Hi @User! It's good to see you! Generally, organics are best digested in warm soil (approximately 70F, with available oxygen, available nitrogen and available moisture. That is when the soil bacteria are at their most efficient. If you have any periods left prior to "winter" conditions which approach those conditions, you may have some feeding accomplished prior to next season. If not, then the organics may have to sit, waiting for the proper conditions to be digested. As long as you don't stand the danger of losing them due to erosion, and as long as there really isn't any danger of stimulating a lot of soft, sappy growth before the danger period, why not put it down now? You likely have a lot to juggle once winter ends so if you can get some of it accomplished now, more power to you!

I'm in zone 7A in DE and I usually do not feed later than mid September. This year I used organic Jobe's rose food and organic Great Big roses in liquid form. They are blooming now for the last time this season.

Thanks to you both! Roseseek, I probably will go ahead and apply now. I don't think I'd lose too much to erosion. In any event, it's worth trying as an experiment. This spring was so crazy, both in the garden and professionally, that I just didn't get around to fertilizing some of my poor roses. They all did well anyway, bloom-wise (I think my soil is generally pretty good, and I do try to top dress with compost and manure), but I felt bad about it. I can only afford (time-wise and $-wise) one annual application of fertilizer for most of my roses, (I'll give liquid fertilizer boosts to a few who seem to need it) so it may be the case that a fall application is better than nothing!

@User you're welcome! In MANY cases, we over fertilize, probably along the same lines as over feeding our pets. It makes US feel good, but it's expensive, time consuming and often polluting. IF I give any of them anything, it's more along the lines of your liquid boost to the few which appear to require more. Otherwise, they get water, period. The dogs are doing MUCH better without all the treats, too!

To be honest, I'd spread the fertilizer in January or February. Sometime it is cold, but there isn't actual snow on the ground. Then it can start to decompose when it warms up in the spring without any dditional help from you.

I might put Milorganite on my Southeast corner roses soon and the South fence area of roses generally because I heard gophers might be deterred by it. Going forward, I'll plant in gopher wire cages but I have many in the ground already I want to protect. I'm still using the Gopher Hawk but the concrete heat baked soil of Summer prevented it's use then. One needs softer soil for it's best use. 26 gophers gone so far this calendar year. The 2020 total was 32.

Ooo! "Dead Eye Sheila"! LOL! Congratulations! I hope you're burying the carcasses in the garden. I've read they can smell their dead comrades up to 10' away under ground and that tells them to avoid that area. Plus, a dead gopher (or rat) easily takes the place of Miss Jekyll's "finally useful cat". She wrote that when they planted roses, they would "plant" a rabbit under each one until the "finally useful cat" became available. I used to plant any vermin I would make "finally useful" in the Newhall garden under roses and you could literally walk down the row and determine where the bodies were buried!

Yes, Kim, we are interring the bodies where we catch them. I also have castor oil granules to cast about. I am not sure how much these methods are helping, but every bit counts.