Ingrid, I know you have been doing a lot to/for your baby roses. If they were mine, I would give them some shade if they are in hot sun all the time (I use shade cloth clipped to some sort of cage with clothespins, and water (which I know you are doing), and then LEAVE THEM ALONE for at least 2 months. Sometimes baby/newly planted roses just need time to grow, with no amendments/food. Also, if it is hot where you are, in mid August many roses go dormant, and will wake up again when temperatures get lower.

Jackie

Jackie, the roses are in dappled shade, and fortunately the most heat we've had is in the upper nineties, and actually usually lower than that. I think my laser beam focus on them 24/7 is making them nervous. The recent rain should help, and meantime I'll try to calm down!

I agree with Jackie. A hefty dose of benign neglect wil go a long way especially after your lovely rainfall.

Pruning the babies is not recommended. I do dump coffee grounds around, but I don't know if it makes any difference.

I have seen worm castings and fish fertilizer do wonders but the diluting the ff in H2O will be difficult for you I realize. I use 2 gal watering cans if I feel the urge.

Osmocote Plus is very easy too. A sprinkle would never hurt.

Hi, Ingrid. I've read recommendations pro and con. This article from Gardner's World seems to be reasonably researched and easy to follow: https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/maintain-the-garden/coffee-grounds-for-plants/

There have been people on this forum who have used coffee grounds with at least no harm to their roses. Remember Christopher, who, even though a renter, had (has?) an inspirational garden, then worked briefly on a church garden and then at a cemetery? He was very much a use-what's-available gardener and made a deal with local coffee shops to pick up their grounds for free for his roses. He wrote about it but I have had no luck lately finding and pulling up old topics. His roses looked wonderful and seemed to thrive under his care.

Mainly espresso here - so our grinds is more powder than coarse.

I dump it everywhere and anywhere but don't approach it specific to the plant. Figiure it's just good OM for the wormies to thrive in

Sheila, I appreciate your remark about pruning not being a good idea. We have after all seen that the pruning done by the squirrels did the roses no good at all!

Karen, I do indeed remember Christopher and the beautiful garden he made. He had lots of interesting roses, and I wish he were still posting Wasn't his name here aqua eyes?

Sad to say, I have not seen a worm here in a very long time which I suppose doesn't bode well for having a rose garden. The snails, frogs and many other little creatures are also gone, although thankfully there are still some bees around, although reduced in number.

I just learned that we received well over two inches of rain in our area during our "storm" event. If that doesn't do the trick then I don't think anything will. I'll be receiving three more roses at the end of September and if by that time some of these roses have shown no growth I'll take them out, mainly because I have little room left to plant in the low-squirrel area. Right now I need to see some progress while I'm still able to walk around outside.

Ingrid, every day diligently I mixed my husband’s coffee ground, my tea leaves, crushed boiled egg shell and chopped banana peels, and applied them around the rose plants. I raked the soil a bit to cover or mix. I don’t know whether it makes much difference, but we have a lot of earthworms so at least it can’t hurt.

Give your baby plants a little time. With plenty of water they will thrive. Good luck 🌹

Totally agree with all of the above comments-except I, personally , would never, ever try fish fertilizer again, as it attracted badgers which were extremely distructive and hard to evict. You already have enough beastie problems, Ingrid! so be careful.

I can fully relate to your impatience, but again,sad experience has taught me the hard way that trying to push growth can easily result in one killing a plant. You've gotta resist and leave them in peace, aside from the quiet devotion of keeping them watered. At this time of year, in my hot climate, roses do indeed go dormant-or as close to true dormancy as they ever come. Remember, we all need to just rest sometimes, and roses in warm climates, with brief, far from truly cold winters don't get to really rest then either.

As for earthworms, I have very few of them, too. I must find time to read up on them on Internet, but my guess is that they need constant moisture and coolness in order to survive; I think that those that I do see during winter and early, early spring just get killed off once the temperatures go up and the soil becomes like concrete.

Coffee grounds are great as organic matter, but seriously I don't think there exists a single miracle solution, except for patient devotion. Good luck!

I like jacqueline9CA advice...

I'd wait until next year to try coffee grounds... Yes earthworms love that stuff...lol

judijune, your helpful post inspired me to look on Amazon for compost and horse manure, and of course, wouldn't you know it, they had dozens of different kinds. I'm going to choose one and I imagine that couldn't hurt the roses but only help to provide a more nourishing environment for them. At least I'll feel that I'm doing something useful, thank you for that suggestion. It would be lovely to be able to greet an earthworm or two!

