For a differing opinion........:-) There is way too much hype about growing roses with all manner of directions on how to amend soil to plant and instructions on fertilizing with "special" rose fertilizers routinely throughout the growing season. Is it necessary?? Or even soundly advised? Not really :-)

If planted in a decently fertile soil, roses - like any other flowering shrub - do NOT require massive doses of fertilizers to grow well, thrive and bloom as intended!! If you use a topdressing like compost or other good OM as a mulch, you may never need to fertilize at all. I have too much shade in my current garden for roses but grew dozens in a previous garden and the only fertilizer they ever received was bunny poop (when I raised bunnies) or alfalfa meal or alfalfa tea when the bunnies were no longer part of the scene.

SB lives north of me and in a slightly colder area but roses here rarely go fully dormant unless we experience some severe winter weather. They keep producing buds, if not full flowers, all winter then take a short rest before starting again in midspring. I prune and fertilize - if needed - then. And that's it! No need to keep repeating at all! Over fertilizing is counterproductive and can lead to increased pest and disease issues.

btw, neither the Miracle Gro or the Bio Advanced are organic products. Bunny poop, alfalfa meal and alfalfa tea are.

Thank you both for two very different opinions. I do live a bit north, but also east and we get some pretty hard freezes and our roses do go dormant. They don't always lose all of their leaves, but they stop growing. A few have buds right now that will never open.

While I'm newish to rose gardening I've been gardening for many years and don't give fert to any of out other plants. Listened to a pod cast where they interviewed Jeff Lowenfels, author of Teaming with Microbes. Truly fascinating what we are learning about the inter dependence of plants, fungus and bacteria and how they all help provide nutrient for one another. I know that traditionally roses are fertilized regularly and wondered if the practice had changed. Seems there is a bit of both ways of thinking.

The bed the new roses are planted in is very new and while it's good soil, lots of organic matter, good drainage, I don't think it has as much bio diversity for good nutrient uptake. Will watch how they're doing next spring and may give them another hit of the organic fert, but mostly as a boost as they get settled in and I have a chance to top dress with compost and bunny poop. :o) We actually do have a number of wild bunnies and they do poop all over the place.

Thanks,

sb

Does the thinking change for roses in a container? 5 of the new roses are planted in big ceramic pots.

Yes, containerized plants should be treated differently from those in the ground. Preferred container soil mixes are really soil-less and consist of materials that have little to no nutrient value. As with all containerized plants, the only nutrients they receive are those supplied by the grower as fertilizer. And with a need for frequent watering, fertilization often needs to be frequent as well, as it is flushed or leached away with irrigation.

The difficulty is remaining fully organic while growing in containers. Organic ferts require processing by the soil microbiology to become available for plant uptake. Container potting soils - because they are not 'soil' - are lacking the populations necessary to process these fertilizers so they are very ineffective.....almost pointless :-) Growing in containers - whatever the plant type - is best addressed by a complete liquid or water soluble fertilizer with all necessary trace elements. Or a slow release product like Osmocote.

where are you big city name.. zone is not good enough ...

if you are int he northern hemisphere ... you do not fert in late fall ...

if this is research for next season all the power to ya.. but i hope you arent planning on running out now and fert'g ...

no matter what you do or use.. TIMING is probably one of the most important variables ....

ken

Ken, SB lives in northwest WA state and is well known to PNW posters (most often posts in Northwest Gardening). He is also a very experienced gardener and really doesn't need your admonishments about what to do when!

Yes Ken, as GG says I live in PNW, zone 7b. My question is not so much about timing, but rather whether to fertilize at all. Some of the research over the last 10 years or so is indicating it's not needed and in fact reduces the biodiversity that enables a plant to extract nutrients from the soil.

Organic gardening has talked about feeding the soil for many, many years, so that's not really new, but some of the recent research about the intricate web of interactions is truly remarkable. The more we learn the more in awe of nature I become.

I grew many, many roses in the ground for more than 30 years and gave them nothing but good soil and a nice thick mulch in spring. They were fabulous!