Im in 7B Maryland and experiencing the same thing its crazy! about half of my 15 roses have leafed out

Sophia what is your plan? Have you fertilized this early before? I am afraid to encourage them and then have a hard freeze when they are budded. At the same time I want to fertilize so I can get a nice spring flush.

Dianela, I am having the same dilemma. I am willing to bet that we'll have another freeze. I can't believe how many of my roses are leafing out.

Dianela, sooooo i went ahead and fertilized with rosetone. My thought process was that since its low amounts of NPK it wouldnt make THAT much of a difference. Im sure its going to have a few nights in the 30's, but i dont imagine that ruining the new leaves? very curious to hear if anyone else has had this problem in the past. I saw that Diane had went ahead and fertilized and she's in our zone. Obviously her flowers are beautiful and she knows what she's doing. Maybe she will jump on here and tell us what she thinks. So hard to figure out! I think the shifting zones/ funky weather is throwing everything for a loop

Sophia, I have had this happen before. Several nights in the 30's aren't a concern. A few days in the 20's with strong wind are, after perennials are up, shrubs have leafed out and fruit trees have bloomed. Easter freezes are a thing here in Tennessee. This may not be true of where you are in Maryland. Zone numbers are not very helpful when it comes to predicting weather patterns.

Dianella, I'm not sure I'm qualified to give advice but I recall someone (Seil?) saying that organics can be put down safely at almost anytime. I think I'll go that way for now and wait till after Easter for anything stronger. I'm not very brave.

Mine are leafing out too and I bought a 50 lb bag of Plant Tone for them but want to wait awhile longer before putting it out even though most of it is organic and will take time to become available to the plants. There's some food in it that is more readily available. I wanted to put down some mulch to conserve some of the soil moisture but am waiting till I put down the Plant Tone. Might wait at least till mid March in NC. It's pretty likely we'll have some freezes, maybe even for several days. Expecting one tomorrow night down to 27.

Split your roses into 2 similar groups. Think ”matched controls”. It may not be easy, but do your best.

Fertilize one group early, and administer usual care to the other group. Report your results on these pages.

I would only add that splitting into 2 groups should be done at random to proof the outcome.

It would be hard to split into two groups since half of mine are leafed out and the other half aren't yet they are all in the same area. I dont have duplicates of any of the varieties, but if I did that would be a cool experiment

I applied fish emulsion as a gentle kickstart just in case we have a freeze. im going to put out coop poop in another week or two. then do the tones after/closer to easter to be on the safer side of guess fertilizing.

Thank you all for the replies. I think to be cautious I am going to add black cow manure and wait a few weeks for the stronger fertilizer.

Dianela,

I think you made a good choice. I agree with the consensus that organics are okay early, but wait for the chemical fertilizers, why tempt fate and risk damage from a late frost?

Here in Zone 9B I had already applied my organics in January. We don’t get frost damage, but I think if I applied chemical fertilizers too early, they’d just get leached out before the roses are ready, and feed the winter weeds.

Dianela, your new property is beautiful! What a nice view! Is that Tennessee River? I am in NY zone 6b, we are having a warm winter. 60’s F weather is coming in Feb! Normally we have single digits in Feb. Not anymore. If going by this winter’s weather we should be 7a pretty soon. I think I am going to put Lowe’s human manure out next month.

Where is Seil? Just saw someone mentioned her here.

I think Michigan Summers for Seil or someplace cold.

Thank you Summers! Yes this is the Tennessee river. The view is lovely and the wild life incredible, unfortunately the lot has very little sun for roses so It won’t be my forever home. We have land a couple of miles away and are working on a new home where hopefully I will build my forever garden.

You are so lucky to find a spot by the Tennessee river! The view is amazing!! Are there any alligators in the river? You could do short term rental with a view like that. Glad to hear you have land to create your forever garden! Your old garden was so beautiful. Good luck with your new build! 😁

As far as I know, one can apply organics any time of the year ,at least in warm areas. Here in Tuscany the winters -at least in the past few years-have been so short/almost non-existant, and I started applying my slow-release granular fert in January,because the roses were just beginning to leaf out.

Thank you summers. I hope your temps stay steady, it would be nice to not have any more crazy deep freezes.

So far no alligators on pickwick lake that we know off, but rare sightings are reported by Huntsville which is only an hour away. We bathe in it every summer and enjoy it. last summer we abandoned our favorite lake beach due to my husband luckily spotting the copper head not 20 feet from us. I was not calm, I grabbed my baby and ran to the boat to never return. Renting may be a possibility since pickwick is such a big bass fishing lake, but I am not sure we can handle the maintenance.

I will miss the animals the most. Nothing can compare to roses and gardening so ill be alright

Wow, that was a close call! I'd keep kids away from the water for safety. Glad you are building a new home! Build a pool too. :-)

Dianela,

Are you moving? I may have missed something? Are those photos your roses now? All leafed out? If so, they look goid to prune & fertilize.

