Vaporvac, sorry to hear you've been ill. Are you out of hospital now? All the best. Trish

Vaporvac, I just saw your kind post now, a good deal after the fact, and first of all best wishes for your recovery. I appreciate your thinking of me at such a time and will certainly try this product. It sounds very promising! I'm sure that I won't be the only one benefiting from your post.

I just now ordered this and it's even more fortuitous as just a little while ago I received two roses from Rose Petals Nursery. One of them is a good size, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, but the second, the tea rose Mlle. Franziska Kruger, is very small and delicate looking. That didn't surprise me since I've had this rose before and it's one of the smaller and more finicky teas. I imagine this product will be very helpful in encouraging it to be a big girl as quickly as possible. Thank you, dear Vaporvac, and I hope you'll feel better very soon.

Vaporvac...I'll try to find that stuff too. Thanks for the heads up. Being in the hospital for a long period is so debilitating for your mood. I hope that you can shake that off and be out in the sun with your roses. :) :) {{{{HUGS}}}}

I ordered some too!

Bonide has one (same ingredients) on amazon and you can get 128 Oz for $16. Amazon.com: Bonide Garden Rich Root & Grow Root Stimulator & Plant Starter, 128 oz Concentrate 4-10-3 Fertilizer for Transplanting : Everything Else

I've got some on my wish list on Amazon for next year...it's $50!! Did anyone else pay a lot for this?

Carol, see the prices I listed in the summer thread. I may have to smuggle some to you in Canada. Diane

Very exciting idea! but I looked on Amazon Italy and the only Fertilome there is 4 liters for 158 euros-too much. There's another liquid root stimulator -Vermiorganic, at 16 euros for 1 liter; I might try that. I'll have to research a bit first , to find out what the principal ingredient of fertilome is, etc, etc. But I am intrigued...thank you, vaporvac, and very glad to hear that you're out of the hospital.

Yikes. Mine was cheap.

$50 for 16 oz. Bart Bart...if you find something cheaper, please let me know. Thanks!

Mine is $15.83 for 16 ounces. The gallon size is a lot cheaper at about $26.00, so 158 euros is pretty shocking. I wonder if part of that cost is import fees and shipping from the US, but still that's quite a markup. I hope the other brand is similar and will work just as well.

The main thing is the indoor b. Indole b. There are other rooting hormones and you could always add your own dilute bloom buster type fertiliser with a high P .

I would also encourage everyone to wear a mask and gloves when using rooting hormones of any kind, either powdered or liquid and even when just digging around in the dirt and using potting soil with vermiculite, perlite and even manures. 😊

For those who want to try the root stimulator at a cheaper price, you can get a whole gallon of it On Amazon for $25. I looked through my Amazon history and I’ve purchased it twice already, so I must’ve really liked it. Note that Voluntary Purchase Group and Fertilome are the same company. They are probably the same dull and literal people that named roses like Double Easy Orange , too.

Good point...especially with the perlite and vermiculite.

To Increase First Year Growth:

Using Alaska Fish Fertilizer & Alaska Morbloom liquid fertilizers combined and Rose Tone or Plant Tone, plus organic enriched fresh soil guaranteed to promote super growth! All my roses eventually are the tallest they can be, even in a freezing NY climate. They all exceed the height professionals say they will grow. They receive new soil twice a season sometimes, too. You can even give the fish fertiluzers once a week if needed. i do it about once a month.

Kitty - I use the same liquid fertilizers. :) :)

Carol, Have you noticed the amazing growth w/ the liquid fish fertilizers? Fish fertilizers, by many, are considered the best on the market. I had a few roses a year ago who had not done well due to freezes… so I put the fish fertilizer on them weekly. They started to grow very quickly! All flourish now!

I haven’t done any double-blind studies to prove it, but I really do think the root stimulator works. My local Ace Hardware Carrie’s the Bonide brand and I bought a bottle or two of that this spring for some very tiny bands I got from Burling in January. Some I got from her had quite a few rooted cuttings in one small pot. I painstakingly separated and potted them up and watered them with the Bonide Root and Grow. They all took off growing much more heartily than what my cuttings normally do. My tiny 3 inch stick of The Prince from Burling looked so fragile that I decided to use it on that one as well. By this fall, The Prince is a respectable looking bush more than two feet tall and getting ready for a nice fall flush. He is still in a pot and waiting till I have more landscaping done, but doing well. I plan to use this root stimulator on future cuttings.

