Roses

[Diane Amberg]

Unfortunately we aren't allowed to have chickens here. ( Ducks work well too) Newark may ease up on the no chicken rule on properties of 1/2 acre or more, but we only have a bit more than a third.

[srkruzich]

I couldn't live where they banned chickens or critters.   I'd tell the PTB to kiss off

[Wilma]

Remember that rose garden that I bought for myself a couple of months ago?  Well, here is part of it.  The rest have bloomed and gone for the time being, although they are showing new buds.  I took this through the screen of the bedroom window.  The small smudge in the lower right hand corner is the fog that kept creeping over the lens of a cool camera being held in a very warm, humid breeze.  I seem to have done almost everything right except one.  I am thinking that I should have cut off the first buds and waited for the second ones, forcing the roots to become more established before having to support blossoms.

[Wilma]

Sorry, that was the first picture I took while the pink roses were still blooming.  I will try to get the right one with the orange rose blooming.

[patyrn]

Nice, Wilma................you obviously have done all of the right things to have so many beautiful roses!

[sixdogsmom]

Very nice Wilma! I am totally jealous! 

[Ms Bear]

Your rose garden is very pretty.  I am sure you will get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

My husband always cut the stems back just past the first set of five leaves and that made the stems sturdier for the new blooms and encouraged longer stems.

He always used epson salt around his bushes along with Miracle Gro when he watered.  I just watch them die.

[Wilma]

The information I have on roses mentions epsom salts and even says how much.  Now I would like to know if anybody else has done this and what the results were.

Ms. Bear, do you know how your husband applied the epsom salts and what he thought of the results?  I am trying to cut back to the five leaves.  The excessive amount of water we have had and the excessive humidity is making the stems grow too fast, but the roses love it.  They are blooming, then setting new buds almost immediately.  Sometimes even before the previous blossoms are gone.

[Diane Amberg]

Well, I'll share but I suspect someone will criticize me for it. I use my father's recipe 1 TBL per gal. of water or in a rainy season 1 TBL sprinkled around the drip line of the roses. He did the same for his day lilies and he had hundreds of them. Epsom salts provide a boost of magnesium which most plants love. I'm not sure how often he did, it but I do once in the spring and once in early summer.

[Ms Bear]

Wilma, the amount Diane mentioned sounds about right.  He always just put it on dry and then watered, it would take a few waterings to dissolve it and didn't hurt anything if it stayed on the ground.  He usually put it on about once a month here doing the whole yard and flower beds.

I am on vacation this week so am going to try to get some on just by broadcasting it by hand, don't have enough patience to walk with spreader.  The grass is still green from all the rain we have had but I have some really bare spots, need to try to give them some extra attention.

You must have good drainage where the roses are because they don't like wet "feet".  The roots like to get dry between waterings.  My roses did great in Arizona but I don't have very good luck here.   At least I have grass here.  The difference is in Arizona you water daily and mow once a week or less and here in Texas you water once a month and mow daily.

What colors of roses did you get?  I have an orange one with small bloom and it is really pretty.  Have not had very good luck with yellow ones though.