Planting Roses in the Fall
Planting Time
Rose Color
Roses Do Not Bloom
Safe Fertilizers
Selective Bug Killing
Spider Mites
Spray Bottle Question
Spray Schedule in Zone 5
Spraying Fungicide and Fertilizer on the Same Day
Top Soil
Transplanting Roses
TruGreen Chem Lawn
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Planting Roses in the Fall

Question:
Can I plant roses in the fall in my area (zone 6?) Any thoughts? And when is the absolute cutoff date to be safe since I am a chronic procrastinator and never seem to finish all my gardening projects on a timely basis! 

Answer:
My experience with fall planted hybrid teas was not all that great. Same varieties planted in the spring did better. Roses from the major suppliers are harvested too late for us in colder zones to get them in the ground soon enough to see any benefit from fall planting and any growth that may appear is not hardened off and gets frozen and dies. I can see where fall planting is helpful in warmer southern or western zones where there is no or mild winters. In Cold zones where the soil freezes you may as well wait until spring to avoid possible loss.

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Planting Time

Question:
After reading this forum and doing a little research, I have decided to give roses a try! I am interested in shrub roses due to their disease resistance. I recently visited the local nursery and from information/recommendations on this forum I saw 2 types I would be interested in: Canadian Explorer series (many to choose from, Cabot, Davis etc) and Bonica. I did not find Knockout.

My question is: if I buy a rose now, can I keep it in a pot for a while until my bed is ready and plant in the fall (September likely), or should I wait to buy and plant next spring? I am on Vancouver Island BC, similar to Seattle in climate.

Answer:
You can plant potted roses anytime as long as you keep the rootball and soil around it intact and water deeply and often until it's assimilated into it's new home. It'll probably not even know it was transplanted. If you buy your potted rose now, make sure you keep it watered well daily. It's easy to forget potted plants and they go fast in dry potting soil in pots.

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Rose Color

Question:
I would like to know if you have seen the Autumn Sunset bloom. I saw one at a local garden center with a open bloom that looked quite a bit lighter yellow than I was expecting. It did not seem to have the golden/apricot color that is so prominent in the pictures shown on the various internet photo sites.

Answer:
Color depends a lot on the weather. Cool weather give the blooms a chance to develop slower which results in slower opening, longer lasting more colorful blooms. Heat forces blooms to open and often you'll have lighter, washed out blooms. As the bush matures it will often have richer deeper colors also. Fertilizers help also. There are so many variables it's hard to predict.

Answer:
I had no idea that color was such a complicated factor! Thank you for the education. I will try to continue to read and learn more! 

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Roses Do Not Bloom

Two questions:
1. What is the deal with my non-flowering roses. I have at least 3 rose plants that I planted about 3 or 4 years ago. Two in front have partial sun/shade. One in back, mostly sun. In the last 2 years they have had no flowers. In frustration- a couple of years ago I cut them way back, secretly planning for them to die so I could replace them. But they came back with a vengeance, beautiful lovely green branches and leaves... no roses. What causes this, and is there any thing I can do to promote flowers?

2. Last year I remodeled a corner of the yard into my "rose area". My first batch of expensive well-known (JP) roses died with in a few weeks, even though I knew it was ok weather. I complained to the company, and they sent me a new batch of roses- to my delight. I planted them in a slightly different place, followed the instructions exactly! with much blood and sweat equity. Still, by mid summer a few were not well, and now after the winter, it seems none are living. Ironically, my cheapo WM roses- about 4/6 of those lived. I live in zone 5, next to a wheat field. Any thoughts? I have some new mid-priced roses, getting ready to plant. Any advice?

Answer:
I suspect your flowerless roses have died back to the rootstock which is what your roses were grafted onto so they would grow better. These flowerless bushes will only bloom on 2nd year wood so if you prune them back each year or they suffer winter dieback they will never bloom. Also blooms would not be what you bought the bush for. Depending on the root stock they would be small red or white clusters of flowers blooming in late spring just once a season. Remove the bushes and plant something else.

