Experiment

[Farm1]

Well! I been and gone and done it!

Inspired by Higgs, I decided to do something about a problem I've been pondering on for months - well, since the beginning of last summer really.

A couple of my roses are just downright pathetic. Not the least bit vigorous and downright surly to be honest.

They are also in the patch of filthy creeping clover that I mentioned sometime back and asked if it could be killed by the application of MCPA without damaging the roses.

Fired up with Higgs resolve, I got out there and started work on one of them. Using my small hand fork, I've very carefully dug up every tiny bit of clover I could find and every bit of blasted violet I could find anywhere within Coo-ee of this particular rose.

Once I did that, I gave it a a good feed of both well matured chook poop, some sheep poop that is so good a keen gardener could eat it for dinner (about 2 litres of each) some compost full of both manure worms and earth worms, a litre of pulverised fire charcoal and then topped that lot off with some well rotted meadow hay and a topping of oaten hay as a mulch. I then gave it a watering can full of weak seaweed solution and planted a pansy beside ti so I can identify which one of these has been treated.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this works and send my poor rose some positive thought for healthy new growth.

[songbird]

Farm1 wrote: ...

:)

i hope for a good season with many blooms.

songbird

[Priscilla H. Ballou]

Wow! If that rose doesn't respond it doesn't have any sense! :-)

Priscilla

[Farm1]

I've spoken to it very harshly too. Perhaps it might get the message.

[Billy]

If it doesn't die from indigestion. How big are the roses, and over how much surface did you spread tis concoction?

[Brooklyn1]

You brute... perhaps if you spoke to Rose sensually... and massage her errogenous zones. Seems all you wanna do is jump on her and fertilize... ain't you ever heard of foreplay, at least get Rose wet... instant self gratification is what you're all about. At least get Rosie's petals wet:

[Higgs Boson]

Farm, darlin' --Finally someone has justified my existence. I was having doubts, in these dog days of August/Sept...

As other have noted, you really did put the rose on a, uh, [seeks polite term] superlative diet...

Timid question: Why such "overkill". Difficult for science-minded folks to isolate which is the determinate variable [smirks,using fancy language]

OTOH, planting "control" pansy basically good idea, but needs to be at enuff distance not to be affected by rich diet.

Auguri!

HB

[Farm1]

The one I've put it on is a mere stick but it's over 20 years old. I've spread the mix over a metre around the plant.

[Farm1]

Farm, darlin' --Finally someone has justified my existence. I was having doubts, in these dog days of August/Sept...

As other have noted, you really did put the rose on a, uh, [seeks polite term] superlative diet...

Timid question: Why such "overkill". Difficult for science-minded folks to isolate which is the determinate variable [smirks,using fancy language]

OTOH, planting "control" pansy basically good idea, but needs to be at enuff distance not to be affected by rich diet. ______________________________________ Actually it's not really an overkill. 4 litres of aged poop is not a lot - about half a 2 gall bucket and I wanted to give it both varieties. I might even go find some aged horse too and add that if I can fidn some.

The rest of the stuff I added was more like adding a pinch of salt and pepper. Even the chaff as mulch is not really enough. It's enough to shade the soil at this stage of the Spring, but in a few weeks once the weather warms, I'll put a real mulch on and that will be lucerne hay (alfalfa in USian)

The compost was about a good fistful and I did that because it was FULL of worms and that bed is a sad one in terms of soil and is in dire need of worms and other forms of soil biota.

We've recently removed 8 pine trees that were 45 years old from near it and now I can finally do something to try to get the worst looking roses cranking along.

[Jeff Layman]

Hopefully you haven't got rose sickness (replant disease):

[Billy]

Sorry, that was a clerical error ;O)