A year ago, I would have said I only water new plantings, and fertilizer is the compost I dump with a tractor. With over 800 roses, my method was: get them off to a good start and then see what they can do on their own. ( Most are shrub roses or floribundas). This year, the skies opened up and we got RAIN! It rained every week, sometimes 5" at a time. The plants grew and bloomed like never before. I happened upon a clearance sale and bought loads of fertilizer, superthrive and kelp, and fed the roses properly. Wow what a difference.
In the future, I will be more diligent about feeding the roses and watering. I know that my alkaline well water is not going to give the same results as the acidic rainfall we had, but the bloomfest this year was so encouraging that I am going to finish laying drip line to every bed possible. A neighboring horse farm gave us several loads of manure which we mixed with our own compost and loads of bark mulch from the tree trimming companies. This pile will be ready by spring, so we'll see how that free food compares to the chemical type.
