Some of you that cruise the Roses section may have read my "Finally got 'em planted!" thread, but if not, then here's the TLDR: I had [have] no idea what I'm doing, but I planted some body-bag roses, and my soil looked like this when I planted them:



I then threw a surprisingly deep amount of mulch on top like so:



I put 3-4" of gravel in the bottom of the 18" deep holes they are planted in, and when tested, the holes drained a gallon of water in an hour. I took to watering the roses twice per day, once in the morning, and once in the evening, using about a gallon per-plant each time, and now two of the three are starting to look tall enough to start drinking coffee. So, I'm considering root stimulator, I'm getting chelated iron, and I already have some of Wally's Expert "PLANT FOOD" that specifically mentions roses on the box, and has the numbers 24-8-16 on it that I plan on making cocktails out of, and giving to the roses, with one major reservation (pictured below):



I'm just not sure that this little one is quite ready yet. Of course, I reiterate that I have no idea what I'm doing, but all my instincts are telling me that this one needs ongoing special attention. I'm wide open to opinions on this one here.

The real problem though is water pooling. Any more than a gallon at a time (per plant), and the water runs, and pools in less-than-ideal places. I've cleared the mulch from around the base of the stems (mostly, as I didn't realize how thick I'd put down the mulch), and now I need to focus on deep watering to encourage the longer anchoring roots to grow.

I've read other threads on this topic, and there's a kind of "create your own soil" thing, but I'd really like to try something a little more direct. I thought of adding mulch, but now I realize that at the center I've got prob. 4-5" of good mulch, so now I'm leaning towards the idea of a berm, or a small trench, or maybe I just need to put a really slow water drip on them for a really long time or???

Any input or advice would be greatly welcomed and appreciated on resolving this issue. Thanks in advance. Cheers, Cotton

I had to research the amount of rain that you get in Amarillo.

Riding past in the back of a pickup truck is about the extent of my knowledge of the area.

20 inches of rainfall a year doesn't seem like an ideal climate for roses.

When soil is used to being dry... It's about impossible to get water to absorb... They call it hydrophobic...

I think maybe you were on the right track with the mulch...

Or... Maybe pull the rose back up... Fill the hole with water and allow the water to perc.

Then repeat with most of the loose soil tossed back in...
Soil should be good and moist for planting now.

It seems like the rose people plant roses in sand, Mine are certainly happy in the bottomless sand at my house...

I'm not sure that your clay will ever grow roses.

I took to watering the roses twice per day, once in the morning, and once in the evening, using about a gallon per-plant each time, and now two of the three are starting to look tall enough to start drinking coffee.

Hmmm... didn't read this part... I looked at the pics of the fresh planted one, and tried to problem solve.

Maybe you can grow them... never mind.

I think I'm going to try a long slow drip style of watering over several hours, and see if that helps. Realistically, I know I should have amended the soil when I planted them, but I'll be the first to tell you that I created a lot of challenges for myself on this one. We'll just have to give it a go, and see what happens. Cheers, Cotton

Whatever you do, next time you plant roses, don't put rocks in the bottom. That has absolutely no positive effects on anything. You're not that far from me in Lubbock. We grow roses here just fine. If you're going to amend anything, amend the WHOLE AREA, not just the hole you are planting in. If you only amend the hole you plant in then you are creating a bowl effect. Its like you planted in a pot that you then buried.

Going to drip irrigation is a good idea. Watering your roses twice a day is a bad idea. My son was watering his ornamental bed twice a day, twice a week for about 6 years before I got here and straightened things out for him which resulted in a whole lot of surface roots and some very unstable plants that were addicted to shallow frequent watering. Water deeply twice a week. Deep mulch is also helpful, just not right up to the stem. Make your planting beds comfy for worms and they will do the hard work of improving your soil for you.

You say you've had water "pooling" - is your planting area not level? If the area you chose to plant the roses in is higher then water WILL run off and pool in the lower areas. I can't really tell what the problem is but planting areas do need to be level or water WILL run off. Gravity always wins. Terracing is a possible solution but I don't know what the layout is that you are working with. Slow drip irrigation should alleviate some of the issue but what about when it rains? A few landscape blocks might solve the issue, or maybe not. Can't see what the problem is.

I doubt your soil is actually hydrophobic. That usually happens to sandy soils. One solution to correct hydrophobic soil is to add clay - if you have a lot of clay already its unlikely that you have hydrophobic soil. Ask your local extension agency.

Why are you adding chelated iron? Pictures aren't great but I'm not seeing signs of chlorosis, and if I did, I'd go for magnesium deficiency first. Actually I'd go for overwatering first, magnesium deficiency second. Yes you can overwater and also be underwatering. When its flood followed by drought (effectively).

How big is the bed you planted these roses in, or are they separate plantings rather than a bed?

