Can You Help My Lazy Roses? Grumpy Responds

About This Episode

A reader is dealing with a rose dilemma. Plus, why he loves the sun-loving Sunpatiens.

Question Of The Week

Okay. "I've watered and fertilized my roses, but they give only one or two blossoms at a time. Can you tell me what is wrong with them?" - Gary

Grumpy's Answer: You don't sound lazy, Gary, so I'm guessing the cause is something else. Let's think about it.

1. How much sun do your roses get? The more sun they get, the more blooms you get, so you should aim for at least eight hours a day.
2. Use a slow-release fertilizer when you do feed them, use a slow-release fertilizer that's especially formulated for roses. It'll say so on the box or the container. The reason is a quick release fertilizer that's too high in nitrogen, which is more than 15%. The result of that is you get more leaves and stems than you do flowers.
3. And a final factor could be diseases. Common rose diseases like black spot and powdery mildew can reduce flowering. An easy way to take care of that, spray your roses every 10 to 14 days during the growing season with a natural fungicide called neem oil ,follow label directions, and that'll take care of any problems with the roses on the leaves.
   

Plant Of The Week

Sunpatiens

If you want flowers for the garden, for the front of your house, for containers, beside the door or whatever, that are very, very easy to grow, and they never stop blooming from the time you plant them in the springtime or in the early summer, all the way through frost, these are the ones you want to get. They are called SunPatiens.

If you remember the old impatiens that your mother and grandmother grew, they were plants that bloomed all summer, but they had to be in the shade or else they would burn up.

SunPatiens are new hybrids, and they love the sun.

• You can plant them in full sun, or you can plant them in part shade.
• They bloom continuously.
• You don't have to pick off the old flowers.
• All you basically have to do is give them a little organic fertilizer every once in a while and keep them watered, and they will bloom every hour of every day of every week throughout the summer.
• There's lots and lots of different colors: reds, pinks, whites, purples, lavenders, orange, coral.
• They're very available. And I mean, for something that is just going to go every single day without any gaps in flowers, this is what you want.

And I plant them out in front of my house every year. My wife was very, very critical of my gardens in past years, but ever since I got the SunPatiens, now she's content, and her contentment is worth everything to me.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 30 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.