I do as a newspaper/ weed barrier and mulch. best stuff is free. look up on browser..lasagna gardening. it is wonderful

I use composted horse manuer. A new layer every 2 years or so keeps my roses looking fine. I put the new layer on in the fall, then the winter rains wash down through it and the roses have a feast ready for them when they awaken in the spring

Every two years for aged manure. If I ever get any compost (I have a small bin) that will go on, but I don't produce enough of my own. Espoma Holly-tone every month April - August. Mulch with shredded cedar, which breaks down nicely (the weeds that were in my main rose bed last year were very happy).

Oh yes. What a difference it makes. This year's mulch is next year's fertilizer.

I do apply manure every year, early in spring, to the whole bed (mixed bed of roses and other stuff). Then I also fertilize the roses individually with an organic rose fertilizer. My soil is very lean, it's gravelly sandy till, so no nitrogen holding capacity to speak of. The organic fertilizers, including manures and compost, are necessary because they don't wash through right away. Synthetic fertilizers wash right through the gravel and are gone.

I also find that roses mixed with other plants need individual fertilizing due to root competition for nutrients, so that's why I do what I do. And most roses really need more nitrogen than they'll get from a single application of manure alone.

Spread of compost and then shredded mulch over top.
If I do fertilize, I apply Drammatic K fish/kelp 2-5-1 after each flush, unless its late in the season.

I don't have access to manure, unless I buy the bags in HD. I mosty use alfalfa, Rose Tone and I have been making my own compost but don't have enough to use only that. I also use fish emulsion, milorganite, blood meal and cottonseed meal.

Yes, about three inches worth in spring, and I usually use a bagged, composted mulch from a local source.

As hoovb and others have said, it makes a BIG difference all year.

The earthworms and other beneficials love it, it makes weeding easier, protects the soil from drying out, improves the soil as it breaks down, etc., etc.

We apply some kind of mulch every year. I'd go nuts with the weeds if we did not. Feeding--it's a hit and miss affair depending on what else is going on in our lives. Some years they are well fed, other years not.

I have also mulched with our St. Aug. lawn clippings and had almost no additional trouble with weeds. I find they greatly increase the earthworm population, which is fine except it attracts animals which dig for them (raccoons, skunks or opossums--not sure which).

I fertilize with EB Stone and Alfalfa meal and use store bought mulch. I have a much smaller garden than most of you...I would love to put down manure, but my dear little Schnauzer eats it and then it usually comes up later on my bed... Not a pretty picture.

BettyN

I put down a layer of mushroom compost and shredded oak leaves each fall. Now, I just started a compost pile out back and when that is done, I'll be using that instead of the mushroom compost.

I put a layer of chicken manure early spring every year. Then I mulch with Lucerne mulch. Use an organic fertiliser every month. Use a seaweed liquid fertiliser (Seasol) whenever I have a chance (about twice every three months). Once during the growing season I try and use Alfalfa tea as well.
Sanju

I lay down compost by the yard every year. Twice if I can. I am phobic about horse manure. My garden is too big to weed and I believe it can bring in weed seeds.

I leave the fallen leaves on all winter. In spring I take away all but the last layer. If I have the money, I'll add more mulch or compost. I've never had a rose die from lack of compost. They may not do as well as they could, but for years I gardened on a shoestring. Good soil really helps, but roses are tough. Even in Santa Fe, where my soil was just sand, my roses made it on a few bowls of kitchen peels, old iris blades, chopped weeds, discarded houseplants and anything else organic I could dig into the soil.

If your roses are growing on multflora rootstock, please keep in mind that manure is alkaline, and multiflora rootstock likes acid soil. So if your soil is already alkaline, you may push your pH too far in the wrong direction.

I never use compost. I just get a big bag of Miracle Gro Organic garden soil and mix with Rosetone and Epsom Salts and put that around the base of each rose. I might do it again in July/August. I use weed cloth and I have cedar mulch on that all around the rose beds but I never keep it close to the canes of the roses. I just purchased a big bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer with chicken manure from the local nursery and I probably will put a little of that down throughout the season.

I get bags of Black Cow, Black Hen, Alfalfa pellets, Milorganite, and every leaf or grass clipping I can scrounge.... I throw it all on whenever I have the strength and keep it deep, also bags of Mulch from HD.. the more the better is my motto.... keep in mind that the roses grow year-round here in Fla. and it is a year-round job.... sally

We have a huge compost pile in the back yard that we have been moving to the rose garden. It is just what our acid clay soil needs.

Composted manure every few years and shredded hardwood mulch every spring right after I prune even when I use manure. Never take out the old stuff, just pile right on top of it.

Only fertilizer I use and the roses love it. I started with clay soil you had to use dynamite to dig a hole and I can now dig with a normal shovel 18" straight down. Every new rose just takes off as soon as it gets its roots in the good stuff.

You can certainly supplement with a fertilizer but try to stick to organics and whatever you do no all in one granular fertilizers with fungicide/insecticide in it. They will sterilize the soil you just spent so much time and energy bringing to life.

The condo complex's landscapers over apply new cedar mulch every spring. It's not too much for the roses, but it's too much for some other plants (for instance, I don't grow bearded irises or peonies because of this where otherwise I'd have a bunch of both, and I've lost lavender that I suspect died because of being buried under cedar mulch). I apply Garden Tone as an annual fertilizer to some of the beds (where I have Hostas, ferns, etc.), and every six weeks from mid/late April through sometime in August.

If I had my own property I would look into using composted manure on an annual basis as my mulch, but I'm not at that place in my life.