Thank you, Carol, for posting those pics. of roses in pots. Your Grand Dame is awesome, so many blooms !! PAK has lost of petals, same with Jubilee Celebration.

You did a great job with Brother Cad. (known to be stingy for most folks). Parfum de Grasse has a fantastic deep orange color. I like all your roses .. look really good & healthy.

Thanks, Straw!! Grande Dame is a fabulous rose!! It's like that all summer!!

Bro. Cad. is one that I fertilize more than the others. It needs it to perform better.

I love the color of PdG!!! It's still a new bare root rose - so the bush needs to grow a bit more. I'll see how it does next year as to whether I would recommend it.

I've worked really hard at keeping the roses looking good through all the rain/hail. I've probably fertilized (organically) twice to three times as much as normally. It's starting to pay off with the rains tapering off. I think the clay in the pots is a good thing.

Carol

Carol: Agree to clay on top, and fluffy-potting soil below. One year I bought Sonia Rykiel as tiny own-root .. For the pot I put in 3/4 fluffy-potting soil, ran out of that, so I put my high-magnesium clay on top. That was the BEST pot in the 24+ own-roots that year .. pumping out 15 blooms for the 1st flush.

Re-post the info. that I posted in 2013:

I was googling "Healthy roses" and found this blog by Raft Island Roses Owner Frank Gatto with pics. of the most healthy roses! Here's a summary of his tips, most appropriate for acidic soil, cool & rainy PNW area:

"Five gallons per week per rose" is Gatto's advice. "Water deeply," he stresses.

For planting, Gatto mixes 50 percent native soil and 50 percent organic compost or good potting soil and adds a cup each of bone meal and soil sweetener (lime). He also gives established plants a cup of lime in March, for optimal soil pH.

Gatto advises giving roses small but frequent meals. He uses a balanced granular fertilizer with an N-P-K number no higher than 20 (such as 15-15-15), along with a blend of organic meals including alfalfa, cottonseed, fish, blood and kelp. "I give each one a handful (about 1/2 cup) every 3 weeks."

Besides his nursery, Frank Gatto has 300 roses in his yard, and 950 roses in his other house. He and his son breed 250 new roses.

Raft Island Rose Nursery's tips for healthy roses

Awesome!! Yay for clay!!

I fertilize more than that...but the rain balances that. Even without rain, I fertilize more than that. I give organics every week. But they're probably not that strong of organics. Once a week (in normal non rainy weather) I give worm leachate and Alaskan Fish stuff mixed in a large wheelbarrow with sprayed in water (to make the worm leachate nonaerobic). Then once a month a more powerful organic like Plant Tone or Gaia stuff. I agree with his soil mixture. That's what I do.

Three hundred roses in his yard!!!! and almost a thousand at his other house!!! Oh my goodness!!! Amazing breeders too!!

I just looked at the link. Those are GORGEOUS, HEALTHY roses!!! Wow!!!

Carol

Carol

Straw quoted, "Gatto advises giving roses small but frequent meals. He uses a balanced granular fertilizer with an N-P-K number no higher than 20 (such as 15-15-15), along with a blend of organic meals including alfalfa, cottonseed, fish, blood and kelp. "I give each one a handful (about 1/2 cup) every 3 weeks."

Straw: A question. If an expert like Frank Gatto was using a 15-15-15 chemical fertilizer in addition to so much organic stuff for better health of his roses than does it mean that it is difficult to get healthy roses with organic fertilizers alone and some amount of synthetic fertilizers are to be used to address the deficiencies?

Carol: Your Fire Fighter and SBP look fabulous, in fact all your roses do. I am have already booked SBP with a good nursery that will be delivered in Decembler. Unfortunately Fire Fighter is not available here. Your PAOK also looks great.

Waiting for more pics....

best regards

Wowza! I totally forgot to praise your Zaide and Radox Bouquet, both of which I'm also considering to place next to Dark Desire. Seeing your beautiful plants makes me wish I could plant them all.

Vaporvac - Zaide and Radox Bouquet (both new bareroots) I totally recommend. I think they will both by wonderful roses!! Yes, don't we all wish for 30 acres to plant as many roses as we want. LOL

Khalid - My roses are doing really well with organics. I don't miss the chemicals for my roses at all. My Grande Dame especially is loving the new regime. I wouldn't recommend SBP for anyone's garden based solely on how it's been in mine. It's a wimpy plant that flowers then waits. But YMMV. It might actually love the heat you get. Maybe it's just not a cool weather plant. Firefighter can look a little black around the edges here (cool here). I love it so far. I'm really glad I got it. I'm loving PAOK so far too. I'll see how it does next year. The flowers are glorious!!

Thanks you two!!

Carol

Khalid: Frank Gatto lives in Raft Island, WA. Here's his climate "Raft Island, Washington, gets 44 inches of rain per year. The US average is 37. Snowfall is 14 inches. The number of days with any measurable precipitation is 155. The July high is around 76 degrees. The January low is 34."

Mr. Gatto gets rain every other day, plus cool climate at 76 F max. If I do NPK 15-15-15 in my hot & dry summer of over 90 F, my roses will burn !! Mr. Gatto's cool & rainy climate leaches out nitrogen and potassium, so he can use 15-15-15 without burning his roses. Plus most of his roses are grown in loamy potting soil, which leaches out nutrients.

My heavy clay retains nutrients too well, thus low-dose, low-salt organics is best. For pots, I use SOLUBLE organic & low-salt fertilizer NPK 4-3-2 every other day. For hot climate, tiny doses, and more frequent SOLUBLE fertilizer is best.

I don't even apply granular after June when the temp is over 80, it's too risky, that applies to gypsum with salt index of 8, compare to chemical fertilizer with salt index over 70. I burnt a few roses recently with gypsum.

I like what Carol wrote: " Once a week (in normal non rainy weather) I give worm leachate and Alaskan Fish stuff mixed in a large wheelbarrow with sprayed in water (to make the worm leachate nonaerobic). Then once a month a more powerful organic like Plant Tone NPK 5-3-3 or Gaia stuff."

That's similar to another nursery in cooler Connecticut recommended: Once a month with Rose-tone NPK 4-3-2, and weekly soluble fertilizer NPK 10-10-10.

I prefer Tomato-tone NPK of 3-4-6 for my alkaline clay (more potassium via green sand for blooming).