I use bagged cypress from Home Depot. I actually costed out the difference between bagged and delivered (1 cubic yard is 3x3x3 or 27 cubic feet, bagged mulch is often 2 cubic feet) and found that the cost difference was not as large as I thought, bagged is a little more expensive but way more convenient and Home Depot staff loaded the bags into my SUV and then refused a tip and the loaded bags were i easy to get to my house.
This is the first year at my tiny little house I'm fixing up, but I also used oak leaves I bagged in the fall. For next year I may save and compost more leaves.

I also read bad things about black mulch so I decided to try organic mulch. It's available at Home Depot and it looks very nice once it's down. On the bag it says "Smell the organic difference", and it certainly does have a different smell to it.

Maude

I've been buying the eucalyptus bagged mulch from Lowes for years and have been very happy with it. It's usually around $2 a bag, even better!!! Christy

Any organic matter that is free makes a great mulch, grass and shrub trimmings, fallen leaves, homemade compost.

Cypress mulch is not an ecologically sound choice. I am fortunate enough to have access to manure from a friend's stable. It is at least 50 percent wood shavings, and makes a perfect mulch. I also have home-grown manure, but my horses aren't stabled so it's the pure stuff. I use it for amending rose holes when planting. Check around at stables in your area and see what's available. Some stables will load it for you onto your trailer. You will have the fun of unloading it.

That is good info about the cypress, I did a search and won't be buying more. Hopefully though by next year I won't have to buy at all since there are tons of leaves in my neighborhood.

I just use the leaves from my trees (although I leave enough to nourish the trees) and throw the spent roses and their leaves under the rose bushes. The woody mulch you buy doesn't seems to last long and is too expensive over a wide area, and I'm not convinced it's as effective as leaves that decompose quickly and help to nourish and improve the soil. One thing that worries me about horse manure is the wormicide that may be used on the horses which apparently will also kill the worms in your soil. It's just something I've read and have no further knowledge of. My decomposed granite doesn't have a plethora of worms to worry about.

Ingrid

The best organic mulch is FREE & from a LOCAL source, not purchased.

1st check with local city/county recycling (or County Univ. Ext. Office)for mulch & compost sites--many areas have wood chips & mulch free (or at minimal cost) if you can haul it.

2nd check with a local tree trimming companies, many will dump a load of wood chips in your driveway for little or no fee if they are working in your area

a 3rd option that I've found in my area is check for horse stables, most have large piles of horse manure & no place to spread it so they have to pay to have it hauled away. So if you have the means to haul it, they are usually more than happy to give it away & some may even deliver it for a fee.

Wow thanks for all of the informative replies!

I'm going to see if I can find any local since we are a small town farming community and if not my next stop will be home depot looking for the organic mulch or eycalyptus mulch, never heard of that one before!

Ingrid, if that's true, my earthworms don't know it. I really don't think it's true because the dewormers are specific to the type of worms they target. For instance, I have to use two different types of dewormer to get all the worms my horses are susceptible to. Everywhere I've enriched with manure has lots and lots of earthworms where before it was pure sand with not a worm in sight. Also, the total amount of dewormer compared to the total amount of manure is minuscule.

Wow nummykitchen (great name), if you are in a small farming community you should never have to "buy' mulch. Everything is mulch. The stuff you clean out of your gutters is mulch. Any cuttings/prunings in your lawn/garden are mulch. Your coffee grounds, and tons of things (if you can stand to compost them) green from the kitchen are mulch. Wirosarian gave great advice. Now - some mulch is non weed producing and some is heavy producing (like using anything grain hay based - like horse manure from horses eating grain) - but having a horse ranch and feeding 1/2 oat and 1/2 alfalfa, I cope just fine with oats coming up everywhere. The roses are happy, I'm happy.

floridarose, thanks so much for your explanation about deworming ingredients in horse manure. I don't know of a stable nearby but we do get horses traveling up and down our isolated road so my husband said he'd be out there with a bucket whenever we've noticed that a horse had to "go potty".

Ingrid

I use bags of pine bark mulch from Wal-Mart. Don't know if that is good or bad, but it looks closer to "natural" and when piled up several inches high, keeps out most of the weeds and preserves some of the moisture in the soil--which are the main reasons why I use mulch, so it accomplishes my goal.