Roses should have about 6 hours of sun a day, lots of water and winter protection to keep the top part from dying back to the rootstock. Your roses should be soaked for 24 hours prior to planting. Then dig a large hole, 24 inches by 24 inches deep. Put horse manure, compost, organic matter like leaves, kitchen waste and mix with the soil in the bottom half of the hole. Create a mound in the bottom to set the rosebush on. The roots should be spread out over the mound. The knob (bud union) where the canes branch out from (the point where your rose was grafted to the root stock ) should be 4 to 6 inches below the level of the soil when finished. Pull the soil back around the rose and fill the hole with water to settle the soil. Finish filling the hole with  soil and mound any excess over the canes sticking out of the ground. This prevents the bush from drying out. New growth should appear in no more than two weeks. Water it well every day until it is well leafed out then every 3 days all season. Watering is not sprinkling with a spray for a few minutes. I turn my hose on to a trickle and let it soak in the ground around the bush for at least one hour for each plant. A 5 gallon bucket filled with water with a nail hole in the bottom will supply a good amount of water also.  The important thing is to supply a good home for your rose, prepare the hole properly, soak it good before planting and water it well all season. Using manure for fertilizer is the best fertilizer you can supply. Except for the planting hole don't use any more manure until the rose is well leafed out.

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Safe Fertilizers

Question:
I purchased about 30 own roots roses from Rose Unlimited and all were over a foot tall and some had blooms on them. They are all planted. 
The only directions they sent me was not to use dry chemical fertilizers the first year. I would like to get them off to a good start.

Can you suggest a fertilization schedule for this year. (Rosetone, 20-20-20 water solvable, alfalfa tea, fish emulsion, etc) I watered them last week, after a heavy rain, with 20-20-20. That is all I have done, so far!

Can you suggest a fertilization schedule for this year. (Rosetone, 20-20-20 water solvable, alfalfa tea, fish emulsion, etc) I watered them last week, after a heavy rain, with 20-20-20. That is all I have done, so far!

Answer:
Manures, Mills Magic, Rose Mix or other all organic fertilizer, Fish meal or Fish emulsion, or Alfalfa tea. All will work. You'll be amending and enriching the soil and getting the soil organisms activated. Do that and the roses will take care of themselves. Dry Chemical fertilizers have a tendency to burn the tiny feeder roots that develop in the spring, especially on newly planted bushes. Many years ago I lost many bushes due to over enthusiastic chemical fertilizing when I pruned in the spring thinking that it would help the bushes get off to a good start. I then found out that those feeder roots die off during our winter and must grow back in the spring so I now use organics. When fertilizing a little, often is better than a lot all at once, so let that be your guide. 

Check out an E-Z Grow fertilizer injector from Rosemania and apply very dilute soluble fertilizer every time you water. I have a farm grade injector which I use at 1/3 to 1/4 strength each time I water. Every 3 days. 

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Selective Bug Killing

Question:
Boy oh boy - - I really don't want to spray all my garden with an insecticide. But it is breaking my heart when I get home from work every day and see that another big ripe rosebud that is just about ready to pop open has been chewed in half.

What do you do? I love sitting in the garden on Saturday mornings with my coffee -- watching the butterflies on the echinacea and the bumble bees on the salvia. And then I look at these big fat rosebuds just chewed in half by some scoundrel that I can't even see and I want to Hurt Them. BAD. (They never do this chewing when I am there to see them; they are sneaky.)

I don't want to harm or discourage the bees & the butterflies & the hummingbirds. But whatever is chewing up my roses, I would like to drop a grenade on them and blow them to smithereens. Why don't these scoundrels ever eat the weeds? Why don't they chew on the Rose of Sharon that is popping up in every corner? I've got daisies to spare, why aren't daisies on their menu?

Is there even an answer? As far as bug-killing sprays, is it an "All-Or-None-No-one will be spared!" proposition, or is there an answer...Somewhere out there...??

Answer:
Most are not selective in their method of killing so just about anything you get will kill the good bugs also. It bothers me too, to see roses nipped in the bud by an evil bug. I close my eyes and ignore it as best I can knowing that soon predatory insects will arrive to do away with a large part of them or they will simply live out their life cycle for the year and go away. You say you enjoy the butterflies but are you aware that butterflies start their life as vegetation eating caterpillars. That's another reason I don't recommend spraying insecticides. I like butterflies also and birds which eat the contaminated insects or feed them to their young.

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Spider Mites

Question:
Having terrible problems with mites. Sprayed Cygon... Malathion... I do Orthenex on a weekly basis... Tried Orthene... What next?? My Sevin bottle doesn't say it kills mites... Thanks... 

Answer:
Cygon 2E or a product called Avid which can be purchased from www.muncyrose.com or www.rosemania.com it is rather expensive though. A cheaper method is a daily washing under the leaves with a strong flow of water from a water wand. This knocks the mites off and breaks their reproductive cycle. After a week of daily washings they should be gone. The roses like the bath also. Do it early in the day so the leaves can dry. I try not to use toxic chemicals if possible.

