If you are growing roses in a soil that is not good and healthy you probably will need to "fertilize" them and what to use depends on what is lacking in your soil. Spraying with "something" creates more problems then it solves since a nutrient imbalance causes plants to have problems just as a lack of nutrients will. Too much of something can cause a plant to have problems uptaking other essential nutrients.
Have a good, reliable soil test done before deciding which, if any, "fertilizer" is needed.

Hi, I just wanted to say that I'm in love with my Garden-ville sea tea... I've used it for baby bands at 1/10th dilute strength, I've used it for severe root trauma from horrible transplants, I've used it as root nourisher, I've used it as regular feedings (as often as once every 5 days in certain instances because it is "gentle" enough for the rose)... I love this sea tea. It comes with the perfect blend of nutrients I feel: fish emulsion, humate, compost tea, molasses, seaweed extract, and water of course. It is a 2.1-3.3-2.2 premium and organic liquid plant fertilizer, and I love it! My 1st year roses are not sleeping at all but are leaping... (the saying is 1st year they sleep, 2nd they creep, 3rd they leap)... My newest addition, a Fragrant Cloud tree rose, already has 20 fat healthy buds on its very 1st flush, its canes are very slender so you can tell it is a very young graft, but to have it so young and vigorous is plenty amazing... I also have other miracles to vouch for, too many to explain in this post, which is why I am so in love with the Garden-ville sea tea.

Serenasyh's tea sounds great to me.

Top dressing with compost is easy enough. I also use alfalfa in the spring. Sometimes I use fish emulsion, but not all my roses like to be sprayed. Rugosa roses do not tolerate foliar sprays at all.

I've read that roses should not be watered from above to avoid getting the leaves wet because it promotes black spot and mildew, etc. So I wondered if it is okay to do a foliar feed... I just got some Neptune's Harvest seaweed plant food. Think that would do anything?

If your rose, or any other plant, is growing in good, healthy soil that plant will be much less likely to get any disease, or be bothered by an insect pest. The basic premise of orgainc gardening is that the soil should be good and healthy and simply substituting on set of "fertilizers", organic for synthetic, is not organic gardening.

Lolear - I would do it in the morning, so it dries quickly.

Kimmsr - I haven't had a soil test done, but I have some pretty healthy plants growing, roses and many others, so I think it's good. The roses came with my house, I don't even know what kind they are... One of them routinely grows past my fist floor window, about 6 1/2 - 7 feet. so they seem happy, but on the other hand, how long can neglecting them work? I'm trying to keep my bases covered. But my general strategy as a gardener is to do as little as possible ;)

lolear, my thoughts are that it takes quite a few years for one's soil to establish itself and to balance one's garden organically anyways... I see nothing wrong with adding one organic liquid feed as well as one soil amendment and one mineral amendment (if there is any nutritional deficiency) in addition to composting/manure. If one wants beautiful, full and bountiful roses I don't feel it's wrong to want to boost up one's blooms...with all 4 pow-wows...

I also disagree with Kimmsr in that a healthy rose won't be bothered by insects... What protects a rose is if your garden is surrounded by beneficial insects and birds... I happen to live in a very! poisonous neighborhood where everyone uses pesticides, insecticides, grub killer etc. etc.... It will take at least 2-3 years before I can attract the bees, the good bugs and birds...

serenasyh, you misread what I wrote. I said plants growing in a good, helathy soil will be less likely to have a plant disease or be bothered by insect pests. I did not say, now or ever, that plants growing in a good, healthy soil won't be bothered by insects.
People tell me often that their plants are growing in a good, healthy soil but they have never had a soil test done so they have no idea what their soils pH is or what nutrients are in that soil and then they spend a lot of money buying stuff to, very probably, overload the nutreints in the soil which creates an unhealthy environment for their plants to grow in.

