Knockout Roses

[Chrisdorman1]

Hello! I'm pretty new to gardening. I just bought a home and all I have done is buy fruit trees and plants. I bought some knockout roses but they are not doing well. Many of the roses have turned brown and fallen off.

I test the soil moisture level every other day and everytime I do it reads dry. I have been watering 3 to 4 days a week for a good long soak but the soil reads dry.

The soil was very sandy when I planted them. Almost all sand. I added a lot of gardening mix to the holes when I planted them but I'm sure there is still a lot of sand.

How can I get the soil to hold more moisture? Do I need to dig them up (I just planted them about 3 weeks ago) and put more garden mix down? Can I just add a layer of garden mix around the top of them?

I also added a layer of mulch when I planted them but it didn't seem to help. I now pulled the mulch away from the roses so that I can water the soil directly.

I'm kind of at a loss at this point. I live in northeast Florida and any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[Sheal]

Welcome Chrisdorman1. Roses are hungry and thirsty plants and are better grown on clay. I have grown roses on clay, coastal sandy soil and more recently on sandy loam and they are not doing very well here.

You have two options. The first is to dig in as much compost as possible to help break up the sand and feed the roses, preferably with rotted horse manure if available, at the start of the growing season. Feed them again around the middle of the season and then again about a month before Autumn (Fall) sets in. They should be left then to go naturally into winter dormancy. I use granular blood, fish and bone for the later feeds.

The second option is to create raised beds and buy soil to fill them. They will still need to be fed to keep them healthy but less of a challenge for you.

With sandy soil water will drain straight through and take any nutrients with it, that is probably why your testing shows it as dry.