My root stimulator is supposed to arrive some time today and I hope it's as wonderful as described here because my roses are not doing very well. There is no new growth at all and there's some yellowing of leaves and what looks like a bit of blackspot on some of the roses. I now have four roses sitting here in pots with one more, Quicksilver, expected to arrive soon. Here's hoping that the root stimulator is a miracle worker because nothing else has worked so far, even though the temperature has been perfect and everything has had lots of water and some MaxSea fertilizer. The larger size of the MaxSea was unfortunately stolen from my mail box which is dispiriting, as it cost $62, and it's the third or fourth time something has been taken. This never used to happen in all the years I've lived here until now, just another sign that things have changed, and not for the better.

Mine came yesterday and today I tried it on my new transplants. I need to try it in some potted roses unless you think that is too much for a potted rose.

I'm going to try it on all my roses, although at a reduced strength. I wish roses could talk so they could tell us exactly what they need, or maybe even just to tell us to leave them alone.

I know, right, Ingrid? Sometimes maybe they just need sunshine and water and patience while they do their thing. And we keep hovering over them, coaxing them to grow. I think often of the Frog and Toad stories where the toad hovers over his newly planted garden and sings songs, reads poems and plays music to his seeds. They don’t grow after all his effort so he yells and says, “Now GROW!” Frog comes along and tells him he is frightening the seeds. Discouraged, Toad sits down and falls asleep… and of course, when he awakes, his seeds are growing.

But then, sometimes they do need some extra TLC and how are we to know? I think we gardeners have to go by our gut feeling on that.

Make your own all natural plant hormones -root stimulator:

Try Honey Aloe vera or cinnamon, add to the roots, then plant them. Cool ideas!

September is always one of the hottest months here, but this year we've had nothing but cool and cloudy days which is frankly shocking. Climate change, no doubt, but it's not helping my roses. Wild Edric has what seems to be blackspot, and the new roses have unhappy-looking leaves and no new growth at all, except for a bit on Purple Skyliner and Darlow's Enigma. I'm so discouraged that I'm holding off planting the four new roses that arrived recently. They're huddled together on a chair outside the door and frankly right now planting them, erecting barriers around them and attaching them to the drip system seems like an exercise in futility. The squirrels will always be here and they're eating the leaves off bushes and trees in the area where the roses are, although not to the point where they're killing large established plants, but even that may only be a matter of time. What chance do roses have here any more? Precious little I'm now beginning to fear.

Ingrid, putting the new roses in 1-2 gal pots in potting mix and caging them to size up before planting them in the ground would be a good idea.

I know I'm a broken record on this topic, but this really would give them a boost.

I agree. Am I even get some egg cratecrate Should read milk crate to put over them. The sun should be enough for them to gain size. I have often done this with small rooted cuttings. I even have some metal baskets from an old freezer that I use and put a brick on top. Not the most attractive but it really works and that way they can grow up Quickly

Sheila and Vaporvac, thank you for your advice. Since the roses in the ground aren't doing well I'm going to follow your suggestion and put them in pots to see if that will help. There again, though, they will have to be protected and there is no place outside that the squirrels can't get to, and right now my energy is pretty minimal. It's supposed to be 67 degrees tomorrow and next Thursday it will be 90, so the September heat will be kicking in after all.

A hardware cloth cage around the pots would keep any critter out, Ingrid. 1/4 inch gauge and it is on amazon. Tin snips can cut the metal cloth.

Kitty - maybe the fish fert regime is what's keeping my roses with Downy Mildew alive.

Ingrid - people are stealing your root growth stimulator? Unreal. I'm sorry about that. I'm feeling really down about my roses having Downy Mildew. Like I said in another thread...growing roses isn't for the faint hearted. Good luck with your roses growing. You deserve the best. :) Ingrid...that's what I need...roses that can tell me what they need.

I also have tremendous luck using a soaker hose and watering every other day. I’m not sure how durable the growth is, but my rose bushes have grown a ton since installing them.

I'm beginning to think that there is too much shade being cast by the surrounding trees, most of which are not deciduous. In my climate trees are much more important than roses, and they are shading one side of the house, so I'm beginning to scale my expectations way back.

rosecanadian, people are stealing packages out of my mailbox no matter what's in them since it's not obvious what the contents. Our mailboxes are grouped together some way down the road which makes it easier for thieves. Several friends of mine have had their locked mailboxes smashed in so there seems to be no way to safeguard mail other than having a box inside the post office.

Ingrid, I suppose US Postal Inspectors are no help. They should at least check things out, and give you some group advice on how to deal with this. Video security cameras? From things I've read, theft in this country, whether mail, UPS packages, or retail stores, is out of control.