Serenasyh where do you get this garden-ville tea? I have some rose cuttings i made and would like to help them along.(Mail order disaster) roseberri

Hi, Roseberri! I used to be able to get Garden-Ville Sea Tea from my local nursery...And now I can't get this sea tea, so I have to go online...It is driving me beserk, LOL I am a total Garden-Ville addict.. However, I will report to you how soon and prompt Garden-Ville is about shipping to home consumers... I've already contacted them once to try to get a shipping tracking number, they promised an email with the number, but no email still, so I have to call them long distance again on Monday... someone else at the forum had absolutely no problem, but for me this is not exactly smooth sailing...

My question for you is: are the rose cuttings growing in the soil already? I have never grown a rose cutting before... In terms of roots, my sea tea I've used as a root nourisher for prepping bareroots before planting, I've used very dilute sea tea mixes also for my baby lavender and baby herbs, and I've only nursed a dying baby band rose that I received from Heirloom Roses. The band arrived as 3-1/2 inches tall with 8 curled wilted 1/4" yellow leaves on it and a single yellowed stem...But I am thinking that the process may be way different for a 1st-time rooted cutting... Baby bands, baby herbs were given 1-1/2 gallons of water with 1TBS. sea tea... but if it is 1st-time rooted cutting I wouldn't even do 1TBS. but 1 teaspoon for 1-1/2 gallons to test try, but this would be like a complete science experiment of being super cautious, doing the wait watch method and the get-ready-to-succed-or-fail tight control group... My dad is a biochemist in the Pathology Department of a major hospital, so I have the same sort of test-and-try experimental method...Plus I'm extremely obsessive about my roses... I know every single leaf on each of their stems so there is no detail that I miss out on. I constantly measure progress, so it's again, a careful measure, test experiment, on how much sea tea to give to my roses when they are "babies"... You would have to use one group of cuttings with the 1teaspoon sea tea/1-1/2 gallons water, and one group of cuttings without the sea tea and see what happens to measure true effectiveness... This was how I discovered that B1 vitamin was! a useless root nourisher...Never did anything for my baby plants, whereas the sea tea doubled their sizes within as short as 2 days... Also there are other variables that go into growing rooted cuttings, keeping soil moist and in a lightly shaded spot, and other ideals that root-cutting experts can tell you about... I would have no clue or inkling on this...so you have to do your research to have prime conditions for the rooted cutting and then do the sea tea variable experiment. If you do the experiment, let me know how it turns out... I would love to find out...

Heya, I was reading specifically your sentence "plants growing in a good, healthy soil will be less likely to get any disease, or be bothered by an insect pest"... Here is what I agree with: Good, healthy soil will give you a strong, healthy rose that will indeed be more disease resistant." Amen to that and cheers!

What I disagree with is that a rose growing in healthy soil will be less likely to be bothered by an insect pest... Insects absolutely love a healthy rose growing in healthy soil... They delight in healthy strong leaves...and will happily munch away... like yummy, this tastes soooo great! Also the more fragrant and light colored the rose the more insects will feast and be attracted to the rose... But just like you are implying when a rose is planted in healthy soil and becomes very healthy it can still thrive and flourish even with those insects hacking away at it

I just wanted to be sure to separate those 2 issues: soil health as opposed to likelihood of being "insect attacked" as being completely immaterial to each other...

Thanks for the info serenasyh,
what I have right now is two pieces of and injured rose, one has the root intact, and the other is the piece that was broken in the mail. Both are in soil, and both are getting leaves, but the severed piece has very little leaves and may not make it. I can relate to the lab type experiments, I was a Med. Tech. at one time! It may be that I get the product too late for these roses, but I am always making cuttings and trying to root my roses and have been pretty sucess full, but sometimes they look really good and then die. I was thinking that this sea tea might help.

Anyone can disagree with plants growing in a good, healthy soil will be less likely to be bothered by insect pests and plant diseases, except you will hear the same thing from many of todays garden writers. I have heard P. Allen Smith, Barbara Damrosch, Rebecca Coles, and read from many others including Ann Lovejoy, Lee Reich, and I can't offhand remember others that will tell you the same thing. I've even heard professors of horticulture say the same thing, "plants growing in a good, healthy soil will be less likely to be bothered by insect pests or plant diseases."
Once again a basic premise of organic growing is that plants growing in a good, healthy soil will be strong and healthy. This was probably best shown by a farmer, Friend Sykes, who bought a sick, unproductive farm and by using organic methods changed that farm into a healthy profitable operation. This is the premise promoted by J. I. Rodale and the reason for the Organic Research Institute at Emmaus, PA.