I prune and fertilize w/ Tones anyway when I only have 1/2 inch nodes & a few sm leaves, 50 outside, a week or 2 weeks before forsythia bloom. Our weather this season may be a whole month or more ahead of schedule. I prune when there are a few mild freezes left…not much…. my roses don’t care…..and fertilize a couple weeks after pruning. 1st I prune, then new soil/manure I put down, then fertilize… so it all looks really nice! With natural soil/manure/Tones -they do well. I see chemical deposits in the ground sooo I stopped chemical fertilizers. Love seeing the happy natural soil do it’s decomposing and natural process to feed plants-looks sooooo healthy!

Organics tend to work when the temps come into play and the soil biology is working...

So earlier vs later - I don;t matters as it's soil temps, etc. It takes time for the organics to do their thing

I used to do it right after the 1st pruning but now hold off a extra 2-3 weeks depending on leafout. Mainy as early in the season, tends to be day long rains, so I'm semi concerned it's just washing out.

Ok, crazy question. Do I need Tones and fertalizer? I have never used both in the Spring.

On the bags available, I like Dr Earth Rose - more alfala ....Tone's generally has more chick poop

I fertilize only once in early spring when the new shoots are more than 6" tall.

I usually just fertilize in spring too but if a plant is new I might give it some Miracle Grow later. I think I've heard that Tones have some small amount of readily available chemical fertilizer in them too.

My nearby rose friend likes Milorganite, made from human sewage, but it grosses me out a bit. I don't like to get my hands in the dirt if it has had Milorganite on it. What if it carries viruses? I'd rather get horse or cow manure. Last time I bought Black Cow in a bag it seemed to have a heck of a lot of sand in it. Very expensive for what you get.

Sometimes I put down a Tone early and follow it with 10-10-10 right before a rain. I don't get manure very often anymore.

Dianela! wow! What a glorious retreat you have created . You have done so much work and each area is so well thought out. Really nice !!’

Thank you very much Kristine. It has been a fun project. I probably shouldn’t have done it since I am waiting to move again but I didn’t want to spend years in a place without a flower garden and everything looked so rough after years of neglect I couldn’t help it. Maybe by the time I do it a third time I would have learned something, I have certainly have killed plenty of plants by now lol.

I have had the opportunity to test lots of varieties of roses for blackspot resistance here which has been a good adventure.

You have done a beautiful job! You’re a rose fairy, roses follow you!

Dianela - you've finally made the move...and look at what you've accomplished!! You really have an eye for design...everything is wonderful...I really like how you painted the front brick! And you're moving again...wow, you really have the determination and persistence to tackle this job over and over again. It should really help with resale and in the meantime, you get to live with beauty. :) :)

Wow...you've done a lot of work! How nice to be so near to the water. I think painting your house added a lot to it and I like the contrast of the black metal trellises. You kept some of the good elements going on and added to them beautifully.

It looks so gorgeous and peaceful,

completely new and fresh. I especially enjoyed the area hiding the propane (I think?) tank-beautifully camoflauged!!

I am blown away by how beautiful your yard and garden are! You must have a professional garden design background! In fact I have seen professionally designed gardens that are not nearly as good.

Dianela, your garden is really something special. A bit off topic but did you prune that juniper into its current shape? That's really taking a lemon and making lemonade. It sets off that whole bed and is a great focal point for your garden.

Dianela

Those new flower beds are just drool worthy. I have also never seen retaining wall blocks alternated like that to edge flowerbeds , it is a terrific look that I might need to steal from you!

Thank you very much summers. I do love gardening so much, it has really made my life better.

Carol thank you! I hope whoever buys this property likes the plants. My two next door neighbors are flower gardeners too and I have gotten to corrupt them some by gifting them roses.

Thank you very much Erasmus. My husband and his dad did the white washing of the house for me and I’ll be forever grateful for their hard work. My childhood home in Cuba was whitewashed, and I have a thing for white houses now. I love your garden and I appreciate all your rosé recommendations and comments.

Oursteelers Thank you! lol that propane tank has been bothering since we moved (we use it a lot and I love the gas logs, but I don’t want to see the tank). It is still visible, but when the bright orange bed is blooming it is definitely less of an eyesore.

mmmm12Co Thank you very much for your kind comment. I definitely do not have any design background but I wish I did. I do subscribe to the English garden magazine after hearing about it from Diane, and try to get ideas from their gardens. Of course I can’t really do stuff on that scale but it is fun to improvise. Thank you kindly.

Karen Service I can’t take full credit for the juniper because it was kind of growing like that when we bought the property if a bit disheveled. We just styled it a bit more until it looked more put together. I wish I could dig it up and take it with me to my forever home (I may try)

Bent thank you very much! Those paver have been very useful, I hope you give them a try. I love all your garden beds and roses.