Watering Your Roses

Consistent watering is the key to good roses.

1. Water is the vehicle that brings nutrients to your roses.
2. Weekly watering is necessary in order to provide 1" of water per week to your roses.  If you have very sandy soil, you need more water; clay soils need less water.
3. Overhead watering is OK if done early in the day.  This enables the leaves to dry before nightfall.
4. Rain gauges are helpful accessories to check rainfall.

Feeding Your Roses

Roses are heavy feeders and love snacks, too!

1. Roses are living things and need a constant food supply to flourish.
2. ALWAYS water the roses thoroughly before and after feeding roses.  NEVER fertilize in a dry rose bed.
3. Fertilize on a regular schedule.  First feeding should be in the spring immediately following your spring pruning.  Use 5-10-5 at the rate of 1 cup per established rose bush or a rose food according to package directions.  Scratch this fertilizer into the top 1" to 2" of the soil.  Keep the fertilizer off the canes and bud union.  If using an organic fertilizer mix, 1 to 2 cups of a balanced organic mix can be scratched into the soil between the bud union and the outer drip edge.  If the bush is well established and large,  more organic mix can be used.    WATER WELL AFTER FERTILIZING.
4. When your roses have buds the size of split peas; they would love a snack.  If you are in the mood for a nosh, give each rose bush 1 gallon of liquid fertilizer, either tea brewed from alfalfa or chemical/organic fertilizer diluted per manufacturer's directions (Miracle Grow, liquid seaweed, Bloom Booster, etc..).  There are many fine liquid fertilizers on the market.  Make your choice.
5. After the first bloom cycle (around July 5-10), fertilize with solid fertilizer again.  Around August 15-20, do the liquid fertilizer thing again.  DO NOT add fertilizers to your roses after September 1.   This will prompt new growth that will not harden off sufficiently before winter and will die back.
6. Each year in the spring, it is good practice to add 1" of compost to the top of every rose bed, carefully working it into the soil.