What are some good ideas for having a good rose bush plant?

Answer 1

Roses are very heavy feeders so it is best to feed your rose to encourage growth and maximum bloom. I fertilize with a root drench of Kelp/Fish on May 1, June 1 and July 1.
I use Growmore seaweed extract and Alaska® Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1 to make this.

I fertilize three times a year Valentine's Day, Memorial Day & Labor Day, in zone 7, using Whitney Farms Rose & Flower 4-6-2.

I also use the Kelp/Fish blend as a foliar spray to reduce disease. I have over fifty roses and I treat them all the same so a few do show some black spot (BS) later in the year with out fungicides so I do use organic fungicides once in a while.

Planting bare root;
I recommend, for growing outstanding roses, digging a big hole (2 feet deep and 2 feet wide). Fill the bottom 6 inches with well rotted rabbit, cow or horse manure. Save 1⁄2 of the soil that came from the hole and mix it 50/50 with a good compost, mulch or peat moss. Refill the hole, plant the rose in the center of a 2 - 3 inch mound to compensate for the soil settling later. Water well. When your rose is shipped it will come with planting instructions. I amend the soil I removed with 5 cups of Whitney Farm Organic Rose & Flower Food but I should say I have very sandy soil with little organic material to begin.
To mix your own 1 cup each fish emulsion, kelp meal, bone meal, cotton seed meal or alfalfa meal, and blood meal

Soil amendments Alfalfa tea

Alfalfa pellets or alfalfa meal 4 cups to every 5 gallons of water
Add Epsom salts half a cup to 5 gallons
Add water
Let stand for one week until it bubbles with fermentation. Your nose will tell you that it's ready.

Using it: Apply alfalfa tea once per month in the spring and summer, especially after the first flush of flowers, to encourage repeat blooming. On roses, I found 1⁄2 to 1 cup per bush is adequate.

Epsom salts, which is magnesium sulfate, provides an important trace element. Buy it at a drug store. Epsom salts promote stronger, sturdier stems, richer green foliage and deeper, richer colors in roses.

Watering
Roses love water. Provide 1 to 2 inches of water a week per plant. A tuna fish can makes a great, economical water gage. Ground level watering is best but overhead watering is fine if you water in the mornings so that the plants do not go into the night with wet leaves.

Mulch
This prevents rain splashing spores on the lower leaves so disease is less likely. The mulch cools the soil and slowly feeds it. I like fertile mulch wood chips ground with manure.

Basic Cornell Spray: For Control Of Blackspot & Powdery Mildew: Do not substitute vegetable oil spray for the summer weight agricultural oil, it doesn't emulsify in suspension when water is added. Another tip I have learned is to spray this in the evening, around or just after supper time. Do not spray this in the hottest part of the day.
2tbs Horticultural Oil (Sunspray or Volk Oil)
1tbs of baking soda
Add to 1 gallon of water and spray leaf surfaces LIGHTLY, not to dripping. Reapply every two weeks.
This will help to control powdery mildew and blackspot as well as other fungal diseases on roses.

Another really good method is milk spray ...... 1 part milk to 7 parts water. Dried milk works as well as fresh. In 1999, a Brazilian scientist found that milk helped control powdery mildew on cucumbers just as effectively as a synthetic fungicide. Since the study was published, the news has traveled around the world and encouraged gardeners and farmers alike to try milk as a fungal control for a variety of diseases.

Dust the ground around roses with cornmeal, and water in. This helps to eliminate black spot spores that attack roses, and also helps to eliminate the spores in the soil around roses.

The last one I use is Green Lights Rose Defense Neem Oil but not when flowers are blooming.

Release beneficial insects if you have few resident lady bird beetles or lace wings.

Answer 2

I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, and depending on what part of New York state you are in, our climates shouldn't be too much different. What I do is prune the rose bushes back to a height of about 10 -12 inches along about the time the nights start to get frosty.(Right about now here) Then later in the Fall when the leaves have pretty well all fallen, I rake up and bag (in plastic leaf bags) enough of them so that I can pack them tightly around and on top of the rose bushes. They should be tight enough so that the wind can't blow through them. If you are afraid that the bags might blow away through the winter , you can peg them down with some stakes and heavy twine. When the snow is gone and the days are nice and warm in the Spring, ' unpack ' your roses and get ready for another season. I put the old leaves on a compost pile and recycle them . Don't be afraid to prune your roses right back to the 10 - 12 inch height ! They don't mind a bit !

Answer 3

Roses do well with lots of sun, and moist well drained soil. Build a raised planting bed with gravel at the bottom, then good topsoil on top.

Answer 4

TRY ADDING USED COFFEE GROUNDS. THE CAFFEINE WILL GIVE THEM A JOLT. JUST LIKE WHEN YOU DRINK IT. TRY IT ABOUT EVERY 3-4 WEEKS.