Roses in pots: Fertilization

Before we start i want to put the emphasis on buying big enough pots. 40X40 cm is a MINIMUM, bigger is always BETTER and DEEPER is better than wide. Roots need space to grow especially in depth so remember that.

Also don't EVER put a water saucer underneath your pot or buy a pot with attached water reservoir. Roses HATE wet feet and rot quickly so NO saucers or reservoirs.

Buy a good quality peat free potting compost preferably for roses. Don't nibble on the prize here, good soil is essential so NO white product or from dubious origine.

Once your rose is planted in your beautiful pot you give a handful of organic granulated fertilizer especially for roses. DON'T EVER USE CHEMICAL fertilizer. What is chemical fertilizer? If it doesn't state organic or natural on the label it isn't organic. The second way to find out if the fertilizer is suitable for our roses is to look at the NPK numbers. NPK = Nitrogen /Phosfor /Kalium

Organic fertilizer for roses NEVER has an NPK higher than ten. If all three numbers are lower than 10 it's organic and ok. If the NPK is higher than 10, especially the Nitrogen, it's chemical and unsuitable for our roses.

Why is that bad? High nitrogen makes soft, weak growth that's highly susceptible for mildew and disease..

We need strong, hard new branches which can withstand disease.

The second reason why it's bad is the probability of burning your roots. High NPK fertilizers need to be given very carefully and in exact amounts. A little too much can result in root burning and your foliage will die soon.

The most important reason why not to use Chemical fertilizer is because it's bad for the soil, your roses and the environment. You can see it as empty calories or junkfood. It doesn't add anything beneficial to your roses and your soil. Instead it kills Mycorhizza fungi and will poison your soil with all kinds of salts. Just like empty calories are dangerous for our body so are chemical fertilizers bad for our roses.

So we give our newly planted roses in pot a handful of organic fertilizer on top. Now you can mulch the top with compost or wood chips. So we give this first dose of granulated fertilizer in spring, end of March. Of course if you plant a container rose in autumn or winter you DON'T give it fertilizer. Only in spring or summer so during the growing season.

So we start end of March and we keep giving a handful each month during spring and summer so in April, May, June, July, August. After August we don't give fertilizer anymore. If we do our growth of this summer won't have the time to ripen properly because it keeps growing. It will die off when Jack Frost enters the country.

So now we talked about our granulated fertilizer. Because roses are such heavy feeders, especially in pots, we're gonna give an extra fertilizer weekly in a liquid form. In pots, water drains away quickly and also our nutrients. So we have to replenish that and keep our soil rich in nutrients. The perfect fertilizer for this purpose is an organic tomato feed or liquid Kelp or other seaweed. All three they have a very low NPK and essential elements like iron. We are gonna give this liquid fertilizer once a week to our roses in pots. Read the instructions on the label how much you have to dissolve per liter or gallon

Now your roses have a steady flow of nutrients during the growing and flowering season.

So each month starting in March till August a monthly handful of organic rose fertilizer in granulated form

Each week a gift of liquid organic fertilizer (Tomato 🍅 or Seaweed) also starting end of March till end of August.

That's it!