22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Walters recipe is about what we've done -- NO epsom salts in our case ... not with OUR water/soil! We have occasionally added kelp. But really, it's the hormones in the alfalfa that do the job. THAT is the power house that drives the growth.
In your situation, maybe try dry alfalfa, well-watered-in?
I did use alfalfa pellets this winter for the first time....a lot actually! People seem to rave about the tea, so I gave it a try! I've had such improvements in all my plants....my peach/orange trees are putting out more blooms than I ever had before...like 3x. I've also been trying to improve the soil...so it's been a multipronged attack!
Thanks for the feedback! I'm trying again with the tea and using much less alfalfa...so far so good!
In the Dallas area, we (Rose Societies, Master Gardeners, Extension agents and horticulturalists from all over) have launched a major campaign to educate people about Rose Rosette. Our main goal at first is to get people (including landscapers and municipalities) to remove the plants that are infecting whole neighborhoods. Scientists are working hard on it, but there is no cure at this time. Removing an infecting cane is very risky. The chances are high that it will return. The disease is caused by a virus spread by the eriophyid mite. The mite can be killed by certain miticides, but only on contact. Unfortunately, they do not stay on the surface of the rose. On a more positive note, the virus is not in the soil. If you remove the roots, you can replant - some say in a week, some say a little longer. Of course, you can re-plant with a non-rose at any time. But, if there are many infected roses in your neighborhood, there is no point in replanting until they are removed. Talk to your neighbors who have infected plants. But, we hope you will not give up. Can you imagine gardens without roses? We can't.
so sorry afraid not. Hate to start on those little cactus plants you see in the grocery store with the glued on flower top;) But seriously I am going to experiment with nontoxic blue food dye on my so-called when I bought it 6 months ago (Baby Blue) blue spruce that was blue but is now green, to see if it gets back a blue tint and if dye was being used to color the spruces that are not the naturally blue strain. Ripped out my poor sea foam rose bush today because of RRV. I was so sad/mad because I found that pathetic little plant ( my first rose bush) in the dumpster at a walmart back in 1997 and now it's (was) a monster. The virus showed up 2 years ago and until I came across this website I didn't know about the box store knock out roses I bought 2 years back was most likely the carrier. No wonder The Knock out roses did bad last year, now they are next to be pulled out. I am afraid to plant my new Leda and Ash rose bushes this year when they come even though they will be on the other side of the house. I wanted to do a English rose garden this year but I think I will put in Peonies, hopefully the RRV mites will be dead by next year if they have no food.
One that bothers me is a special deal I have seen in some catalogs for 12 AARS varieties as a collection. The problem is that one of the varieties, namely Crimson Glory, was never awarded the AARS prize. It was introduced several years before the AARS program's first awards. That is quite misleading. They should switch the Crimson Glory out for another variety that did win the award.
Joe Moose - Beautiful roses. Your Hot Cocoa looks a lot different than mine which is a darker coral. I am rather disappointed in this rose. I like the color but the bush is small and anemic. It has very few blooms and kind of limps along. How is yours? Love Julia Child.
I feel for you guys who have fire ants in your area. When my husband was in the Navy yrs ago, he got shore duty at the Naval Air Base in Beeville , TX. The fire ants there were horrible! Our older son was a toddler and he walked thru an ant hill, in just a diaper. OMG! The screaming and crying, the blisters, the pain that poor kid went thru! And I got stung as well on my feet, toes and in between my toes when I ran to grab him. The burning pain, the pustule-like blisters, that would pop and burn like fire, then fill up time and again. Took days and weeks for them to go away completely. I am sooo glad we don't have fire ants here (yet). I understand they are in some areas of southern CA. I hope they never make it up here!
It looks much healthier now and what a lovely bloom too!
It looks very nice now, but I really would encourage you to snip off any new buds that come along. There isn't much mass to the rose yet and it really needs to build up a framework of branches. Blooms on a small, struggling rose are going to slow it down since it will spend a lot of its energy on blooming instead of growing.