I'd remove the rocks--get it over and done with so that it doesn't bug you for years to come! And you don't want to dig and let the rocks get mixed into the planting soil.

Kate

I don't mess with amending the soil. I plant em in the clay here and top dress em with rose soil once a year. They grow great!

In my climate roses bake in rock mulch. I've removed all that awful stuff from my yard (previous owners had put it everywhere). A good organic mulch, such as wood chips or something similar is much better.

Thats what I was asking about just covering the rocks with wood mulch rather then removing them?

Its a lot of rocks.....Sized between golf balls and tennis balls.

This post was edited by KingCobb on Fri, Apr 4, 14 at 14:11

One more thing -- if the rocks are limestone, they'll make the soil beneath very alkaline. If you don't know, do the vinegar test -- if some spilled onto the rocks starts to fizzle, then you have limestone.

:-)

~Christopher

I know someone who uses white rock mulch in all his rose beds but he's in Colorado where it's cooler. It might be too hot for Texas. I think I'd remove it.

I've been trying to grow Rose's in my front yard every year. Last summer was the first year I gave up. This year I'm determined to try it again. I went out and bought 3 rose bushes expensive ones this summer. I always plant them up against my house in the front yard. Plenty of sun. But every year they die. And every summer I go buy new ones. Where I plant them when I dig a whole there's rocks from where they put rocks all around the house cause of the basement. I'm not sure if this is the reason why my roses die every year or not. I planned on planting them a little further out away from the house this time hoping there's no rocks. Other thing is first couple of winters people tell me not to cover up there Rose's cause there's were just ffine they grew back. Some say no cover up. Well I did both. Mine never grew back. Just died. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I love rose bushes and so badly want them to come back every summer. Should I also put some kind of special mixture when planting the rose bushes. Cause all I was doing is taking potting soil and mixing it with the dirt I dug up.

Please help...

Not much to go on, there.. but..

Where do you live? The nearest major city will be enough to give us an idea of your climate.

Are the roses not coming back after the winter, or are they dying during the summer or fall soon after they were planted?

Any pictures of where you keep planting them? Some close shots and some wider shots?

How many rocks, exactly, are you talking about here?

I live in Appleton, Wisconsin

After winter is said and done and summer comes. I wait to see if I have any life to my rose bushes. But nothing so I dig them up and throw them away.

All through summer and fall I have perfect rose bushes...

It's not alot of rock like you see here in the second picture . Just when I dig the whole 6 - 8 inches like required I run into rocks. Not alot but there's rocks.

Are you buying hybrid teas ? I think it gets so cold in Wisconsin right ? Maybe they need winter protection . You could start a new thread that may get more responses from people in your area . I’m sure it must be so frustrating to lose them every year !

The rocks shouldn't cause overheating in Wisconsin. I wouldn't worry there about it. You could just add mulch etc.

Kingcobb,
I would remove all the rock. My main reason would be because they will just be hard to keep looking nice and hard to weed. I have never seen a gravel mulch that looks good after a few years. It always gets loaded with plant debris that sink into the rocks, then weeds grow between them. Such a pain to weed in a rock bed. It will make your life so much easier in the long run to just get rid of the rock now. Put in a thick wood chip mulch, which keeps soil cool. Then as it slowly degrades over the years, turning into beautiful soil, you can top dress with new mulch. Much easier to maintain in the long run. Easier to weed too. Also my 3 inch thick shredded wood mulch forms such an impenetrable barrier to weeds, I do almost no weeding even after 9 months. I think I will only need to refresh my mulch every 3 years, but I am in arid SoCal with a drip system so it breaks down quite slowly compared to a climate with summer rain.

Hu, try starting a thread devoted to your question. You'll get lots of advice. I'm thinking you're not burying the graft deeply enough or not getting very hardy roses. You can also choose a name and include your growing zone and location for better advice! Looking forward to reading your thread! : ))