I generally dont feed on new plantings:year 1....I don't care much about top growth and would rather it just focuse it's thing below the soil line.

Now would be fine to fertilize. Your choices sound good for fertilizer. Any of the tones are fine. They charge more for rose tone for no reason.

I love the survival stories. Good luck to your QofS.

The usual recommendation is to fertilize new roses after their first flush.

Diane,

I like your fertilizing program. I need to study it further. Two applications a year, and organic fertilizer.....right up my alley. My problem would be getting physically into the roses to apply the second feed. My bed is 8 ft. deep with a fence at its back. I can't get in there for a second feed easily at all. First feed is a snap since it goes down right at first spring prune in March/early April when it is easier to navigate the bed. Everything is pruned back to ~<1 foot high then. That's why I like using the OsOsmocote Plus 6 month feed. Once and done................but the soil bio-life is severely compromised using raw inorganic nutrients as in Osmocote. The fertilizer acts as an antibiotic! Not desirable.

I need to find a successful means to apply a second feed.

Moses.

Moses, you scatter the fertilizer along and just within the drop line. I use a measuring cup. You don't have to get right into the center of the rose. Then I use a claw like tool on a long handle to scratch in the fertilizer a bit. I don't get down on hands and knees at all. Diane

Have I been doing it all wrong Diane ;-)

I like to get the mulch down early to mitigate the weeds. I'm able to get the 1st feed in right after doing the winter pruning and before mulch.

However, like at this time of the year, after deadheading, I wait for a few dry days......so that when I am on my knees.....I can pull back the mulch a bit and put a new stash of fertz on each plant and it's not a wet mess since the top is a bit dry.

I put compost down in November. The compost and all the plants I grow, perennials, roses, alyssum, etc, are the mulch. So I don't have to mess around with mulch when I fertilize. It's always dry here unless I water before I fertilize. Usually a rare rain comes along in Feb or Mar and waters the fertilizer into the soil a little. I watch the weather predictions constantly, as I imagine most of us rose nuts do. Oh, I don't have much of a weed problem, but grass can be a problem growing up into flower beds--a minor problem. If your method works for your with your kind of weather and using mulch, that's fine. The key is--are your roses doing well? Diane

Right or wrong, I sometimes put a little bone meal in the back fill while planting.

Next, I will fertilize with an organic fertilizer such as Rose Tone, or Mills Magic, once there are several leaves growing normally on the plant. I usually use about half the amount called for on the package directions.

I will lightly fertilize again -- just before its first flush.

If a new rose bush is struggling, I do not apply the first organic fertilizer application until it is growing more robustly, just before first flush.

My soil is sandy loam (very sandy generally). If my soil were richer, I might not amend it with bone meal when planting.