Hi Murphyette!!
My first thought when I saw the first
rose bush is the ground, and mulch under it....
If they were mine I'd pull back anything that is at the base of it, under the dripline and especially touching the stem....
In the area under where you've cleared out to the drip line, sprinkle in some epsom's salt...
What is your
zone you live in?
Here in my
zone 5, I would have done it the first of every month..starting in May, June, July and August.
I would only put on one dose as you don't want them sending up way too much new growth because you want them to eventually calm down to go to sleep for the winter....if your
zone is close to mine.
I never fert or anything past August first...
(or the first week in August.) Just my rule of thumb.
Second, don't cut them again until
spring next year???
When
spring comes, sprinkle in some more of the epsom's salt around the base of the
plant and then have a pail of dirt (from somewhere's else, not from around the
rose) and then bring that dirt up and mound it around the base of the
plant *I know that sounds silly, especially after I just told you to take all the mulch away from the base earlier.*~*but they are two different things that will two different things to your
plant.*
(ie: the mulch around the base of the stem of the
rose, will keep in unwanted moisture and bugs into and upto your
rose which is not good for it..
The dirt mounded up around the base of you
plant in
spring time along with the epsom's salt will promote basal growth *new red canes' from the base of your
plant* leave the dirt on until you see those canes peaking thru the dirt, then gentlely pull back that extra dirt, leave it to the drip line of your
plant...and every begining of the month do the same thing again....
I will get you the amounts if I can... (I have been having small puter prob's, so I might not come back right away, or have another attack of CRS.. Can't Remember Sh*t.. so remind me!! OKAY!!)
What kind of soil is the
plants in??
Looks a bit compact by the picture, but let me know what kind of dirt it is???
Weezie
P.S. I just wanted to say, that there is all types of gardener's and using either the organic way or with chemicals', it's up to the individual gardener...and their preferance.
I personally am a HUGE FAN OF ORGANIC'S..........
mostly because it's cheaper (I compost) and much easier on the
plants..
and NON~TOXIC TO ME AND MY CHILDREN...
and I am so forgetfull about when I put what on and so on....
But alot of times in all of my reading that I LOVE to do, the organic way is suggested first, because if the
growing requirements are basically not met, it will produce some type of problem, ie: bugs, black spot, powdery mildew, etc.
If you can cure the cause, I would have to say, IMHO that 8 or 9 times out of 10, your problems will go away...
I bought a "what I thought" was a yellow
rose,
I wanted it real bad.. but it had black spot on it, from the place I bought it, (WAL~MART) and I've always known you shouldn't buy diseased
plants. I'm a sucker and I wanted a cheap yellow
rose... anyhow, brought it home, did all the things above..... ((((almost forgot, I had some yellowing black spotted leaves and I pulled most off when I planted and didn't let any new leaves fall and stay on the ground under it...removed them right away, as that will continuate the problem ~is that a word????))))
Anyways, the
rose turned out to be a PINK
rose :p which I already had 4 of them from before, but it's my best
rose that I have...
Oh man, I didn't know this was going to turn out to be such a long post
Hope this info helps!