Thanks a bunch, everyone, for your kind support that is not only practically helpful but emotionally nurturing. I so appreciate being a part of this community again.

Edited: I chose the Michigan Peat 5240 Magic Compost and Manure; I hope it really is magic!

I also get very impatient waiting for potted baby roses to grow ! I have burned a few in my early days . I have learned to be a little patient . But I do try a little to speed things up . After potting them up , I leave them in morning sun only spot . When new growth starts , I scatter a little Osmocote .

Then every few days , I will give them a teaspoon of seaweed or fish emulsion in a gallon of water . once a week I will use 1/4 tsp of Super thrive . Usually Immediately I notice new growth .

Ingrid, I use tea leaves, coffee grounds and banana peel juice. Does it work ? Lets just say that it doesnt hurt snd I feel like I am doing something.

Ingrid, when I came to my present property, I never saw an earthworm anywhere. After a quite a while, they appeared where I had planted. I can only assume they came in the cow manure I used when planting roses. I still have areas where there are none. The other day I emptied an old bag of potting mix and found several mature earthworms in it. Also, we got a lot of wood chips from a tree lopper (free, as they are glad to find somewhere to get rid of them), and the areas where we spread them are now alive with earthworms.

I think any mulch is good, and banana peels dug into the soil are supposed to work wonders for roses in particular.

Moved in here July of 2021 starting using well composted manure/compost topped off with wood mulch in Spring of 2022... I already notice an increase in earthworms...So like titian1 mentions any good mulch is good... :-)

Good luck ingrid....

I'll keep an eagle eye out for earthworms after I've had the gardener spread the compost. It probably should have gone into the planting holes, but oh well. I did have the soil amended when planting. Just went out and looked, but not the tiniest new growth after the rain. I think the roses are playing with me.....

Ingrid, maybe they're just happy to get enough water to grow more roots. 🙂

Feiy Lo, that's an excellent point. I tend to forget that what's happening below is at least as important as what's happening above.

You might have to back off from looking at them so much to keep your sanity...lol

Make sure they are well protected from critters and try your best to relax ingrid...If its meant to be they will grow new top growth when the time is right for them to do so.....

Until then all we can do is wait and see what happens...Thats the hard part for sure... Wishing you the best Ingrid...

Stellar advice, dear Jim, and something I have to keep in mind constantly. When I had a garden full of roses I was for sure not constantly hanging over them to encourage them to do more. Having had none for some years now does increase the hunger for blooms tremendously. I will however endeavor to stifle myself before I drive everyone crazy here. I think October and November are going to be great in my garden!

For anyone interested in trying the coffee grounds..quite a few Starbucks in our region have a basket near the store entrance with big bags of coffee grounds, free to anyone who wants them.

INgrid - I agree that they might be getting shy with you looking at them all of the time! Like a pot of water you are trying to boil....

I do the same thing with newly planted, barely rooted cuttings. They will sit there for weeks (I am sure growing roots under ground), and then one day I see some of the growth buds swelling, and then.... However, it would probably be good if you took a week or so off from staring at them.

Jackie

Jackie, where were you this morning when I minutely and painstakingly examined each and every rose? All right, I promise to take a day off, cannot agree to more than that.

Ingrid, could you grow small plants offering quicker results to moon and triumph over while the roses are growing? I find this kind of distraction is very helpful in easing the pangs of waiting.

Melissa, smaller plants of any kind will be gobbled up unless I protect them too, but guess what? As I was watering to cool down the roses after lunch I spotted (quite by accident, of course) an inch-long shoot at the top of Grandmother's Hat! If it hadn't been so hot I would have done a happy dance. Then there was a tiny new leaflet on Ginger Syllabub and that made me feel that I was finally on my way. To keep down the ecstasy Wild Edric has three chewed-up buds but even that couldn't really dampen my spirits. The situation will never be perfect here but I'm more than willing to do what's necessary to experience the huge joy of having roses again!

Ingrid .. I’m so happy to hear you have some growth on your rose! The rain was so very welcome. I wish I had more rain barrels ! I have two but one has a leak so only fills halfway and they take forever and a day to fill a watering can from their spouts .I’m still so grateful!