Carol, even with my background in science, I have some odd beliefs about plants. I sort of believe each rose has a personality, and that the roses and I communicate at times. Maybe you could try to communicate with your roses, asking them what they want. You might have to repeat your questions in your mind a bit. It won't hurt to try. They may tell you to listen to them and not other humans about their care. Diane

Aaron - I'm glad that you've found the secret sauce to getting your roses to grow so well. :) :)

Ingrid - that's terrible and disheartening.

Diane - I sort of communicate with my plants too. When I cut off a bloom or cut back a cane, I tell it that I know it hurts, but that in the long run, it's good for them. lol

Ingrid,

Potting up roses is the best! My weaker, sickly or small roses have jumped in growth after being potted and I move them to the most sunny spots. Caging them sounds great, too too! Watering daily is what I do in warm weather-they have monster amazing growth as a result. of my nutient program. Also, the weekly fish fertilizer is recommended for really fast growth! Wow does it work!

Yes, Carol, fish fertilizing is simply amazing in spring/summer fir your Canadian weather. ! If applied weekly they jump start. Apply monthly for normal growth. However, since you will be having frosts soon, no more fertilizing for you-they need to go dormant.

i use these 2 fish liquid fertilizers in combination to get enough nutrients…

Alaska Fish Fertilizer

5-1-1 high in nitrogen for rich green leaves/canes growth

Mornloom 0-10-10, rich in Potassium and phosphorous for beautiful blooms and good rose health

Kitty, that is the combo that I use too and have had good success.

Since I have been doing a bunch of transplanting I am trying the root stimulator. I have stopped fertalizing at this point so hopefully the root stimulator isnt too much.

Wonderful, Kristine! Let me know what kind of root stimulator you use & it’s effective? Love the fish combo!

Ha! I'd be terrified to use the fish fertilizer for fear the ground squirrels would eat the whole rose trying to find the yummy fish.

I too believe in communication, with plants and animals both, since I believe we're all connected in this great web of life. Of course they don't always choose to listen or sometimes we're too dense to understand what they may be screaming at us. I know my cat would agree!

Squirrels like nuts; but not meat as in fish. If vourse my squirrels stay away when I use it.

Kitty, the ground squirrels in my yard would eat absolutely anything; they're not picky like tree squirrels. I used to feed them table scraps (I no longer do that) and they did not turn up their noses at anything, and would happily devour enchiladas, lasagna and meat loaf. The only thing they turned their noses up at was parsley.

Ingrid...lasagna? lol Unreal. Who knew?

Those squirrels must actually be weird rats with a penchant for Italian and Mexican food. Give them some cilantro. Eeeeech. I'm a cilantro "taster", as was Julia Child. To me it's more ghastly than liver. Diane

Fish fertilizer was a total fiasco for me. It attracted badgers like mad. These critters were extremely destructive,digging up roses, moving stepping stones, dispersing my wood-chip mulch which had cost me so much labour to apply (and money to buy, too. It's not free here in Italy). They are unbelievably strong. Since badgers are also VERY territorial, it was also extremely hard to get rid of them, even when I had long ago stopped with fish fert, bone meal, etc. , It took me two years of hard work, plus a lot of money, to attatch a sort of double "apron" at the bottom of my garden fence,along with other physical barriers to finally dissuade them. So beware of this type of fert if you garden in a wild area. It's only adapted probably to gardens without serious "critter" issues.

Seems fish fertilizer is better for those who live in cities away from carnivore critters, Lol Lol! Let’s see, there are forests a few blocks from me…. the critters have not come to my yard yet. Ok, one skunk! Although Anastasia, my pooch, marks the yard borders, Lol! She’s a hunting dog by origin & loves to chase if I let her. Even the stray cats stay away!

Diane - you're a cilantro taster...so it tastes like soap for you? I've never tried it. I'm a bitter taster. I tried a strip for a test and I tasted it for a week...nothing could make the taste go away but time.

Bart - good point. :)

Carol, it tastes like a bad combo of soap and plastic, whatever that tastes like. I'm also a phenolphthalein taster. It's what's on the paper strip, and the ability to taste it is due to a particular gene. We're special. Diane

Cilantro is soap to me also

Diane - special...lol :) :)

Cilantro tasted like peppery soap to me the first time I tried it. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would ruin a perfectly good taco with that pathetic stuff and I took all of mine out. Guess what? I love cilantro now. I don’t know, maybe pepper soap is an acquired flavor? ;)

Judi - lol :)