dollfluff
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Joined: Mon May 29, 2017 12:52 pm
Location: Santa Clara, California

The plants in my garden are not blooming and die instead

Hello everyone! I am new here, and I was hoping I could get some insight into why I am failing as a gardener. First, I am new to gardening, I began spring 2016 and lost a lot of plants due to overwatering. I also rent my home, therefore we have some plants, mostly roses, that are not technically mine but I care for. These roses have always done really terribly and the landlord will just cut cut cut them and never deal with their problems. They almost never bloom.

After a lot of research and trying, I did find a more stable way to garden, even using a water meter so I don't overwater. However, all my plants seem to be 'stuck' or just end up dying. I have new seeds which are doing good and I don't want to lose them. My plants don't bloom, and I have a lot of roses, which look the worst. They grow tall, they grow leaves, but no flowers. I water when needed, I place the roses in the sun, and the plants that don't like sun are in semi shade. I spray the roses once a week with Fungicide 3 or neem oil which did make a difference but not enough. I also fertilized them with organic fertilizer in April, which did nothing. So a few days ago I added miracle grow. I buy organic potting mix and when I bring a plant home, I put it in new potting mix in a good sized pot in the sun. I prune when necessary. My roses from last year were doing bad so I pruned and they still haven't grown back. I purchased a mini rose pot, and took them out immediately, put them in individual pots in new potting mix and placed them in the sun. They were doing fine, and then they stopped. I also purchased 3 new rose roots, two bloom like 1 flower at a time, and the other is dying. I have 3 kwanzan cherry trees which never grew and 2 are dying. I care about my garden so much, and to not see them thriving is really hard. I will add pictures of my garden. its almost June and my garden still hasn't bloomed. I try and research my plants, I spend a lot of money trying to get them to a good place, but its just not happening, what am I doing wrong??
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imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Roses are heavy feeders. Organic fertilizer doesn't work that fast and you have to have a healthy soil microbia for it to do its thing. It will eventually release but not fast enough for now. Continue miracle grow for acid loving plants every two weeks for a couple of months to catch up. I would use a granular rose food according to the package instructions now and after every bloom cycle. Continue fungicides once a month preventively. Spray under the leaves. Sulfur will also control spider mites in dry weather. If it gets humid or wet increase fungicide to weekly.

Roses should be dead headed and cut back to a 5 leaf outward pointing node. The branches look thin and spindly but that could be variety but also because they did not have enough food and too many branches were allowed to grow with limited food. I would thin the dead and weakest branches to open the plants up more. Everything is up against a wall. Wallls cut off light for part of the day and roses like 6 hours of sun ideally.

The roses in the pots look ok, the pots are too small for some of them. I don't grow many floribundas, but I have those in 14 inch pots. I keep hybrid teas in larger pots and a couple of them look really good because they have gone through the bottom of the pot and are now in the ground. Lesson here, roses need room for the roots to grow. The smaller pots have seedlings but when they get true leaves they will need to be transplanted and uppotted. Crowding will eventuall kill them and they won't grow much. They also will need to be fertilized regularly. MG works for that too. Try to put plants where they will get at least 6 hours of sunlight. You can mulch around the roses with compost but stay away from the stems.

I don't think you are failing as a gardener. Roses are not the easiest things for people to grow because they are not low maintenance plants. Once you learn how to take care of them you can have really nice roses.
1. Fungicide monthly
2 Feed with a rose food after each bloom cycle, or MG for acid loving plants every 2 weeks. Stop when you see the new shoots have matured and turned green. Resume after the rose blooms.
3. After bloom roses need to be cut back to a 5 leaf outward pointing node. Use clean sharp tools and cut back to a thick branch (1/4 inch). The new growth will come off that branch and will get smaller with a smaller bloom. Roses only bloom on new wood.
4. Maintenance pruning annually. Cut back to the stongest canes and winterize according to where you live. Apply an organic mulch to control weeds and to provide organic matter. You can use a good compost (1-2 inches) stay 4 inches away from the stems.
5. When pruning use sharp clean pruners and loppers. Use leather long sleeved gloves. You will still get scratched, but it helps. Make a clean cut at an outward facing node. Cut back to the base any dead or thin branches. Cut back any wounded branches to a healthy wood. Use pruning sealer on larger cuts. Spray pruner with alcohol (just put a srayer on 70% alcohol bottle), with every cut. Thin out branches that are growing to close together. You want to prune roses into a vase shape.

https://www.rose.org/rose-care-articles/ ... e-pruning/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPKMu8wW8E0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rIoUFKhspo

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Good advice from imafan.

I will just say that I don't grow roses, because I am an organic gardener and roses are just very difficult to maintain organically. They need lots of food, lots of pruning, lots of maintenance against black spot and other diseases, mites and other pests.