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Spray Bottle Question

Question:
I read your articles. It shows that you like roses. Even your car plate reflects that passion. Anyway, I have a question to ask you. Can I spray roses with pesticides but using fertilizer spray bottle? ( of course I have two different bottle for fertilizer and one for fungicide )

Answer:
If you are talking about a hose-end sprayer, you can but you'd waste a lot of chemicals along with getting improper dilution of the chemicals. Fertilizer dilution is not so critical but to be effective it's important to dilute pesticides as directed. You can control 2 tablespoons per gallon in a pump-up sprayer and all the spray would be the same. Improper dilution can lead to the various fungi gaining a resistance to the fungicide. A simple trigger spray bottle such as used with Fantastic will suffice but will require you to mix your chemicals often and in small quantities.

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Spray Schedule in Zone 5

Question:
Your regimen per May tips is 2 applications of Funginex and one application of Daconil. Spray every 7days? Every 10 days? You state throughout growing season - but I am not sure as to how often. You also use Mancozeb, Banner Maxx, and Compass. Are these brand names of Funginex? Daconil? Thank you for your site - enjoy reading and receiving those tips. Started growing roses 6 years ago. My first rose was Nearly Wild. Her beauty with very little care got me started. Now have more than 60 roses. This will be first year spraying. Biggest problem id Japanese beetles. Some days cannot even see flower - there are so many. Some blackspots. Have a variety - floribundas, HT, Buck's, Austin's, Rugosa, hybrid musks, and Canadian. This year adding OGR's. I live in zone 5 - south of Chicago, Town of Mokena, ~Sandra.

Answer:
I do not advocate spraying for insects as the insecticides are very toxic and do not differentiate between beneficial insects and the bad ones. Spraying insecticides kills both and I believe in the balance of nature. I also don't grow roses to exhibit and don't have a perfect leaf phobia so I can live with a few damaged leaves and blooms.

Now, Japanese beetles are a different problem! Living with them means no blooms for at least a month. That's what I do, I let them have my roses for the month of July. I live in the country surrounded by soy bean fields which are the beetle's favorite food after roses. Even if I sprayed I'd be fighting a loosing battle as they would fly in from the fields.

If you choose to spray for the Japanese beetles, I recommend filling a spray bottle with Sevin and just spritzing the blooms. This needs to be done almost daily because as the bloom opens new unsprayed petals are exposed.

Banner Maxx and the others are different kinds of chemicals. Banner Maxx and Compass need to be sprayed less frequently but are much more expensive. Mancozeb will stop blackspot in it's tracks so I mix that with the others after I already have blackspot present. The others are preventatives and regularly spraying every 7-10 days or as recommended on the label and doing so from leaf out in spring to the first hard frost in fall will prevent most fungus diseases. I do recommend preventative spraying for fungus. Keeping your roses healthy all growing season will help them survive a hard winter. If they go into winter stressed from disease they'll be more apt to die through the winter.

You got started like I did. Be careful, roses can become an obsession. I live in Wheatfield, Indiana which is due east of Kankakee. If you'd like to drive by this spring I can give you some hands on pruning tips and answer other questions. I also have goatskin gloves, Mills Magic Rose Mix, Alfalfa meal and other organic products which I purchase in quantity and pass the cost savings on to others.

For instance, Goatskin Gauntlet rose gloves usually sell for $19 to $29. I have them for $10. If you are looking for Felco Pruners, let me know as I'm going to a trade show tomorrow and can get them at substantial savings. Felco #2 for less than $30. Last year they were $25. You are not far from Homewood where there is the Sauk Trail Rose Society that meets the first Tuesday of each month. A great way to meet fellow rosenuts and learn things about roses. If you want me to pick something up for you give me a call this evening at 219-956-3936. We have Privacy ID on our phone so if you get a message, you'll need to enter the last four digits of our phone number as soon as you get the message regarding the Privacy ID. Don't hesitate to e-mail with any questions.

Oh yeah, I also grow roses for sale in May and June. I start them in pots in my greenhouse in late February. Will have some hardy Explorer and Buck roses also.

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Spraying Fungicide and Fertilizer on the Same Day

Question:
I spray weekly with fungicide, and also usually fertilize weekly with a water soluble food. I know the roses need to be hydrated before spraying, so my question is can I fertilize that morning and then an hour or so later spray with fungicide, or would this be too much for the roses? Also, I just bought some Mills Magic Mix, is it too late in the season to spread it, since I'm in Florida and we have such a long growing season, I wouldn't think so, but it's almost August.

