I, too, had never grown any roses before. I bought some, I ordered some and I planted them all. I gave them epsom salts and the special tea recipe someone posted here.

The ones I bought locally were doing great but the ones I'd ordered from a catalog (they came as bare roots) were still just sticks. Sticks for so long.

But now!! Now I see new growth on all plants.

This is a hybrid tea that is suppose to have orange flowers. All the leaves you see are new growth!! YAY!!



This one and the one above were both bare roots when they arrived, and this one especially was just sticks for so long after I planted them. But now, I see leaves.



I have a total of 6 roses, all new, in my "rose garden." They are all doing pretty well and I think a big part of all this new growth has to do with the tea that was posted here. Good stuff. Thanks!!

This is such a great forum.

Those blooms are a gorgeous color! I'm afraid of roses! I may get up the nerve to try some tho.

I'd like to have a climber I think....

Terri, I was afraid of them too. But my husband really likes them. So I thought I would try one last year. I got the care free type. Well, it's just gorgeous. So we got another one this year. It's not care free, so I'm hoping it does well. Go for IT, girl. Sue

I was scared too Terri, but then I thought why not just try it? I'm in zone 3-4, so I had to put some real thought into which roses I could get, but if you're in Texas I would think you could pretty much get whatever you wanted.

I keep wondering if my two climbers are going to need a trellis this year or not. Climbers are very pretty if you decide to go that route. But I am really looking forward to this "morning sunrise" shrub rose we bought--I'm hoping it'll just turn into a large 3'x3'x3' bush that is covered with yellow/orange/pink roses.

My vision of what WILL happen one day is always prettier than the reality of today. But one day, I believe that real life will actually catch up with my vison.

Wayyyyyyyy to go...
Rose's aren't too hard, just certain requirements and then they are very happy and reward you..

I am not much of a rose grower, only because I don't have much time, and they do require a bit o'maintainence, which I don't have much time for..
I do have a few, they treat me kindly...

But don't forget the rule of thumb for fertilizing/epsom salts...
May 1st, June 1st, July st, and August 1st,
and that's it... nothing more after the first of Aug, cause you want them to go to sleep soon, for winter time... and don't want anyyy new green growth for winter..

I was scared of them too, someone sent me this one last fall....Here are the results..
All I did was put bonemeal into the hole and planted it ..........I am a bonemeal person.


dodge

Any "Organic" type substance is very good for a plant...and easier on the plant to utilize....

(one thing though is you have to make sure that blood and bone meal are buried into the soil...
As you'll attrack animals who would eat meat,
like big dogs, or coyotes, etc....0