If you want to be rewarded with happy thriving plants and lots of blooms, grow native wildflowers, which are adapted to your conditions, much sturdier, and don't need so much fussing and babying. A few examples are milkweeds, penstemons, california lilac, monkey flowers, golden yarrow, hummingbird sage, California fuchsia , and many others!!

imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

There are organic fertilizers for roses and there are things you can do to limit pesticides but roses are difficult to grow strictly organic

1. Make sure there is good air circulation between the plants
2. Water the base and not the leaves.
3. Roses are prone to fungal and bacterial diseases so they do need to have a prophylactic fungicide program. You can use sulfur, milk, or horticultural oil for prevention. Sulfur and oil need to have one month between them or the plants will burn.
When it is raining every day, it is nearly impossible to prevent blackspot and mildew unless you use Systemic Rose Care.
If you use a systemic, you will need to disbud until the systemic is no longer active.
4. Good sanitation is a must. Pick off all the yellow and sick leaves on the plant and on the ground.
5. If rose beetles are a problem, shine a bright (floodlight) on them from dusk to about 10 p.m. It interrupts their feeding cycle
Plant four o'clocks between the roses and garlic or chives under the roses as bug deterrents. (Don't eat them if you use systemics. Four o'clocks are not edible. Keep them away from children and pets)
6. Horticultural oils and a blast of water from the hose will handle most of the soft bodied pests like aphids and scale.
7. If you buy a rose, select one with glossy leaves. They usually have better mildew resistance than matte leaves.
8. Regular pruning with very clean tools opens up the inside of the plant and improves air circulation. Getting rid of dead and sick branches as well as thin ones, directs the plant's energy into fewer healthier branches for bigger roses
9. While roses are blooming and growing they are heavy feeders, but they prefer a long deep drink to a shallow drink every day.
10. Roses should be fed after they are pruned to promote green growth. Roses will only bloom on new wood. If your rose is not growing or you have too much nitrogen in your fertilizer it will not bloom for you. There are many brands of rose food on the market and anyone will work. Miracle grow for acid loving plants works as a quick feed for roses and can be used all the time but you have to know when to start and stop it to maximize bloom. Otherwise you will get lush plants that bloom, but they will bloom better if they get a break.
Organic fertilizer can be added but it will take a long time to feed a hungry rose. You will have to supplement until it kicks in. You will have to continually add organic fertilizer to reap any benefit. Compost is a good way to add organic matter to the soil.
Compost can be alkaline. Rose food is always an acidic food.

Some varieties of roses are hardier than others. Iceberg is the highest rated rose =9 . It is a white grandiflora. The other roses that I have that are almost care free are red ribbons (a rambler), and baby blanket (landscape rose from Jackson and Perkins).
Red ribbons and baby blanket are in my back yard which I try to keep organic, and I don't spray much. I have a very good garden patrol. These roses literally grow wild. they put out long stems that touch the ground and they keep rooting more roses. I have to cut them back like weeds. They get fed when the garden gets fed and they get water, but no pesticides. The roses in my front yard are under a light and they don't need pesticides but they are more prone to fungal disease and I have a hibiscus that is attacked by erineum mites so I do use Systemic Rose Care when I have to and I disbud for a couple of months. I have Mr. Lincoln in the back, in a pot. It is not as resistant as the wild roses but does fairly well considering it is a hybrid tea. I do have to spray it with alcohol and sulfur to control the fungal disease. The beetle damage has been tolerable because the geckos eat the beetles so I don't even have a light on for it at night. I just found out it has escaped its pot and it in the ground. I guess that is why the top is hitting the eaves.

If you have the right roses, and they are in a good place, they can handle even pests and disease with only a little help. I don't spend a lot of time on my roses. I used to replace roses every couple of years, but some of the ones I have now have been around 10-20 years. I do replace roses and one I replaced, I ended up pulling because it had too many issues with black spot. I have planted two new roses. They were smaller than I thought they would be but they so far have the disease resistance I want. These are my best roses Red simplicity, red ribbons, baby blanket, Queen Elizabeth, Iceberg, Proud Land, Pristine, Peace, Mr Lincoln, Mme Frances Meilland, Julia Child, First Prize, Chrysler Imperial. Some of these are not necessarily pest resistant, but they grow well for me with not a lot of care.
I grow most of the hybrid teas under a street light so I don't have problems with rose beetles. I found out by accident that four o'clocks deters the beetles too. They just don't bloom under a streetlight. I plant alyssum under my roses to attract beneficial insects and fennel to protect everything (it just needs to have its own little corner. It does not like company. I have a lot of geckos and greenhouse frogs and they eat a lot of bugs. I haven't had an aphid issue for three years and I rarely spray. I do have scale and occasionally white flies. I deal with the white flies by planting corn. The corn attracts aphids which in turn attracts the purple lady bug, and they like whiteflies. I hardly spray or treat my yard with anything more than water or alcohol. The only exception is the systemic for the erineum mites and to control blackspot in the rainy season. I don't have to work hard since I have my microecosystem taking care of most of the problems by itself.

dollfluff
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Posts: 2
Joined: Mon May 29, 2017 12:52 pm
Location: Santa Clara, California

thank you everyone! I definitely took everything in consideration. I went ahead and cut down all of the thin branches off the roses, bought more fungicide 3 to keep up with that weekly, and I also saw ugly little gnats around my soil so I sprayed those to get rid of them. I wasn't able to save all of the mini roses, they just turn completely brown, no green left inside at all, and with the fertilizer I put last week, everything is already doing much better and growing! when I have some money I'm going to buy bigger pots for the roses and some more shelves since they are a little cramped right now. Ill post pictures when I see some new blooms!



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