Let’s be honest! When it’s time to buy a rose fertilizer, for many home gardeners, purchasing of a bag fertilizer for rose bushes is a purchase of mystery.
This need not be; with a little knowledge, anyone can select a rose bush fertilizer to fit any particular need.
You can buy with the assurance that you’ve obtained the proper ingredients for maximum results assured each bag.
By law, all fertilizers carry numbers of the guaranteed plant food such as 10-6-4 or 7-8-5.
The three numbers always indicate the number of units of:
Fertilizers for roses, and for all plants, have always been and always will be in this order.
Thus a formula or n-p-k ratio of 20-10-5 means:
While complete high nitrogen fertilizers tend to give a showy display of top growth, this by itself is not sufficient to ensure healthy plant growth.
In fact, an imbalance of nitrogen can give the false sense of security that plants or a lawn are developing beautifully, when in fact the root systems are being starved.
For this reason, it is essential to feed each type of plant the precise, carefully balanced diet which brings maximum beauty and health to the entire plant.
For healthy rose buses, one of the best diet formulas is 7-8-5.
Unfortunately, most packages of rose fertilizers do not give much additional information about the contents.
The reason is that individual states have different rules as to “how to express the contents” of-a-package and what can and cannot be listed.
Inasmuch as the fertilizer manufacturer cannot afford to print, fill and inventory different packages for every state, they omit much data and lists only the information and terminology agreed upon by all states where it is sold.
Thus a rule to follow is to always ask to see the manufacturer’s literature before you buy. This holds true for organic fertilizers, Miracle-gro, slow-release granular fertilizers and everything in between.