Ser, hummmm...do you take meds? LMAO. It's okay..I am obsessive about my roses too.

Back to the OP's question...

NH Seaweed Preparation is very good, but it is 0-0-1 (the combination fish/seaweed is 2-3-1). I use it as a foliar application, and my observation it that it has helped improve the health and substance of the leaves. You may want to add alfalfa or a fertilizer that includes alfalfa, such as Espoma Rose-tone (or Holly-tone or Plant-tone) or whatever you may find locally (read the labels). I do agree, though, that a soil test should be done (make sure to tell them you are growing roses).

Hi, Roseberri! now that I'm reading through your 2nd post, I am thinking Gardenville may actually be a great help for your cuttings especially since they're already in the soil and are sending new leaves. And even though a cutting is broken, sea tea breaks down and soaks into the roots very, very well... Again, maybe you can try one teaspoon per 1-1/2 gallons anyways. Since both are sending leaves, I think they'll both benefit...

After reading your 1st post (not the 2nd) I did a crazy kooky experiment with a 1'5" long pretend shoot that I pruned off one of my roses (I am a severe pruner to keep my hybrid teas lovely fat and lush-- bushy-shaped instead of sparse and lanky). Well, I put it in water, with just a bamoo skewer dipped in sea tea solution... The "cutting" stayed full and fat for an entire day inside my house... Then on a whim, I set it in sunlight outside just when I went out shopping for the herb, borage, at one garden center... When I came back an hour later, all the leaves were drooping, the multiple stems sagging. I brought it back into the house and all the leaves came right back up 12 hours later! The "cutting" is way too big to survive I would think as a cutting, because it has 48 leaves, several clusters of 3" ones, but I will plant in soil either tomorrow or day after tomorrow and let you know what happens with my crazy experiment... I've got lots of extra pots from planting my herbs and extra time to play around, so I figure, hmmmm, give it a shot, just for fun, better than throwing the whole thing into the garbage...

I am not sure why but it seems that my "cutting" prefers being indoors in my house near a window instead of direct outdoor light...have you ever tried keeping your cuttings indoors initially? I am asking you this, because I'm wanting to learn from you! since you say that you've had lots of success with your cuttings...

Kimmsr, debates keep things lively here at the organics forum...Some forumers worry/call this the forum that has "died"...

The debate hee-hee benefits everyone because now we have authors that we can reference and read on, makes for great learning material... Also remember I am not! disagreeing that healthy soil makes healthy, strong, vital roses... I just think that soil and insects are separate issues. Healthy soil is essential for having strong healthy roses...but insects will be insects, they're part of the natural life cycle...

DianeNJ thanks for bringing us back on track for more good fertilizers...

Iris...LOL! yes, I'm definitely quite the loony-love-of-roses to the extreme!

hi serenasyh, thanks for the info! I have been away for a few days, Yes, I keep all my babies in the basement under a grow light, and usually in a plastic bag(2 gallon) but i recently found a post that showed how to cut a plastic half gallon milk jug and a 2liter pop bottle and put the two together to make a mini green house. the site that explained this is at Hartwoodroses.com

Hi, Roseberri, thanks so much for the very interesting information about cuttings...so next time when I get to do my experiment I will know... I sort of suspected hmmm, how can a cutting possible survive outdoors even in the shade? The other sources say to put it in shade outside, but I'm thinking ugggggh! it's so hot! out here now and to my common sense a tender cutting would need more coolness to really thrive.. (had a heat surge in the 90s and it will! get hotter). And yes, I love that milk jug and pop bottle mini greenhouse idea that you sent to me too! Many thanks for the wonderful info!