I apply granular fertilizer in early March every year. I think the highs are in the 50s about then, and we're still having regular freezes. Never had a problem. Diane

I don't think temperature is a huge factor. Making sure you don't have a handful of it resting against any shank or cane where it WILL burn the plant and potentially kill it is far more important. Hopefully, there isn't enough rain at the lower tempts to dissolve the nitrogen and flush it through the soil before the soil is warm enough for the plants to make use of it.

Also, there needs to be enough rain ahead to water the granules in. I need to fertilize during the winter here, to get the organic fertilizers to wash in and start working. Summer here there is no over ground water, just emitters so any fertilizer would not work unless it was watered in by hand.

Since you cannot water in the fertilizer, nor depend on rainfall to do the job either, I think that applying the granules now would work very well. However, a light cover of compost, fine bark mulch, well aged manure, etc., just to cover the fertilizer, should help keep the nitrogen in the fertilizer from oxidizing (?), thus some of it being lost to the atmosphere.

To recap: Apply the fertilizer to the soil surface around each rose now, being careful not to apply it upon the rose's crown or too close to the crown, so as not to burn the crown or any potential fresh basal breaks that are not seen yet, but just getting ready to come forth in spring. I would not scratch up the soil surface at all, just let the fertilizer lay upon undisturbed soil, before or after its application. Then follow through with a light mulching of: compost, fine bark mulch, well aged manure, etc., just enough to cover the fertilizer.

Dry fertilizer applied around here where rainfall is dependable, takes about 6 weeks during the active growing season to start to show its effects. For you bart bart, with rainfall factored in, dry fertilizer will make itself available for growth more slowly. Therefore fertilizing now makes sense to me.

Hope I helped.

Moses

Long time NYT readers may remember Anne Raver advocating just what roseseek said here now, several decades ago.

I started yesterday. It's actually too cold right now, but thetemperatures are due to go up in the next few days. The garden is so big, and I can't get out there every day,so it's best to start now.Thank you all for your advice and solidarity.

Moses - thank you! Our gardeners are coming next week, and I was just contemplating whether it was time to fertilize or not (also time to prune some of the roses). You answered all of my not - verbalized questions! My husband has been complaining that he has run out of places to store his home made compost, and has about a half dozen of those huge black plastic bags full of 2 year old compost he needs me to use up! By the time 2 years has gone by since he removed the previous year's chopped up leaves, etc. out of the large compost thingy he built, and put it into the bags, it is really 3 years old, and is marvelous "black gold". So, I will spread Osmocote around the roses at the drip line, and then get the gardeners to help me spread the compost over it. We get so hot in the summer, and it does not rain at all for 6+ months then, so I try to make the compost layer thicker than you recommend, but that is because of our climate difference from where you are. You have encouraged me to get moving on this project!

Jackie

Jackie, I'm so jealous that you have a DH with many bags of homemade compost bugging you to get it onto your garden... lucky lady :-D

Jacqueline, you're using the, 'gold standard,' fertilizer with Osmocote. It is temperature sensitive, then moisture sensitive in the release of its nutrients. Timing releasing when the roses need it. It does not hurt to get the Osmocote applied now. It will just sit there waiting until the time is right to work its wonders. Osmocote, 6 month, is pricey, but a season long, one time applied feed makes it less painful to the wallet. I used it for the first time this past year and the results were so impressive, there's no going elsewhere for my roses' fertilizing.

I do fertilize with the composted pigeon manure applied in the late fall which gives the roses a big spring bloom'fest', then the Osmocote, applied at spring pruning kicks in for the rest of the season, well into autumn.

There is no hidden mystery involved, just adequate watering adjusted to rainfall amounts. This is mandatory for good continuous blooming. One inch of rainfall/supplemental watering per week with temps in the 70°s, two inches a week when temps are in the 80°s then, and three inches per week, either rainfall or watering per week when temps are in the 90°s.

Moses

I believe I killed 27 potted rose trees by applying too much(?) granular fertilizer (hunan manure/ Milorganite). The roses in the garden were ok, they had the same treatment. For years I have been using Bayers 2 in 1 ( for midge) and Miracle Gro, cow manure for all my roses and they were fine, until I started using Milorganite some of the potted rose trees started to go. It must be stronger than other fertilizers. Learn from my mistake, don’t put too much around each rose.

Pots are less forgiving. My potted Meyer Lemon is really being helped by Osmocote Plus.

I have been using Osmocote (I can get 9 mo version now on Amazon - 50lb bag) for over 20 years. It is great - I only put it on once a year, and then put a layer of compost on top of it. So, the Osmocote supplies nitrogen in case the compost uses up too much while rotting.

Right now all of my garden is feet (not inches) deep in yellow oxalis, which grows all over our area every Spring (which starts here in Jan) - our very wet winter so far seems to have made it explode even more than in a normal year. My gardeners are coming tomorrow, luckily, and the first thing I will ask them to do is pull the oxalis at least 4 feet away from any rose. It is easy to pull up, but of course the tiny pips it grows from are hiding 24 inches under the top of the soil, so I have given up on trying to get rid of it. I leave it where it is not smothering some plant I like, and in about 2 months it will just melt away. My DH likes to put it in his compost.

Anyway, my plan is to ask the gardeners to spread Osmocote around the roses after they rescue them from the oxalis, and then put a 2 inch layer of compost on the top of that. Oh, yes, and we do have a few roses which need pruning right now, although the old tea roses and the chinas do not - they do not seem to like being pruned, unless they have some dead wood.

Jackie