Growing Rose - First 90 days - Part 6

by Richard Chew

If you can get past 60 days with reblooms and healthy leaves, definitely you are doing the right thing and heading the right direction. Good work!

At this stage I would try to reduce the frequency of fertilizing, and increase the dosage instead. Perhaps 3 to 6 times higher amount at every 2 months (longer intervals). Recently I have included blood meal. It has good source of protein that aids strong growth. But this is optional.

I use organic liquid fertilizer like seaweed, blood meal, bone meal & fish emulsion, almost daily at very diluted concentration. I make sure the concentration is correct otherwise may cause fertlizer burnt.

If growing conditions are right, there is little need to be done other than to enjoy seeing the rose growing rapidly.

If at this stage the rose plant is not doing well, then you may have to move the rose plant to more direct sun or less direct sun and repeat the entire first 90 days tips. Also check the soil drainage.

There may be a need to tweak the fertilizing but I won't mention here in this posting, perhaps in a new series.

I conclude this series here. Please feel free to email your pictures of your new roses. Happy growing!!

Below is the rebloom of my new rose plant.








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Growing Rose - First 90 days - Part 5

by Richard Chew

If you have done the fertilizing as mentioned in Part 4, you are now ready to see new growth.

After fertilizing, it is time to prune to make way for new growth. I have posted about pruning, you may want to read it at http://rosegrowing.blogspot.com/2009/03/pruning-for-more-growth.html because I don't have the intention to repeat it here.

However I will add some extra points on the dos and don'ts here.

If you just got your rose plant from the nursery and probably just transplanted the rose, it will take time to adapt to your garden environment. One of the major factor is the rate of transpiration. Transpiration to plants is like us breathing and exhaling air.

The rate of transpiration increases during warmer or hotter weather.

As the new roses adapt to new environment, the rate of transpiration or rate of fluid flow in the stems changes. Larger stems require stronger push (pressure) than smaller stem to achieve minimum fluid flow in stems. If the flow stagnants, then the stems will die-back or the leaves will wilt. If the plant is too exposed to hot sun, then you will face a different problem, but I won't discuss it here.

On the other extreme if the soil mix that you transplanted the rose is too moist, it becomes heavy and may also affect the fluid flow. It is like putting a water drenched clothes to dry in a bucket of water. Water in the clothes cannot be released because it is held by the water in the bucket. This is the reason why watering heavily under hot hot afternoon sun is a no no thing.

I won't discuss about watering and achieving better soil drainage here. But what I want to point out is that retaining smaller stems when pruning help the rose plant to adapt to new environment better.

If I am unsure and suspect the rose plant is not established yet, then I would do a very light pruning in the beginning, and in the following weeks look for new bud growth. Upon seeing where the growth emerges, I would complete the 1/3 prune and retain the new bud growth.

If you have done all the above, and not seeing the desired result, then try relocating the rose plant where it receives more direct sun. This helps to increase the rate of transpiration and may promote growth.



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Growing Rose - First 90 days - Part 4

by Richard Chew

In this part, I like to share about fertilizing.

I think this is very important to achieve favourable results, especially if you have just purchased your rose from the nursery and transplanted it into your favourite container.

I highly recommend organic fertilizer. My favourtite is 2 parts fish meal and 1 part chicken manure. The dosage should cover the entire top soil surface.

And I prefer compost soil over clay/burnt earth soil. Burnt earth soil is lifeless soil unlike compost soil that contains rich nutrients and full of lively soil organism.

With the combination of lively soil organism and organic fertilizers at the top soil, it speeds up decomposition of the organic matter and converts the fertilizer into useful nutrients for the plant roots.

And compost soil has higher ability to hold nutrients compare to clay soil, thus is more effective in retaining nutrients.

If soil drainage is a problem, I recommend applying vermicompost at the top soil or mix it into the soil during transplanting. Vermicompost helps to improve life in the soil and improves soil drainage. The soil life binds the soil particles into clumps, thus improve drainage and aeration.

I feel if you just transplanted your rose plant, you should fertilize as often as you can. The reason is the transplanted soil may not have sufficient nutrients. Another option worth considering is to use liquid seaweed fertilizer.

These are the suggestions for fertilizing that I recommend in the first 90 days. I believe most roses purchased from nurseries are usually fed with synthetic fertilizers. There is high chances that the roots have low rhizosphere. By carrying out these suggestions, I believe it helps to build a healthier rhizosphere in the roots, and build stronger resistance to diseases and help the newly transplanted rose plant to adapt to new environment quicker.



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Growing Rose - First 90 days - Part 3

by Richard Chew

Purpose of this posting is to share my thoughts to understand the growth condition of young rose plants that you purchase from the nursery.

