How many years have they been planted? Also, which varieties? Roses can take 3 - 4 years to reach maturity. Depending on the variety, they spend the first few years growing roots.

Some are 3 years, the ones I want to be more vigorous are the ones I planted last year in my backyard. I have some Queen Elizabeth’s, love songs, pope John Paul, mr. Lincoln, and Francis Melind. I only used rose tone last year with them, and roped with organic. Thinking of using Osmocote this spring and see how they like it.

If you look at more recent threads on Roses and Antique Roses forums, there were discussions about Alfalfa Tea and everybody likes it. It works truly wonders for my clematis and roses, and now I use it on some other plants too. I'll share how I make it: I mix i2-4 cups alfalfa pellets in 5 gallon water, cover the bucket tightly, let it stand for 2-3 days, stir it, then cover tightly again and leave it for additional 2-3 days. Now it should be ready to use, drenching the soil with about 1/2 to 1 gallon per each rose shrub. I do like to stir in about 1/2 cup of seaweed and fish emulsion as fertilizers at the end. Alfalfa promotes the root growth and encourages basal breaks. My roses and other plants are also much more floriferous after getting alfalfa. I do it once in spring at the sign of the new growth, once right before it's time for them to bloom, and one more time in summer for those that are of reblooming type. Hope this helps and good luck with your roses.

P.S. If you post this question on the Roses forum, there is a good chance you will get more answers.

I have had good results with garden tone as opposed to rose tone. Rose tone didn't produce a lot of new growth for me but did increase flowering. Garden tone made lots of basal shoots. I am not sure if it was just a good bag, but the garden tone produced great results for me.

Also I don't fertilize new plants ( less than a few months) because sometimes too much fertilizer can stress or kill a new plant.

Mutual Rose can take all kind of fertilizer. I have the rose you listed, Anthony. I always have expired milk, horse manure, pee, fish fertilizer, banana skin, expired meat, and bone meal. My roses can handled them without any ageing them. But make sure you bury them deep for the small animal. Serious, no need to age any milk / pee for rose. Alfalfa meal is just doing fine, but don't get the result as those I list. And I feed mine during the summer every 3 weeks. During the spring, banana is a must for rose. During the bloom, I feed milk / pee/ fish fertilizer. Now is trying rabbit manure.

By the way, when your rose is "tire" which means during the bloom, has no fragrant or the fragrant is not as strong as perilous bloom, feed urine, especially for DA Rose, they can recovery the fragrant within 2 days. If you really want to age the urine, you can put some orange peel / lemon peel in the container.

I use super thrive and Alaska bloom.

Next season I will also use alfalfa meal

If you live in a area where bad insects are a problem then pushing a ton of fast new growth may cause more problems then you have...

Newer roses may take a couple years or so before they bloom there best..

Many people use composted manure (steer manure in bags in my case) in Spring. Horse manure is great if you can get it.

In addition to natural fertilizers which are good for the soil , I use a general dry rose fertilizer every couple of months to jump start the blooming cycle . Osmocote plus or Vigoro rose food or something similar .

I read that Neptune's Harvest fish/seaweed fertilizer was really good. I just ordered some, along with NH's Rose Formula Fertilizer - both liquids. Can anyone comment on Neptune's Harvest?

Judith

I use John and Bob's Blend on my roses and everything else I grow. I have used it for years before growing roses so when I started with roses I just used it for them too and they all seem to grow and bloom beautifully.