With the exception of carpet roses, we buy with the intention to be sold out of roses by the 4th of July. Even in our mild summers, they are too hard and too time consuming to maintain in good condition.

Are they under cover or out in the open? Out in the open is best, certainly away from overhead watering, which is extremely detrimental. We hand water all of ours. And with roses periodic fertilizing is essential if you want to keep them in peak sale condition. We use a commercial grade of Osmocote when we pot them but they also receive monthly liquid feedings. And we have had good success with biweekly spraying with an aerobic compost tea to reduce the incidence of fungal problems.

All of this TLC plus the need for constant deadheading and grooming to look good eats up a lot of labor hours. We look at roses as an early season crop and get 'em gone as soon as possible.

Follow label directions. If it doesn't say anything about containers, then maybe you should be using something else. Watering plants in coarse potting soils tends to leach them out quickly. Ol' 'doesn't like to feed' is probably offering their customers starved stock. The other day I visited a local operation that was full of starved and burned plants. Not a big box plant department, but might as well have been. Independents who ask independent prices but offer big box quality are, in a way, even more offensive than big box plant departments. No money was liberated from my wallet.

Thanks for the answers...
Garden Gal - I agree with Roses being an early crop - with high labour/maintenance costs. This business is run differently than any other I've worked at - they have alot of staff and seem to be very casual about manpower hours. Anyway this business seems to be getting in their main quantity of potted roses now - and I'm just trying to figure out how to deal with them best. The roses are (except the carpets) in the open - not much I can do about the overhead sprinklers (yet). Yellow leaves & black spot are a problem - what is aerobic compost tea? Can I make it like manure tea? I'd prefer it to fungicide.
Ron - My supervisor has worked at this place for 40+ years. I think his attitude about feeding has more to do with trees and shrubs - which can get floppy with too much blue water. Other places I've worked the roses were the responsibility of the perennial/annual managers who are used to feeding more often rather than the nursery manager.

I visited a nursery recently and picked up a bunch of fliers, one of which described the rose buyer's recommendations: Maxsea 16-16-16 solution (1 tbsp to 1 gal water) as a foliar feed every 7-14 days. She also uses Dr. Earth Rose and Flower Fertilizer with Mycorrhizae to feed the soil and roots, but it was unclear whether this is done in the nursery, or whether it's once the plants are in the ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yamagami's Nursery

Fertilization is affected by minerals in irrigation water, which particular soil mix is used and seasonal weather conditions. Specific recommendations cannot be made 1000 miles away.

Nonetheless, containerized roses in a nursery setting do need regular fertilization to keep them in optimum condition for sales. A slow release granular organic at potting and periodic foliar applications of a complete liquid fertilizer is nothing out of the ordinary and a generally accepted practice, regardless of location.

For the last 3 years I have grown 800 container roses a year, with the goal of having them gone by july 4th for the same reasons as stated above ( they dont look well after that and become more labor intensive) . We have tons of room here at the retail nursery so we pot the bareroots and sell them as 'potted bare-roots', price goes up March 1st to our container price for the season ( $24.99 this year )

I use 5 gal grip lip egg cans. I use them because they are easier on my fingers and re-usable. I order them in terra cotta color for a uniform look on the floor. When potted as bare roots in Jan, I use comercial osmocote and premium potting soil we do a neam drench at potting. All are hand watered to help prevent fungus and even though I order only disease resistant varieties I still spray every 14 days after they leaf out.

I use neam untill it gets too hot then switch to what my supplier advises for the year. It seems to change periodically. This year is was very wet ( for CA) and we had some BS and Downey mildew for the first time, both were caught and handled quickly with minimal damage.

With the late rains our season is late this year and I have about 200 roses left, I plan to fert again next week but honestly I usually only fert once around mothers day.

Have fun roses are the best! So seductive!

I was informed this year that the owners will 'do the roses' I hope they are as successful. I've whined enough on this forum about the pay cut and loosing the roses is part of the cut. I am thinking of growing some myself and selling them at local markets. But then we'll see.

>A slow release granular organic at potting and periodic foliar applications of a complete liquid fertilizer is nothing out of the ordinary and a generally accepted practice, regardless of location.Yes: a need for fertilization of roses in soilless potting media with a granular product is certainly likely, wherever you are. Recommendations of specific formulations need to be based on site conditions to be well-targeted (fully effective and a good use of money). As for foliar feeding...

Here is a link that might be useful: The Myth of Foliar Feeding

Although Im not selling any roses at the moment I sell a lot of different varieties of perennials and I never give them a liquid feed. Some of them have slow release granules at time of potting. But I have never found the need to use liquid feed. They do fine without it (especially my hydrangeas and buddleias)

I'll never forget the my first nursery job. Potting up bareroot roses in February. We potted up 28,000. Hybrid teas, grandifloras, climbers, tree roses, you name it. As mentioned in previous posts, this is a crop to get in and be rid of by July 4th. In the mid-Atlantic, we have the added problem of Japanese beetles which begin in mid-June.
How does the spraying work around customers? Don't the roses stink of pesticide? With the deadheading, they are the highest maintenance shrub I can think of.
With the roses out of the way the space was soon filled up with mums to grow on for Aug/Sept sales.
Sam

A continously maintained patina of toxic dreck is apparently not a deterrent to those who are Mad About Roses. Myself, I simply plant ones that don't have to be sprayed to be presentable.

I grow roses for sale. You will have to feed them something. Slow release is better, but a regular liquid diet will work too. Don't get fancy, just feed them whatever standard stuff you use on the perennials.

As for spraying - the best solution would be to get some Banner Maxx. It's about $70 a pint, but per application, cheaper than most other fungicides. It has a 2-3 week systemic action, so you'll have to spray less, and it won't stink.

Using any old product is shooting blind. If you are applying nutrients you don't need, you are doing extra polluting via your runoff.

Do all your customers know you are applying a systemic product to the roses they are taking away with them?

Wow - Thanks for all the suggestions... I clearly have to do some more research about what to do to take care of all these roses before I can persuade anyone to let me do it. There are about 1000-1500 at work now - and I'm told another 1000 at the farm - and more on order. I'm not sure why they bring them in so late - maybe they are trying to have some color in the nursery yard now that the spring flowering trees and shrubs are done. I'd get it if they specialized in shrub roses or hard to find varieties - but it's all a mixed up jumble of climbers, floribundas, teas and grandifloras - and spacing the pots and separating the roses by variety and type seem to be radical acts. They are starting to get alot of BS and I saw some rose slugs - no beetles yet. I don't really want to send customers home with poison covered plants - or pouring nasty things into the local water table - but I think for the most part these customers would be more upset a single insect than any amount of residue. I'm feeling very nostalgic for the perennials at my first job - less chemicals and no thorns...
Again thanks for the info!

Hmmm this does seem a bit odd.

Maybe they picked up a load of unsold end of season stock at a knockdown price. Its not going to be easy to keep them looking good for another entire year, especially if they've been in the pots sometime already.

The secret of good rose care is regular water, plenty of organic feed and good aeration. Choose only proven resistant varieties if you don't want to spray.

Usually most resellers get roses bareroot in autumn and pot up then, or wait until early spring and take delivery of ready potted containers. The rose growers graft in early spring and have their open days in mid july to take bareroot orders for autumn - the flowering of the newly grafted plants is retarded a bit in the first season, hence july is when they are in bloom.

I prefer growing my perennials too but keep a small stock of bought in roses due to customer demand. I sold the very last rose yesterday and won't have any more now until end of october.