Over feeding my roses?

Hello,

Please forgive me if this is an over asked and answered question but I just want a bit of info about feeding roses.

My routine is after the frosts pass I prune my roses to main stems etc and feed with fish blood and bone and fresh compost around the base,

I feed them along with the rest of the garden as soon as it starts to warm a bit usually end of march.

They come into flower and I feed again- and the rest of the garden.


They finish flowering and I give a good feed and compost over the base for winter.


Now is that enough or too much. I get a lot of flowers, never have any blackspot issues or mildew-get aphids but blast em with the spray on my hose. But I have read elsewhere that fortnightly feeds seem to be the norm. I thought that would be overfeeding-by quite a large amount so could do with some expert advice-not that I mean an ex-head gardener i know of or anything???!!!

 

My TopRose fertiliser packet says "One feed in the spring, and a second after the first flush".

I think what you are doing is spot on, albeit a bit more than I do (I applied manure topdressing in the winter too).

Only point I would make is to be careful what you use for fertiliser later on inthe year - avoid things that will create soft growth shortly before Winter arrives - so keep the Nitrogen down towards the end of the year, but you won't really want to be applying much Nitrogen anyway I expect, you need the Potassium for roots the flowers - Toprose NPK is 5-6-12

 

Thank you so much both of you, Woo-you have the benefit of many years experience, I only hope I get there one day.

again many thanks

 

I only feed once a year in the spring.