subject: What to Do About Nonexistent or Dying Blooms on Rose Bushes [print this page] What to Do About Nonexistent or Dying Blooms on Rose Bushes
If your roses are not blooming successfully (or at all), first ensure that their basic needs are met. Are you fertilizing your roses? Do they receive full sun 5-6 hours a day? Are they watered deeply 2-3 times a week? Did you plant them correctly in amended soil?
If your answers are yes, yes, and yes, then consider the weather. Some varieties of many-petaled roses will close into a ball in response to rain, and then simply never open. Short of standing over them with an umbrella, there is little remedy for this. The best solution might be to transplant them to a sheltered spot, like near a porch or under an arbor, where they would have less exposure to rain.
If your soil drains poorly, saturated roots can cause wilting in unopened buds. This condition occurs in clayish soil, soil with an insufficient amount of organic material, and in containers without proper drainage holes. Address this problem by incorporating more organic material, sand, or outlets for drainage.
On the other hand, if soil drains too quickly (as is sometimes the case with sandy soil) or if the rosebush is planted on a slope, then water may not be penetrating the root system adequately. A thick mulch of four inches or more will help the water soak in a bit better. Many gardeners also dig small trenches around the dip line of their roses so there is a little moat where water can collect and soak in. But really, the best solution is to take a hand tool and work some peat moss or well-rotted manure or compost into the top 2-4 inches of soil around the rose bush.
Many climbing roses do not start blooming until they are 2-3 years old. In addition, some climbers only ever bloom on branches that have grown for two years, so if you prune them back every time after the first year, you'll never get new blooms. Some climbers can grow agressively, so it is tempting to try to control them, but part of the beauty of these kinds of roses is their wildness. So put your pruning shears away for a year or two and let the rose sprawl out in all its messy glory.
Another cause of missing blooms is transplanting or repotting. If you repot a potted rose, it will delay budding as it directs its energy toward rerooting in its new home. The only solution here is to be patient and take the best care of the rose as you can in the meantime, while its root system develops and it becomes adjusted to its new "home".
Finally, although roses love a lot of fertilizer, it is possible to overfertilize roses with nitrogen and thus cause both a rush of new growth and a delay of blooms. If you suspect this might be the case, simply cut back your fertilizer use and observe. Also keep track of the balance of your fertilizer and make sure you are giving your roses the proper balance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If the balance is off, you could be over-encouraging root or leaf growth, but putting in nothing for blooms.
