Calwest Orchid Supplies

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when safe_mode is enabled or an open_basedir is set in /home/truck/public_html/calwestorchidsupplies.com/wp-content/plugins/affiliate-mage/classes/rss_php.php on line 134

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when safe_mode is enabled or an open_basedir is set in /home/truck/public_html/calwestorchidsupplies.com/wp-content/plugins/affiliate-mage/classes/amazon.class.php on line 1

Why are my rose bushes not blooming?

Its summer time here and my rose bushes are producing virtually no buds. I water them consistently. Are they resting because of the heat?… or is there something I’m doing incorrectly? Thanks!
They haven’t had fertilizer for a few months because the local rose society suggests that I don’t fertilize during the summer months. Do you agree?

No, I do NOT agree. Roses bloom in the summer. To bloom, they need fertilizer! Check at the local X-mart – along with the usual Miracle Grow and Vegetable fertilizers will be Rose fertilizer. The numbers for the percent nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium are different for roses than they are for other plants. Miracle Gro is something like 24-8-16, heavy on the nitrogen. Rose food will be more like 8-10-8. Roses like more phosphorous to bloom. They also need calcium, so bone meal is helpful. Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) is a simple additive to help them bloom. Bayer makes a good insecticide/fertilizer that comes in a blue bottle. To get blooms, roses have to be fed. To get big blooms, they have to be fed well. I used to live in Knoxville, TN and had a wonderful rose garden with big, beautiful blooms of all sorts. I’ve since moved slightly further north (to the top of a mountain) and can barely get anything to bloom, and then only when I fertilize the heck out of my roses. There is such a thing as burning the plants with over fertilizing, so you have to be careful, but I was always giving my roses something (epsom salt, bone meal, rose food) and it showed. Forget your local society, it sounds like they haven’t a clue, and get out there and fertilize, fertilize, fertilize! (go to the local library instead and see if they have any good books on roses. the one I have is Ortho’s All About Roses. it’s fairly simple, yet covers what you need.)

Also, you don’t mention where you live, but roses like lots of water but don’t like to be soggy, so the soil needs sand and it needs to drain well. It also needs lots of compost and manure. Roses like rich soil. They also have to have lots of sun. With enough sun, you can have roses late into the year. In Knoxville, I saw them almost to Thanksgiving in a warm year. In Arizona we had them well into December.
Good Luck!