I learned that rose nurseries employ very innovative methods to accelerate the growth rate of their roses. Basically the bottomline is to make money and make more money. Through these methods they managed to reduce man power in applying fertilizer, reduce fertilizing cost while achieving faster growth rate and bigger and profuse blooms.

They are so good at this that they successfully grow bushier shrub with profuse blooms ready to be sold to customers within shorter growing time. However if you examine the stems, they are still at infant stage, and I also suspect the roots are at infant stage too. I don't mean to insinuate these nurseries, but I feel it is necessary to know this so that we know what needs to be done to achieve higher chances of success in the first 90 days.

This is also the reason why the popular ones, faster moving ones, have lower chances of success when it is sold, because it has to overcome the 'shock' to adapt new growing environment.

To increase your chances of success, I suggest that you choose roses with stronger and healthier stems in your purchase. Sometimes when looking for best bargain, a difference of RM2 or RM10 makes a lot of difference. I would go for the one with the stronger and healthier stems. I don't mind paying for more.

Just for the purpose of illustration, it may not be accurate, the stem thickness difference of 5mm, could equal to 2 months growth period.

If you have already purchased a rose plant, don't judge its growth strength and health level simply by its flower blooms and leaves. And also don't assume that the roots are strong enough. I feel it is always safer to assume worse case.

Now that you know what to look out for good sign of growth and what to expect from your newly purchased young rose plant, next I will share what we can do to increase chances of success.



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read next posting at http://rosegrowing.blogspot.com/2009/05/growing-rose-first-90-days-part-4.html

Growing Rose - First 90 days - Part 2

by Richard Chew

To know whether your roses are growing well, we need to watch out for certain signs that the exhibits strong growth.

I have taken some pictures to give you some idea.

The following dark leaves shoots, indicate strongest and most healthy growth.

Dark leaves absorb most light, just like a solar panel in black because black absorb the most light. If your rose produces dark leave (almost black) at early stage, it will most likely give out strong stem growth.







The following is a less sun tolerant rose. It is placed at shaded location. Strong growth is not necessary influenced by the strength of direct sun. As long as there is sufficient light, it should do the job.




After about 1 to 2 weeks, the leaves will gradually turn to green. This will be sign of slower stem growth and gradually the flower bud will form.





The following are signs of weaker growth than the ones above. Though the growth is weaker, it is healthy. After flowering, it should be pruned immediately.




All of the pictures taken below are signs of weak growth. Though they may produce some shoots, it doesn't have that 'push' compare to those above, the leaves are much lighter green. Other signs of weaker growth are the formation of distorted leaves.











In the first 90 days, we need to watch out for strong growths. I realised that if the newly purchased rose plant do not produce some of these strong growths, then there is high chances that it will not grow successfully at your garden.



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read next posting at http://rosegrowing.blogspot.com/2009/04/growing-rose-first-90-days-part-3.html

Growing Rose - First 90 days

by Richard Chew

I believe many would get excited when adding a new rose plant to their garden collection. Whether it is a shrub, miniature or a climbing rose, it is always wonderful to have colorful and striking show piece in our garden.

However how it is being cared for in the first 90 days are important.

I thought it would be a good idea to write a little on this topic, and then gradually add on as I gain more experiences.

To be honest, till now, not all of my new and young rose plants that I purchased survived in the first 90 days. After growing roses for 3 years (started in 2006), I have only a handful that made it through a year. And out of this handful, less than half made it through the 2nd year.

I started this blog in Sept 08, and what I have posted is based on effort, work and research of many trial and error experiments done since 2006. It is only in Sept 2008 that I felt better equipped to share some experiences, it was then that I launched this blog.


Why am I sharing my success rate in this posting? Because this is the very first lesson that I wish to impart before I go on with this topic. The first lesson is ....


Lesson #1 - Keep a positive attitude

Don't give up!! Don't stop!! Keep going!!

It is important to begin a journey with an end in mind. Don't bother to join a race, if you have no intention to finish it. But if you do join in, don't stop. Keep going. Perhaps it may be a longer journey for some. However it is not the distance that matters, it is keeping a positive attitude.

I hope to start this series with a positive note, and get you started with a right frame of mind without putting unrealistic expectations. If you have failed attempts in growing roses and have decided not to try again for some reasons, I wish to encourage you to reconsider your decision.

Give yourself the first 90 days, you may never know what may turn out to be.

Please stay tune for more posting of this series.




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read next posting at .... http://rosegrowing.blogspot.com/2009/04/growing-rose-first-90-days-part-2.html