I wanted to mention a bag of “ worm compost “ bought close by should contain worm eggs . I use worm gold ( but gosh the price has gone up and now it’s a “ treat “)

And I also have found someone in rainbow who makes their own worm compost and it’s fresh as can be ! And reasonable priced too.

I really wanted my own worm compost set up but my husband absolutely will not let that slide 😂.

I too collect the bags from Starbucks . Just make sure to spread it out or it’ll mold and mat and be terrible .

And I love feeding banana peels to the roses ! Another good thing is rice water from rinsing your cooked rice .

It sounds as though you've got your roses covered, Jen, with all kinds of goodies for them. I have to keep things pretty simple but I'm hopeful that the compost/manure will help, and I take turns giving my seven roses coffee grounds from my husband's coffee. I don't buy bananas in the summer heat because they spoil so quickly but we do eat them the rest of the year and I'll definitely save the peels for the roses.

How are your roses from Roses Unlimited doing? I was hoping you might have had a few blooms by now. Would love to see photos.

I can't of course be certain it's the coffee grounds, but now ALL my rose babies have tiny new growths! You all have gorgeous roses in your gardens and this might seem a bit underwhelming, but I can't tell you what an effect it's had on my mood and my life. The chance, admittedly small, that I might actually have some blooms this year makes me positively giddy!

Yay!! I’m so happy for you, Ingrid! Whether it’s because of, or in spite of, the coffee grounds, who cares?? I could do a happy dance for you, because I know how that feels to watch plants so closely and finally see growth! And the good thing is, that your coffee grounds and compost will nurture the soil and the act of putting them around your plants satisfied your need to do something, so it was worth your while.

That's great, Ingrid. I've just planted 5 new ones and I'm out there at least once a day seeing if anything's happening. So far nothing:( But the ones I planted 6 weeks ago are growing, especially a Bliss which got more sun. I got 2 and the other one has hardly grown at all.

I made a mistake on the other thread about the amount the grower said to water. He said 20 litres (5 and a qtr gallons) 3 times a week, preferably by sprinkler (or drip) in the morning. He also has a video about planting new bare roots. I was amazed to see how short he recommends pruning them. He says they sell them with large top growth as that's what people want. He cut them to about 5".

Here, own root roses are pretty small on purchase and pruning is not recommended for a couple of years.

I have gathered large bare root grafted roses could be pruned that way, but leaving more plant you get more blooms. Maybe they fear the tops will dry out, Trish, where you are. I know Australia can be very dry. I just googled Sydney yearly rainfall and it said 36 inches which is like Bart in Italy, but Western Australia is really dry.

I guess I am almost in the desert here with 18.35 average inches per year. I think Diane gets 10 and Ingrid I am afraid to ask.

I get less rain than Ingrid, I'm sure. Sydney with 36 inches of rain sounds like paradise. I never trim of the tops of any bare root roses I plant. I think that's a lot of hooey. I'm old so I can be crotchety. My Orange Julius has been about the best performing rose I've ever grown so far. He was a little bare root, and there was no way I would have pruned him smaller. Diane

Just checked and San Diego gets 12 inches per year average. That's drier than I expected. Diane

I'm more inland than San Diego and we generally have less moisture and more of a desert influence whereas San Diego is more lush and green. Thankfully this last winter season dropped a lot more rain on us and just about everyone else, so that was a blessing, except of course for the areas that were flooded. We can safely say that climate change has upped the drama quotient for many of us. We need roses more than ever to calm our nerves!

Ingrid, happy to hear your rose has new growth. You have long growing seasons so let us hope you woll get them to bloom later this year🌹

Thank you, f-a-n, I'm ever hopeful, although I imagine it will be a very modest show with these young own-root roses. Then there's the other worry of the squirrels attacking the plants when they grow out of their wire enclosures. This is my third or fourth effort to grow roses again, and it will be my last, so I'm hoping that I can grow at least a few to maturity.

Wish you the best of luck ingrid_vc zone 10 San Diego County! Looks like your growing conditions and wildlife must be hard on roses?

That is an understatement Jim regarding Ingrid.

Sheila, I think he recommends pruning very short as so much of the roots have been pruned. Also, for increased bushiness, I think. He demonstrated and showed even pruning that short it left 16 growth points. I've never pruned that short before this time, but nothing's ever dried out. It will interesting to see how the latest batch does.