Fertilizing roses
- To: r*@california.com
- Subject: Fertilizing roses
- From: m* l*
- Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 18:42:35 PST
Barbara:
As a preface, Bill Grant knows a whole lot more about roses than I do.
Additionally, my climate here in Sacramento and up in the foothills,
where I also grow a few roses, is quite different from yours in Berkeley.
That said, I would refer you to A Year in the Life of a Rose, by
Ray Reddell who grew roses commercially near Petaluma for a number of years
(and may still for all I know). Pages 69-74, titled A Gourmet Diet for
Roses, are the best overall summary of what to feed, when, and why, that I
have seen for those of us here in central and not quite northern California.
Reddell does recommend the commercial proprietary rose foods that are most
easily available, but explains enough about what elements you are trying to
provide the plants at different times of the year that it is fairly simple
to extrapolate to equivalent organic fertilizers.
You might also take a look at Liz Druitt's book on organic rose growing, the
exact title of which escapes me at the moment. Be warned
that she gardens in Texas, so her conditions are quite different.
Most of her recommendations are generic enough that they apply here.
Yours most respectfully,
Michael Larmer
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