Most plants aim in life is to produce flowers in order to have them
mature to fruit ( a bit like humans) - in the case of the rose its
offspring is the rosehip. If you "Deadhead", that is remove dead flower
heads as soon as they are past their best then the plant has not
succeeded in producing its fruit and will create a new flower to
hopefully achieve its ambitions. This "Cheating" of the rose is the
best way to maintain a strong flush of flowers through the season
(tough on the rose, but, hey, who's in charge round here anyway?). The
rose will therefore soon tire of all this activity unless you feed it
well and it will become poorly looking and more susceptible to disease.
Apply a balanced general purpose fertiliser, or a proprietary "Rose"
fertiliser in spring and again in summer. Some people recommend foliar
sprays as a way to feed roses and yes, they can take in nutrients
through the leaves, but generally is not worth the effort as the roots
are really much better designed for this purpose. The special Rose
formulations will be better for your roses as they also contain the
correct balance of other minerals as well as the three main N, P & K -
Nitrogen, Phosphorus & Potassium. Roses need these minerals - like
Iron, Magnesium and Calcium to maintain good health.
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JW-Tools
