Well rotted horse manure not recommended!?

I was speaking today with Crockers (suppliers of Roses in Aberdeen). I was looking for advice as to suitable shrub Roses to grow up here in Scotland which would do well if summers weren't always as good as this 1.

While describing what the growing conditions are like in my garden I mentioned that I had a horse and therefore there was a constant supply of "mare's best". To my amazement I was told in no uncertain terms!!!!! that horse manure was NOT recommended and all it did was spread weeds....WHAT???? I use it as a weed suppressant!!!!! AND it works very well on my huge garden of well over an acre. Jess I am an OAP and a VERY experienced gardener but not that knowledgeable on Roses hence my phone call, I certainly was spoken to as to I was a complete moron! I doubt I will now buy Roses from them!

Well with what I can only describe as rubbish advice and having seen my late Father's Roses look amazing WITH horse manure used I am not inclined to take the advice given re suitable shrub Roses so perhaps some kind soul will be able to advise me of what varieties to go for. My soil is acid and fairly free draining. Frulingsgold does fine and I already have a very nice pink shrub Rose (no idea of variety unfortunately as here when moved here). Ideally I'd like a deep red with good scent and a white or perhaps the likes of Buff Beauty.Added a photo of the pink rose on the off chance someone might know the variety as ideally I'd like other roses of different colours closely related to this 1 which doesn't get Black Spot, doesn't attract Greenfly and flowers well even in dreadful summers.

 

Well, I'm not a rose expert either, but I have one or two observations.

As recently as when I was a kid, it was still common practice for rose gardeners to come racing out of their house with a shovel if they saw a passing horse take a dump in the street.

Also Redcar used to have a lot of very impressive rose gardens. Two of the best were at the aptly named 'Rose Gardens' and at Locke Park. Back in the days when public parks were actually looked after, the roses used to receive a regular top dressing of horse poo, and it wasn't always well rotted. Often it was still very obviously horse poo.

Both those practices have ceased in recent years, and by coincidence the once impressive rose gardens are now just a straggly mess. Someone cuts them back once a year to maintain their vigour, but without the poo, they're clearly starving.

As for spreading weeds, there is an element of validity there in a tenuous link. Fresh cow poo contains viable seeds for things like creeping buttercup. I'm not sure if horse poo is the same. Either way, if they've been allowed time to rot then you'd expect there to be no weed seeds in it since any that were there will have either rotted, boiled in the heat of decomposition, or germinated and then died before getting established.

 

Well, my garden gets horse poo on a very regular basis and seems to love the stuff! I'd make a complaint to the company if I were you.

 

Be interesting to hear what @wiseowl has to say about this

 

Thanks so much all, I really was taken aback and never even got the chance to say my supply is very much dung and very little shavings (don't use straw), mainly use it as a mulch/weed suppressant and never put the stuff however rotted right up to/over the stems of plants. While I'm not certain horse byproduct contains all the nutrients that Roses require it does absolute wonders for soil structure, after 10 years of spreading the manure VERY liberally on my flowerbeds the top 8 odd inches of my soil looks as tho I have spent a fortune on adding peat .....(NO!). Maybe the rose supplier was hoping I would buy some of their Rose feed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway everything I grow including the few Roses I have look pretty healthy to me so I am not going to change how I do things. So much for so called experts, I wouldn't count myself on expert on anything, certainly not gardening, however perhaps after more years than I care to mention dealing with what comes out of horses maybe I am an expert on that subject...about my standard, sh1te in other words

 

Says in my book that the ancient Greeks used to feed roses with horse poo.

 

Hi Sue my late dad when he lived in Aberdeen and Stonie as we are Aberdonians as you know.

He was a Rose man and grew fantastic roses from Cockers roses.

 

Thank you very much Wiseowl. I have had a look at your suggestion and the variety is a lovely choice. Could you advise me approx how tall it grows (yes I know they need pruned!) I have an area of about 20ft x10 ft which I thought would suit Roses. How many do you think would look good, 5? I'd rather over plant than under as I can always move a few if they start to get crowded. Re a white Rose, the only Rose I know which is a good white is Iceburg but the floribunda ones I remember were quite tall (maybe lack of pruning). Ideally I wouldn't want the Roses to be much taller than around 3ft at flowering height. Iceberg has been around for a long time, perhaps the breeders have come up with something better?

 

Hi Silu, may I add to Woos wonderful advice please.

I started a rose bed last autumn as I haven't had one for years, the first thing I did was dig in manure. The bed was empty for a while so it gave it a chance to rot down. However when roses are planted it's advised not to dig any form of manure in and around the roots as this could burn them, it's best and easiest to lay it on the surface around the roses and let the weather and worms do the rest.

Floribunda's have multiple flowers on stems and each different rose can vary in height, they are also hardier than other roses tend to be. All my roses are Floribunda's and I have Iceberg too, a lovely clear white and holds it's flowers fairly well in bad weather. Silu, take a look at the 'Rose Report' thread there are a lot of pictures in there to help you make up your mind.

Below is my bed, approximately 17ft long and 6ft at it's deepest point, there are nine roses in it. This is their first year of flowering so they will fill out more next year.