I am going to do this, Roselee................nothing ventured, nothing gained, I say.

I'm going to prune, fertilize, and anything else I can think of, to have a good October. This year has been lots of effort for very little reward, well, except for the reward of being out there in the garden everyday.
Jim

Should I do this for my wild roses, or should I leave them alone? I have no idea what type they are, but they are about 4 feet long... I'm a renter so I want them to bloom but I am also afraid to I'll end up killing them. The previous renters did absolutely none of the needed maintenance, and I am also not familiar with roses.

How wonderful to step ou this morning to 77 degrees!

What do you use for fertilizer?

I use any good rose fertilizer plus I will also get help to get more donkey manure around mine. It serves as a fertilizer AND mulch.

I'll be using some home-made organic fertilizer. Also will mix up a couple of trash cans of fish emulsion to pour on after watering well and will start some alfalfa tea 'brewing'. It takes two weeks so it would have been good to have right now as it really make plants grow fast. There was a discussion on one of the rose forums that the tea is far superior than using the dry alfalfa pellets.

Buster, I'd go ahead and cut the roses back by about a third and give them some fertilizer. Any kind will do, even lawn fertilizer formulated for use in the spring is good, about a cup of dry fertilizer scratched in around the top of a mature rose. Be sure that is has slow release nitrogen. It will say that a certain percentage is'urea coated' nitrogen. Fall lawn fertilizer has fast release nitrogen that could burn the roots. Water the roses before application and water well afterwards. Keep up the watering and the roses will probably surprise you with their beautiful blooms. Let us know, okay?

Incidentally, I use hedge shears for the main pruning and finish up taking out dead branches, etc. with hand pruners. It takes too long to do it all cane by cane.

Carrie, you can't do much better than manure. You get the alfalfa second hand which is much better. I have to fake getting it that way by making tea ... oh well :-)

Just found what's linked below. I hope it opens to 'Rose Care'. If not then you'll see 'Rose Care' on the left of the home page.

Going outside now to finish what the wind started ... LOL -- taking those sheets down!

Here is a link that might be useful: San Antonio Rose Society on Rose Care

Sorry, forgot what I finally clicked on to get to the rose care page that had the information about pruning and fertilzing. It's at the bottom center and says this:

GROWING ROSES IN SOUTH TEXAS--
"A MONTH-TO-MONTH GUIDE"

I put my fish pond water on them. In fact I have lots of parade roses potted that I am working on this weekend. I did some trimming of my roses and tried to take a few clippings. I did not completly prune yet- However I think I will do some this coming week. I plan on getting out in that early cool morning timeframe. Actually today has so much wind at my house it is not too bad, even though it reads 103 currently. I am welcoming the 90s for highs and I am sure the roses are as well.

Organic fertilizers from what I hear and have seen are always a good idea. I like Carrie's "................nothing ventured, nothing gained, I say."
It's a great motto.

Some of my roses were a sickly faded green with a few brown edged leaves. I have watered them often and deeply. They were not dying, just ugly.

I did not want to look at them that way, so they got pretty severe haircuts. They are putting out new healthy leaves. If they do not make it,Chamblee's Rose Nursery is only about 30 miles away.

I was at Chamblee's Saturday to get another Nacogdoches (Grandma's) rose. The one that I already have has been my best bush this year and it was planted in May. Strike it Rich has been a performer in the heat also. It was hard to leave Chamblee's with only one.

I actually dug up 4 roses that were in full sun, and moved them- they have transplanted fine so far. It has been several days. I hope they take better especially if we are going to have weather like this for awhile.