In many instances, where the soil is healthy and fertile, a good quality organic mulch can be sufficient to keep roses growing and blooming well.

Roses are among the most popular flowers grown in the UK and consistently top charts of peoples’ favourite flowers. Unfortunately greenfly love roses and at some point in the season you will get one or several infestations, because we grow our roses very close together we have to spray every 1 to 2 weeks during active growth to control and resistance to products is a problem even on a commercial scale. It is best applied regularly at two to three monthly intervals during the dormant period followed by monthly applications during the leafing and flowering period. It is important to use regularly to keep disease spore at bay.Uncle Tom's Rose Tonic contains potassium phosphite fertiliser and is free from additives, wetters and dyes. A 1 litre bottle should provide 30-40 applications to a single rose plant in a 7”x9” pot 45cm high and 40cm wide Leaving the flower heads on would mean instead the rose will put all its efforts into producing rose hips with seeds inside for the rest of the summer and autumn and you will not get any further flushes of flowers in that year. With a sharp pair of Secateurs prune off the dead flowers to just above a leaf, cutting 2 or 3 leaves below the flower stalk where the stem growth is strong enough to support a new large bloom or truss of flowers Applying an annual mulch I write with an endorsement for your product known to me as Farm-Fos-44, but now on sale to the public as Uncle Tom's® Rose Tonic. This will be my 8th year of use. As a Rose Breeder and a countryside lover I try to be as environmentally friendly as humanly possible and only use products that I feel will be safe.

Often, feeding roses more than once a year is recommended, but if your soil is healthy, it is generally only necessary to feed once a year in the spring by sprinkling organic fertiliser around the base of the plants.

Uncle Tom's Rose Tonic Concentrate 500ml

When feeding roses, the first step is always to ensure that you have healthy soil that is rich in organic matter and supports and sustains a wide variety of life, including the microbial life that helps roses and other plants to thrive. From late May onwards, feed weekly with either a liquid rose fertiliser or a liquid tomato fertiliser,” adds Stewart. When roses are growing in the soil, they can tap into the resources present in the soil in which they grow since, thanks to mycorrhizae, they can draw on nutrients even beyond their own root systems.

Farm-Fos-44 is essentially a foliar feed, but in my view is very effective at protecting plants from damaging diseases. I don't know quite how it works, but the important thing is that it does! My trials have now been replicated by many others of the British rose industry with similar successful results. INNER JOIN `catalog_category_product_index_store1` AS `cat_index` ON cat_index.product_id=e.entity_id AND cat_index.store_id=1 AND cat_index.visibility IN(2, 4) AND cat_index.category_id=2 The key thing to remember about feeding roses is that roses take their nutrition from the soil or growing medium in which they grow and they need a good quality and fertile soil or growing medium to thrive. Regular fortnightly spraying during active growth before you see problems is recommended. You can alternate with natural bee-friendly products like Sulphur Rose, Uncle Tom’s Tonic and SB Plant Invigorator.

One interesting thing that goes on below the soil around roses is that roses form a symbiosis with mycorrhizae, which form fungal networks stretching out from the roots of the roses into the surrounding soil. 1 Mycorrhizal Fungi. (n.d.). David Austin Roses. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/products/david-austin-mycorrhizal-fungi Often, ensuring healthy soil means building healthy fungal networks that aid roses and other plants meaning that less intervention from us is required.

A regular spray with a rose tonic such as Potassium Phosphite ( Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic) will help roses to keep healthy. Use alongside a proprietary feed during the growing season to keep your roses happy. This means that they perform best when they are fed at least once a year and mulched well with organic matter after feeding. This is also something that you can make yourself at home, using any potassium-rich leaves from plants like comfrey or other dynamic accumulators of potassium. Mulching Roses The fortnightly feed for roses before buds form should be a general-purpose, relatively balanced organic liquid fertiliser, such as compost tea. We would recommend spraying from April to October for the best control with 1 application every 1 to 2 weeks, only spray when overcast or early morning or late evening if hot and sunny, never spray your roses in hot direct sunshine from mid morning to late afternoon as this will scorch your leaves and flowers.. Treating Greenfly, Aphids & PestsThese and other organic additions can be added to a planting hole when planting new roses or crushed, chopped and spread around the roses in spring before you mulch around the area with your primary slow-release feed and mulch material. Our own native rose varieties are extremely resilient and hardy and can cope with a wide range of soil conditions. These can sadly often do more harm than good and are a poor choice for wildlife and the environment. Roses are typically provided with a growing medium or soil that provides a good proportion of the nutrients that they need.