a pH imbalance.

It always depends on what is already in your particular soil - you may wish to sample it and have it analyzed.

I too was looking for an inexpensive, but effective way to fertilize roses. Here's what I found:

USED COFFEE GROUNDS

Starbucks has a Grounds for Your Garden recycling program where they will give you used coffee grounds to improve your soil. I usually call ahead of time, so that they will save the grounds. They will give you the grounds in a bag, but I purchased a 5 gallon paint pail from Home Depot that I designated for the purpose and they fill it up. They are very friendly and happy to give you as much as you need. Sunset magazine did an analysis of using used coffee grounds as a soil amendment: The Starbucks coffee compost test. It's a great way to add organic matter to your clay soil. It is considered "green" compost, so I add dry leaves on top. When I use composted chicken manure, I also mix in used coffee grounds. It makes the manure smell MUCH better.

ALFALFA

Roses love alfalfa. Here is an article from the American Rose Society about the benefits: The Value of Alfalfa. When I was a "newbie", I paid $8 for a 3 lb box of alfalfa meal. Then I learned that you can buy alfalfa pellets at an animal feed store for about $12 for 50 pounds which is enough to last me two years. I use 1 cup around each rose bush, less for smaller plants and water thoroughly. I apply this twice a year.

FISH FERTILIZER

I also use Neptune's Harvest Fish Fertilizer. I find it for about $15 for 36 oz. I use 1 TB per gallon of water about once a month, so a little goes a long way.

CHEMICAL FERTILIZER

You can also use chemical fertilizers such as the one you mentioned, sparingly. Rose plants will use the nutrients. Just keep in mind that since inorganic fertilizers have high N-P-K ratios, they can burn plants if applied too heavily. They will also add salt to the soil as Buford mentioned and will not condition the soil. They are more of a quick "pick me up" for your roses.

There are more Magic Elixirs for Roses, but if you want to keep it simple, your roses will do fine with the above. If I wanted to keep things to a minimum, I would use the coffee grounds, composted manure and alfalfa. I live not far from Los Angeles and add my organics in February.

ANOTHER TIP:

Mulching helps retain moisture, which is important with our water restrictions. Enjoy your beautiful roses.

Here are some locations of animal feed stores in the Los Angeles area, but if these aren't close to you, you can look up "horse feed" on Yelp to find a closer location:

FOX FEED

17028 Sierra Hwy, Canyon Country, CA 91351

Phone 661-252-9790

TRIKEE TACK

1840 Riverside Drive, Glendale, CA 91201

Phone 818-242-4540

DAMOOR'S FEED & TACK

1532 Riverside Dr, Glendale, CA 91201

Phone 818-242-2841

EAST VALLEY FEED & TACK

11084 Sheldon St, Sun Valley, CA 91352

Phone 818-767-3060

BEST VALLEY FEED

13202-1/2 Van Nuys Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 91331

Phone 818-899-7813

@mariannese Wow, urine as fertilizer? Talk about frugal!

Thanks for the response, @vasue VA how do you know that the fertilizer I linked is a fast-release fertilizer? Aren't most granular fertilizers relatively slow release? HD sells Bandini fertilizers that specifically state, "for turf and lawn", this one states that it is a general purpose one, but for what exactly, I'm not sure. It has pictures of trees, shrubs, etc. Is the marketing phrase, "fast greening" the giveaway?

I'm considering buying this product, http://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-20-lb-Rose-Plant-Food-162116/203606314 which has micronutrients and is designed specfically for Roses (12-6-10) but I wish I could find them in 50 lb bags.

Apparently urine has an N-P-K ratio of 11-1-2, but should be diluted as mariannese said. Here is an article: How to Use Pee In Your Garden.

@first time gardener

On the HD Bandini, The link you provided. If you click farther you will see.

It's says fast release if you click on the specs below description.

However, the Vigoro you posted is slow-release.

By reading the bullet points under the Overview (didn't look past that to the Specifications section). "Fast greening" means that some (and I always assume all, unless specified otherwise) of the nitrogen is immediately available - so yes, a tip-off. As Samuel noted under the Specs, Time Release for this product is Fast Release.

• Contains water soluble nitrogen
• Fast greening
• For pre-plant and post-plant
• Formulated for use on lawns