AboutThe Long Island Gardener Expertise Do you know the wrong fertilizer will keep your plants from blooming?
Do you know that too much Nitrogen can kill your grass, even if it does not burn the roots? Do you know that Roses need a LOT of Nitrogen to bloom -- and why is that?
There's some complex chemistry in those plant foods. The secrets behind N-P-K are the key to the ultimate lawn, the the biggest flowers, the most fruits and vegetables. And if you don't get it right, you could be sorry.
I'll show you what you did wrong, and how to fix it.
Experience Homeowner with gardens indoors and outdoors, lawns back and forth. I wrote my first gardening column for our college newspaper, teaching roomates about the right way to feed those windowsills gardens. Today I look for challenges. Organic Fertilizers are the key to proper feeding of all our plants. Can you make your own fertilizer? Some people think so -- but there are side effects. I have been there, done that for 54 years and there is nothing like the voice of experience when it comes to Horticulture and Fertilizers.
Publications Numerous and sundry but only in college did I write about plants.
Education/Credentials B.A., Botany and Mass Communications.
Question i had sent you a question and you replied. what it is my friend has an antique yellow rose bush and this spring instead of it being a yellow rose all the roses turned red and thats why i asked if the soil alkaloids could change the structure of the yellow rose to the red. she lives in a town on a side of a mountain and there are under water streams and the soil is a kinda clayish. so could the alkaloids in the soil do this?
Answer I see this more clearly now. Meet Dr Huey:
www.ph-rose-gardens.com/00704.htm
This is the Peaceful Habitations Roses website you looked at. This is how they describe the Rose named Dr Huey: 'Dr Huey is commonly found at old home sites, because it has been used for years as a rootstock for Hybrid Tea roses. When the grafted rose dies, the Dr Huey rootstock spouts and thrives. The primary bloom is in the Spring.' FYI the Peaceful Roses company is located in Boerne, Texas.
It seems the Winter weather was too brutal this past year for the Antique Yellow Rosebush your friend tended. The result was that the Yellow Rosebush died. But it was not 100 percent Antique Yellow Rosebush. The grower of this bush basically glued the Antique Yellow Rose BODY to Dr Huey ROOTS -- a very common procedure you may be familiar with, called GRAFTING. This procedure makes it possible to grow certain beautiful but delicate Roses in regions that are too cold for them. You take the blooming TOP and attach it to the tough ROOTS; if you're lucky, they grow together, and you have a hardier Rosebush.
But often a very cold Winter comes along, and the upper part of the Grafted Rosebush can't take it. And it dies back to the roots. Where there is a tough Rosebush waiting to appear with red flowers. Dr Huey is very tough, it grafts easily, and it is reliable. So it is very popular as rootstock. Some people like its blooms; some dislike it.
The condition of the Soil has nothing to do with this phenomenon.
I hope this was worth waiting for and it was nice to meet you. Thank you for writing; any more questions, followups are invited.
