Rose care starts at the roots

The holidays are over, and winter finally arrived this season. Are you missing your roses about now? Looking ahead to the coming growing season, are you hoping the same thing I am hoping? That your roses make it through these harsh windchills accompanied by windy dry days.

If you were wise to give their roots water before these below-freezing temperatures arrived, your roses are off to a good start. If you mulched with leaves or wood mulch, that too would mitigate the amount of damage to the root system. It all starts at the roots.

Healthy roots start with the proper nutrients from the soil. Recently, I spoke with a rosarian from the American Rose Society who no longer uses chemical fertilizers. The chemical fertilizers can cause plants to overdose on nutrients. The excess is released in the soil, becoming a “pollution runoff.” The excess amount in the soil can reach toxic levels for the roses. This is much like continually putting a manure in the vegetable garden. The salts in the manure have a disastrous effect of creating a barrier for water and nutrient uptake from the soil. Too much of a good thing.

Natural organic substitutes recommended are alfalfa pellets, fish meal and bone meal mixed. All are good for the roses and beneficial for the soil.

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