Feeding roses with Neutrog Sudden Impact, how much and how often

Feeding roses with Sudden Impact, how much and how often

Roses have a reputation for being difficult and most of it is undeserved, because what they actually are is hungry. They flower hard, over and over, right through the warm months, and a plant doing that much work in one season is pulling a lot out of the ground. When somebody says their rose has gone spindly with pale leaves and two sad flowers on it, the answer is nearly always underneath rather than above.

What roses are asking for

They want balance rather than volume. Nitrogen builds the leaf, phosphorus builds the roots and potassium is what puts the flowers on, and if you feed heavy on one of those you get the problem that goes with it. Too much nitrogen and you get a big green bush with hardly a bloom on it, which is the commonest way a well meaning gardener ends up disappointed.

That is why a rose specific fertiliser is worth bothering with rather than tipping general purpose feed around them. The blend is already sorted out for what the plant is doing.

The rates, which are the bit worth writing down

Neutrog Sudden Impact for Roses is granular, so it goes on dry and gets watered in. The label rates are straightforward.

• Established roses get 100g per plant, every six to eight weeks through the growing season.
• A new rose going in gets 50g mixed into the planting hole, so it has something to grow into from the start.

A hundred grams is roughly a decent handful, and the reason it is worth measuring the first couple of times is that people either wildly under do it and wonder why nothing changed, or empty half the bag around one bush. Being granular, it releases over weeks rather than all at once, so the feeding is steady rather than a hit and a crash.

It is not roses only, either. It suits other flowering plants, so the bag does not sit in the shed for eleven months of the year waiting for the rose bed.

The rest of the routine

1. Feed at the start of the growing season and again through the flowering peaks, rather than once and forgotten.
2. Spread it out around the plant rather than in a pile at the stem, and scratch it into the top of the soil.
3. Water it in, and keep the soil damp rather than soaked afterwards, because the nutrients have to move down to the roots to be any use.
4. Watch the plant. Dark green leaf and steady buds means it is happy. Pale leaf and slow growth means it is hungry again.

Mulch over the top of the bed once you have fed it and watered in. Roses hate a hot dry root zone, and mulch is the cheapest fix for that going.

Shop related products

• Neutrog Sudden Impact for Roses 1.5kg. The granular rose feed, at 100g a plant every six to eight weeks.
• Seamungus 500g. Seaweed and fish based conditioner that builds the soil the roses are sitting in.
• Go Go Juice 1 Litre. Liquid tonic for between feeds, and useful on a plant that has had a rough summer.
• Martins Organic Pea Straw Mulch 11Kg. Pea straw is the traditional rose mulch and it feeds as it breaks down.
• Popul8 1L. Soil biology concentrate for a bed that has been growing roses in the same spot for years.

The Neutrog range is in the garden centre along with the rest of the garden gear. If you are not sure whether your rose is hungry or just sulking after a hot week, bring me a photo when you are in and we will have a look at it together.

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Roses are the one plant I will happily be bossed around by, and so far they have not steered me wrong.

Candeece

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