Thanks everyone for the new information about roses. I was under the
impression that it was stressful for the plant to keep prompting it
to bloom, so I've always just let them do whatever according to their
pre-imprinted pattern.
So, final question, it's *OK* to keep them blooming?
Debra (with at least 20 rosebushes and still learning)
widera@unr.edu
Barbara,
I guess I should've clarified-- I do deadhead to get more roses; and
I usually stop that (and any fertilizing, but I hardly ever do that
anyway) about mid-September to get ready for fall. But my question
is more of a fertilizing/chemical question, since the addition of
banana parts would be like fertilizing.
I don't fertilize my jasmines a lot because I read somewhere that
constant blooming stresses the plant and it needs a rest period. Is
it the same for roses? Or, would more energy directed toward blooming
mean that much less cane growth (and less pruning for me!)? I'm
unclear about this.
Thanks for any help.
Debra
Debra,
I also have alot of roses, and i give them banana's quite often . Some of
my roses are at least 12 years old and beautiful they grow to about 6 feet
tall during the summer after pruning them in the spring. Every rose I have
reblooms when the flowers fade i break it off then it rebuds over and over.
My roses have never appeared to be stressed out just beautiful.
I'm not clear on the context for your question ..... at this time of year,
mid August, depending on where you live and what kind of winter you usually
have, you might stop deadheading at some point in August. This will slow
down the blooming and help the plant harden off for winter. Maybe that is
what you were being told??
Barbara M. Martin
Debra,
I have a question for you , my mother-in-law has a jasmine plant . She
has had it for years it has never bloomed since the first year. What is she
doing wrong or what does she need to do to get it to bloom.
Thanks Marty
Let me try an answer and see if I am corrected by my "betters". It seems
that a plant will only absorb as much fertilizer as it needs and a rose will
only bloom within the conditions that it wants for blooming, so, feeding a
balanced ferilizer shouldn't over stimulate a rose. I.e. create unhealthy
conditions.
The things I know that are bad about over fertilizing all have to do with
problems to the surrounding ecology, not the plant you want to fertilize.
Or with creating out of balance conditions.
And the other thing that makes sense to me, if you are having problems where
the roses are stressed for other reasons like too hot/too cold, funguses
have caused all the leaves to drop, you don't want the plant putting energy
into blooming, and it may do so like crazy. I have been known to take off
buds from unhealthy plants for that reason.
Esther
Debra,
My roses bloom most of the year. Only during Jan and Feb do they cease
blooming, usually because of an overnight freeze that doesn't always kill
the buds. But this is also the time that I cut back my rose bushes to
within a foot of the root. I have lots of roses that would take over the
entire yard that are not climbers. So after our first freeze, they get
forced into dormancy (thanks for the term Alan) and cut back to managable
size. In winter I can walk in between my roses, right now they are grown
together and beginning to look like one big bush.
I don't consider it forcing it to bloom if they are only getting a little
better care. Here in FL I fertilize with an Osmocote type fert 4 times a
year, use a water soluble about every week (attached to garden hose) and
give them a banana peel at least twice a year. Believe me I do a lot less
than some rosarians I have met around here. 'Course, they grow prize
winning roses. I grow what I like, rebloomers. As in they bloom again and
again on their own, I just give them the food to make them stronger.
Anne in FL
zone 9b, sunset 26
