On 07/07/2017 08:26, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Thu, 6 Jul 2017 21:21:57 +0100, kerrygirl
wrote:


Thank you both for replying. Just wondering Janet, did you put any kind
of fertiliser into the hole. When I googled about roses everyone keeps
mentioned bonemeal.

It's generally believed* that roses do well with a feed high in
phosphate. Bone is calcium phosphate, so is a rich source of the
phosphate required by roses. Bone meal is slow to break down in the
soil, so provides a slow trickle of phosphate feed. It also contains a
little bit of nitrogen which is useful.

Hoof and horn, that I also mentioned, is also slow to break down in
the soil, but provides mostly nitrogen and not much phosphate. A bit
of both might be a good idea, and fish, blood and bone would be an
alternative, containing both phosphate and nitrogen, and also
potassium, but may break down more rapidly.

*but whether proven, I don't know.

This advice to use Blood fish and bone or Hoof and horn are all very
well but do be aware that if you have foxes running over your ground
then if they get one sniff of either they will dig up everything trying
to find the food they believe to be buried.
I would use Vitax Q4 instead.
David @ the sunny side of Swansea Bay