Answer:
I just mix the soluble fertilizer with the fungicide and do it both at the same time. In Florida you can apply the Mill's Magic now for a nice fall bloom.

Question:
But Karl, I have heard that you should feed each bush 1 gallon of soluble fertilizer, if I do it with the fungicide in the sprayer, will the roses get enough fertilizer and not too much fungicide?

Answer:
Not if you are applying it as a foliar feed. I use water soluble in a fertilizer injector and add it to my spray at half strength.

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Top Soil

Question:
Do you mean to say that an area of older development of housing has richer soil? Does that mean we do not have to do much to make the soil rich if our house is 10 years old? What do you think of Home Depot. Do they mislabel their roses too?

I have a standard Electric blanket from Jackson and Perkins. It is in a big pot facing south but does not seem to be doing well. It is barely surviving. I checked the ph it is close to 8 but then again all the soil around my house is in that range and they are doing well. I already put alfalfa tea and it does not seem to do much. Other roses seems to love the tea and enjoying the sun.

Answer:
No, I said newer homes usually have the topsoil removed when the land is cleared and replaced with subsoil when landscaped. Older homes would have had years of lawn clippings and other organics worked back into the soil, even accidentally. Nature does this by worm action. So planted plants at new homes would not perform as well as those planted at older homes. Maybe not all that much difference but perhaps enough to make a difference in the PH and how well they perform. It's not a lot of big things that make the difference, it's small amounts of little things. Ph 8 is really high but if those in the same soil in the yard are fine you can't argue with that. Potted plants use up nutrients faster. They also dry up faster. They tend to retain salts that retard growth. They should be watered often and until the water runs out the bottom. This helps to keep the salt buildup down. If the plant has been in the pot a year, it may be root bound and need a larger pot or the soil changed. If changing the soil, do it in early spring or late fall. Prune back the top growth and thin the roots a little.

All the big box stores purchase their roses from contract growers who sell cheap and don't take as much care with their roses as they should. It's common to get mislabeled roses from all these sources. You'll even get mislabeled roses from the big reputable nurseries. Dig up two bushes and lay them side by side. Unless they are marked or have flowers you would have trouble telling which is which. Now do this in a field with 100,000 rosebushes of various kinds. Easy to do especially after they have been sorted many times and the lower grades are sold to companies who package them for the big stores.

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Transplanting Roses

Question:
I have a Cressida bareroot from Hortico last fall. It grew very well. I needed its spot for Climbing Eden - DH transplanted it last Saturday. It's now mostly wilted. It had lots of young canes that are 2/3 wilted. What should I do? Leave it alone? Cut it back-if so, to where? I've been watering it nearly every day. 

Answer:
You should have cut it back before you transplanted it. I usually cut back to 6 or 12 inches depending on the size of the root system. When the bush was removed from the soil, chances are much or all of the soil fell off taking the feeder roots with it. This left the bush unable to take up moisture which is why it's important to cut back. (Not as much top growth for the roots to support.) It's also important to water deeply and often to help make up for the moisture loss. Spraying with Wilt-Pruf also helps retain moisture. 

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TruGreen Chem Lawn

Question:
What's the dirt on TruGreen Chem Lawn? Happy Summer to All! Does anyone have TruGreen Chem Lawn service their Yard? I'm considering them, but I'm curious how it will affect my Roses...pets...barefeet. So let me have it! What's the dirt?? Thanks in advance and have Great Summer!! 

Answer:
I used them one year about 18 years ago and after figuring out how much I was paying for some very diluted fertilizer and seeing little difference in the weeds, I discontinued them and decided to do it myself. The following year, I spent for the whole year what one application had cost me the previous year. My lawn looked better and I had no weeds. Meanwhile I had started cutting the lawn longer and oftener with a battery powered mulching mower. I had also taken a Master Gardener course and learned when to fertilize (fall), and when to apply crab grass prevention (early spring before it germinates) and weed killers (late summer, fall when the roots are growing deep for the winter). I also Learned to water deeply. I cut my lawn twice a week and took off no more than 1/3 of the blade surface. I never dethatch. My lawn was thick and the roots went down 6 inches or more. 

I figured that as long as I was out in the yard so much with the roses, I could do it myself and spend the money saved on more roses. It all comes down to your priorities and mine happened to be my yard and roses.

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