"Emil" wrote in message ...
Hi guys,

The roses in my front yard don't look that great. My Lovers Lane (planted
last year) is especially bad. It barely has any branches that are more than
4 inches. I know that one problem is the minimum sun they recieve. See, not
being in denial is a good thing. :-)

So, what can I add to the soil on those roses, and on all the roses I have.
I see Home Depot has some nitrogen I can add, how about that stuff? I use
mostly Supersoil or GroMulch (the yellow bags).

Perhaps the best thing you can add isn't commercially available.
Sorry.

Most roses and other plants that are also heavy feeders are also
mycorrhizal. I have found a form of Elaphomyces with wild rose in
Clackamas County, Oregon. But I can only presume this would also
associate with commercial roses.

Why add mycorrhizae instead of fertilizer? The answer is simply that
mycorrhizal fungi act as their own little fertilizer plants, producing
nitrogen and associating with nitroge-fixing bacteria. But adding too
much nitrogen to the soil causes the plant to dis-associate with
mycorrhizal fungi, and the mycorrhizae die-out quickly afterwards.

With trees, this can be devastating. I have heard bad reports of
fertilized tree stands which have missed a year...and had tremendous
tree fatalities as a result. Once you start feeding plants, be
prepared to do so long-term.

Elaphomyces granulatus was described by Dr. Alexander H. Smith as the
most common underground fungus in the world. It certainly is commonly
found with a wide variety of plants: pines, firs, rhododendron, oaks,
a host of other species.

The problem with mycorrhizal (especially ectomycorrhizal) fungi is
that most have never been reliably cultivated to date. And many are
species specific, i.e. associated with just one species of tree or
shrub instead of the widely associating E. granulatus.

Daniel B. Wheeler
www.oregonwhitetruffles.com