Well they like epsom salts that part I know. I'd send you some of my clay for some of your sand if mailing heavy stuff wasn't so expensive. Barring that I would say add a bunch of compost to the sandy soil you have in that area. Bone meal in the bottom of the hole you dig when you plant it is good too. Good luck with your rose. I love roses.

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Here is a link to a great explanation on how to use epsom salt.
Epsom salt

I know what you mean by getting a little tired of soil that isn't in good shape. I'm slowly building good soil on top of my clay but this year something went very wrong with my bottom tier and nothing is really growing well there. But it will get better with time.

I look forward to seeing your pictures of the fiesta rose. Is that one of the red ones? And is it a shrub, climbing, tea or hardy rose? Or a miniature? That's what I have is miniatures. I hope to get a bunch of colors of them over time but for right now I just have one type of miniature red rose and I love it. It is about to flower and I can't wait of course lol.

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I sure learn something new every time I log onto this site!! I had no idea that Epsom Salt was beneficial to plants. I always thought that salt in general was a bad thing for most plants. How many other Gardeners regularly use this product?

Very nice!! I can see the sand around the base of the plant, at first I thought maybe you had already used the epsom salts. I live in the Virginia Peidmont region and we have a lot of red clay soil. I have transplanted three rose bushes from my last residence to my new home that I just built last year. One did not make it and the other two are trying to come back. I have been babying them along with fertilizer (Miracle-gro for Roses) and they are in some good loamy soil that I provided. I am hesitant to add the Epsom salts because of the fact that they are struggling and was wondering what others might think about that......

I didn't want to start a new thread, but I had a rose growing question. I just bought a house that has some productive rose bushes but I want to move them. I do not want to wait until winter to do so.

So, I was considering pruning them back entirely (mind you, it's June 3rd, today), and then digging them out and moving them. I was curious to know if this essentially would kill them or if I could expect that they would survive. It seems like an odd question, I suppose, but I've looked all over and I understand that they need to be pruned back in the winter, and I figure that if I do that now, it'd be bad - I just don't know if it's bad in the "you-won't-have-blooms-for-the-rest-of-the-summer" kind of bad or bad in the "you're-killing-one-of-Gods-creatures" kind of bad. I'm not sure I want to keep them other than they are currently productive, and they are in the way of other plans. But, I figure if I can move them, and it won't kill them, I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

chris, if you move them now, you stand a good chance of losing them. they go into shock really easy. cutting them back all the way would help them make the move easier. i'd recommend waiting tho!

i moved one of mine last month...i thought it was early enough in the season. wrong! it went into a bad shock. altho it's hanging in there, i'm still very close to losing it.

again, i'd say wait until after they are past the growing season and then move them.

JV-

There's another problem. My fiancee is a vegetarian and is mostly in charge of the garden - so no bloodmeal or bonemeal for the roses. Don't worry - I don't let her tell me I can't eat steak or fried chicken, but she's also attempting to create an entire organic garden. I wonder if the care for the roses would otherwise be complicated.

I plan to wait as long as I can before attempting any pruning or moving. I wish I would have thought of this back in October - I just didn't give much thought to keeping the bushes until this Spring after they've bloomed. One of the bushes has a fairly obvious disease - many of the leaves are spotted yellow, although much of the bush is fairly healthy, and yes, is blooming like crazy.

They've been on their own for over a year and although they're obviously not under any kind of direct care are apparently healthy and seemed to have flourished. They don't get any kind of water, either. It's strange, really, that they've done as well as they have. I'll attempt to take some pictures for posting so that I can give you a better idea of what I have here.

I really would like to keep them - there's a certain amount of sentiment that has blossomed (so to speak) for these, but I've never cared for roses before and am not sure I'll keep good enough care of the ones that I do have.

Mrs Bradley- Thanks for the info...my hubby told me that also. I now have aprox 30-40 blooms on this 2 foot plant!

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