Kate

Careful about putting rose trimmings under the canes, disease and infections can easily be spread and overwinter for the next season.

I get my mulch from Lowes. I use native Texas cedar, shredded twice, love the smell and the look of it.

I do use the colored mulch, Naturescapes by Scotts (I know, they are evil incarnate). I mostly use the brown because I like the color. I have a few bags and after reading this thread went to read it. On the bag, it does say that you should not put it on newly seeded beds or beds with immature plants, against trees or right up against the house. Now granted, you don't buy mulch and expect to follow directions. But I think we consumers here must take some responsibility. We can't just buy stuff and dump it in our yards and then get mad when something we didn't expect to happen, happens.

I also read online that this mulch is made so that it will prevent the water issues that can happen with some mulches (directs water away from plants). I've had that issues, especially during the drought. I do find that this mulch works very well in established beds and I haven't had any issues with it.

Ingrid, I do the same thing. We have an older horse who "behaves" himself (meaning he doesn't eat the roses, unlike the mini's) when I let him into my yard. I let him in to graze on the rye grass I plant every winter. Whenever he has to "go", I scoop it up and put it on a nearby rose.

If you're looking for manure check Craig's List. In my area, there are frequently ads for free "you pick up" manure. Ingrid, if you have horses going by, surely there are stables somewhere. Check Craig's List for your area. You might be surprised.

If you let it compost down long enough, you can plant straight in horse manure. Right now, I have a trench filled with old horse manure and clay kitty liiter, and I have tomatoes planted there. They're going gangbusters.

We use what ever we chip and grind. In the past it has been pine or eucalyptus. Right now DH is chipping and grinding Monterey Cypress tree's branches that he cut. That should last us awhile.
Clare

We have 4 huge cryptomeria trees. Unfortunately a lot of the lower branches had to be cut because they were overgrowing the bed they were in. Once I cut those down, I could finally get in and around the bed. I also raked up all the dead branches with needles that had dropped in the past few years. We chipped it all up (along with other stuff we had) and it made the best mulch. The shredded needles made the mulch nice and fluffy. And of course it smells nice. And best of all, it's free!

The last two piles of mulch came from a tree-service working my neighborhood... first was a pile of 'clean oak', the next was a pile of pine--all nicely chipped----- they filled my driveway---- FREE-- and free is good! sally

Louisiana forestry association cypress mulch faq
http://www.laforestry.com/site/ForestFacts/Cypress/FAQ.aspx

What about environmentalists� aim to stop the sale of cypress mulch. Is mulch a problem?
Less than 2% of the trees harvested in Louisiana are cypress. Less than 20% of that 2% goes to mulch. Most landowners sell their cypress for higher value products like cypress lumber that is found in homes throughout the state. The by-products from these sawmills should go into other markets like mulch. Otherwise, these operations would have to deal with the disposal of debris in a non-beneficial way.

Here is a link that might be useful: Louisiana forestry association cypress mulch faq

I've used "purchased" pine bark mulch with great success, on and off, for 20 years. There's no dyes, it's generally already composted (no worries about sucking nitrogen out of the soil), and it holds its shape through the rain (it will compress over time). That allows me to build up drip rings around the roses. The really nice thing is that it has NO detrimental effect whatsoever with piling on the canes at the center of the rose. This allows you to keep the bud union and stronger canes buried and protected (in the face of years of erosion).

Where to get it varies, but usually Walmart, Home Depot or Lowes. The free stuff certainly costs less, but you have no way of knowing what's in it, whether decomposition will harm the canes, or whether it's going to suck out the nitrogen. I've seen many mulch piles that sit and smoke from the composting heat - literally. That's the opposite of what you want to put on the rose canes.

Harvesting cypress in Florida is a serious problem in our swamps, and it contributes to our swamps drying up, which cuts down on the amount of water being fed into the Floridan aquifer, and on and on.

Of course, the lumber lobby is going to have a different opinion, just as they do on harvesting the last stands of old redwoods.

HD has colored mulch on sale. I bought some and put it down in an area well away from the other regular mulch. I will report back if I see any differences in plant growth.

I am a former Cypress mulch addict who discovered that it wasn't breaking down and I had piled 6 inches of Cypress mulch over the years that had caked and was shedding water. Other hardwood and pink barks break down better and I now use them in "critical" areas. But most of my beds are mulched with prairie hay.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings blog