On Sat, 1 Feb 2003 10:51:06 -0500 (EST), "Shiva"
wrote:

dave weil wrote:


Osmocote has worked for me.

I'm definitely using it on the potted roses. You may recall that I had a
fert tragedy with the granulart when my preoccupied Evil Twin used it--a
lot of it--in the pots.

I think it's important to look at the visual picture that they give
you. It's a widely scatered pattern and you don't really need all that
much. Having said that, I can see how the margin of error is far
narrower when talking about potted plants. I'd expect that it's not as
critical in the open garden.

Here is the question: can I have more and/or better blooms?

One thing that I think you should consider is the relative youth of
your plants.

Makes sense. What's odd is that I have had ownroot babies arrive from
Michael's with HUGE buds and blooms--but when they bloom for me later,
they are small.

I would expct something likethat. First of all, they've been growing
in "optimum" and highly controlled conditions. Couple that with
transplant shock and it's likely that they justneed to settle in.
Maybe it's like starting from scratch (sorta).

Of course, I have unusually rich and fertile soil to begin with. The
one plant that doesn't bloom as profusely as I've seen in pictures,
Sombrueil, only gets sun for half the day. This makes me suspect that
your sun might be worth evaluating.


My soil is good--I pretty much replaced rather than amend, and got the
clay out of here. Everybody gets at least six hours of direct sun--some
afternoon, some morning. They get lots and lots of water, which has made a
big difference in the health of the plant and the vigor of the growth of
the green parts--it is true that part of fighting bs is to have a rose so
healthy it renews itself quickly--but the blooms are still small on lots
of them. Maybe it is their age. They are all under 5.

My best roses get more than 6 hours. Even Felicia, which is planted on
the same house side as Sombrueil, gets at least an hour more sun on
its tips, due to the lack of a porch and the arching style of the
plant.

I've always thought that most roses just sort of "get by" with 6
hours, but that they prefer 8 hours or more (with the exception of the
really high, hot midday sun), and some of them even revel in this. If
you can't provide more sun, then you might have to "settle" for
slightly reduced blooming. My best results have been with plants that
get sun all day long, from sunrise to sunset. Aloha is a good example
of this. It's a vigorous bloomer and it gets absolutely *no* shade,
except for very early morning and very late evening. My limbers are
the same way. Since they are mounted on a chain link fence, they get
sun from both sides.