I can see leaf curl - but it shouldn't be hot enough yet for that to be a result of heat. Have you inspected the plants for insects? Another cause of leaf curl is overwatering. Watering your roses twice a day every day IS overwatering - have you been doing that every day? Why do you think your plants are under watered?

What is "Wally's Expert Plant Food"?

@Pyewacket Glad to hear that someone else in the area is doing what I'm trying to do here. I'll try and address your questions you posted above.

These roses were planted about a month ago, and the area s not particularly un-level, but if Lubbock is anything like it is here, then you know that turning the water hose on and laying it in the yard has the same affect as putting a garden hose in the middle of a paved parking lot. Below is a pic of a plant I started digging up yesterday, and we actually had a bit of rain the day before, but you can see what the dirt around here is made of (and that's actually a "good" area compared to the rest of the yard).



Slow drip irrigation begins Monday, and I'm adding chelated iron, because I don't know what I'm doing, and people that do have told me that roses like it. They are planted 3' apart, and the mulched area is 3' wide.



My mulch has a ton of life in it. I've seen ants, inch-worms, earthworms, moths, and a ton of other stuff that I'm unsure of whether they are hurting or helping, but there's no evidence that anything is eating the plants, so I haven't really worried about it.

"Wally's Expert Plant Food" is the Expert Gardener brand "All-Purpose Water Soluble Plant Food" that contains 24% nitrogen, 8% phosphorus, & 16% potassium that's available at Wal-Mart (aka: "Wally-World").

In case anyone would like the details of my total-newb rose-planting adventures, I'll post a link to my thread:

The thread "Finally got 'em planted!" in Roses forum

That should confirm any suspicions that I have no clue as to what I'm doing, but I'm trying VERY hard, and have even taken to tending to these little darlings three times per day now, and I love doing it. Thanks for all the replies and input. Cheers, Cotton

OK so your soil looks a lot different than what I have here. Is there a sand component to your soil? Have you done a squeeze test to determine how clay-y your soil is?

Squeeze test:

https://www.co.becker.mn.us/de...

You can enter your street address into this USDA site to get a pretty good idea of your soil composition and type. It will give you a lot of technical information that you are unlikely to understand just yet, but there are undoubtedly people on these forums who can help you parse it out.

https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov....

This has a LOT of data that is way over the top for us regular ol' gardeners but there is useful info in there too. Its a little complicated to use but you can pinpoint your address (as Area of Interest) and get useful info like pH, percent of clay, organic matter, sand, and silt and some basic soil taxonomy. I can walk you through it if you're interested to try, but I don't know a lot about much of the info you can access there. I just found that site yesterday myself.

I've glanced around Amarillo using that USDA soil survey site and it is pretty variable up your way compared to down my way. My soil characteristics according to that site pretty well matches up with my own observations, eg I have fine sandy clay loam with a fairly neutral pH of 7.5. The soil is very low in organic matter, which I could tell by the look and feel of it. Yours is probably also low in organic matter, that's pretty much standard for the whole area we're in. The soil composition around Amarillo seems to vary more than it does down here, I looked at sites a little north of Amarillo and a little south, the clay content seems to vary considerably.

As to your fertilizer, don't use that stuff on your roses. Way too much nitrogen! More N is not better. I'm sort of surprised nobody on the roses forum suggested getting a slow release granular fertilizer. That's what I'm suggesting. I would recommend something with more P than N or K, and not a lot of N. Nitrogen will push foliage development over anything else, and at that level of N it'll stunt root development as well. Or at least not help it much.

I suggest Jobe's Organics Rose and Flower fertilizer, with NPK of 3-5-3. If you can afford it, something with an NPK ratio of 4-8-4 would be even better, but the only one I've run across is Down to Earth Organic Rose & Flower Fertilizer and it runs $50 for a 15 lb bag, $25 for a 5 lb bag on Amazon. Jobe's you should be able to find locally (I doubt you can find the Down to Earth product locally) and even on Amazon it runs $12 for a 4 lb bag. I'm thinking that ought to be enough for 3 rose bushes for this season, if someone else has a better idea of how far that will go please correct me. This type of slow release granular fertilizer is usually applied once a month. In my area that would be May through October.

I seem to recall you mentioned using a root stimulator, can you share what you are using for that?

Hey thanks @Pyewacket , that's awesome. The first link I found to be quite handy, and the second made me feel kinda' dumb - lol

Soil Texture Field Test:

Moist Ball Test: Mud ball is VERY durable. (My dirt makes incredible mud-pies.)

Ribbon Test: Mud ribbon did not break.

Feel Test: Not gritty feeling at all. Very slick, and sticks to everything.

As for the second link, I actually live in a little town outside of the city, so if you don't mind, I'll send you my details in private, because I feel like my soil composition would be crucial information to have, and that site is more complex than what I'm used to.

I asked around a bit about a root stimulator, and I ended up ordering some alfalfa meal. It should be here on Wednesday, along with some compost, and chelated iron.

I really appreciate the help on this one. Thank you, Cotton