Hello everyone, Y'all have likely seen my thread "Finally got 'em planted!" that covers my adventures in planting and caring for my cheapie roses for just over a month now. As advised, I plan on moving away from the daily watering, and moving towards a "deep watering" routine by leaving a garden hose on a slow trickle at their base for several hours at a time (say, once or twice a week) in hopes of stimulating anchor roots without getting too much pooling water.

I've already bought some generic plant food (24-8-16) that I intend to use at half-dose for the first few feeding periods, and I'm planning on getting some chelated iron to add in as well. I'd like to know what y'all think about adding root growth hormone into the mix.

Also I'm worried that the least of my roses that hasn't shown a whole lot of top growth still might not be ready just yet, so I wanted to see what the top minds think in general.



This poor little one has had a hard go of it, and I'd like to do what I can to ensure that it's going to make it, so I welcome any and all input, advice &/or ideas, and I thank you all for it. Much appreciated, Cotton

Generally it is suggested that no fertilizer be applied until you see active top growth. Compost is always appropriate, however. Just spread it on the surface around the plants. So far it looks as if you are doing things right!

I agree with Porkpal; hold off on using synthetic (non-organic) fertilizers until your rose is well established, or you can do more damage than good.

Once the rose has shown new top growth, you can water deeply, saturating the soil, and then do a light feeding the next day.

The rose will be well hydrated and less than full dosage of plant food will not burn the roots.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thank you to everyone that replied here. I think the plan going forward is to hold off on deep watering, and I'll see about getting some compost. Once I see more top growth from this one, we'll move on with worrying about feeding, and I'll probably post here again once we're closer to that time. Thanks again everyone! Cotton