In addition to being the most-purchased and most loved flowers, roses are also the hungriest feeders that require a bounty of macronutrients and micronutrients for proper vegetation and growth.
The good thing is that this plant is not too choosy when it comes to the type of fertilizers as you can conveniently go with any product having rich NPK content, and all the essential minerals. As long as you are providing a balanced diet to your flowering plants, they’ll keep on blooming and shining gracefully.
However, since many fertilizers are available in the market with rose pictures printed over the packaging, we can’t say that each plant’s food is worth your precious hard-earned money.
To save you from this hassle of finding the best fertilizer for roses, we have reviewed some leading and hot-selling products and pen down our reviews about the eight best rose plant feeds.
We also have listed the pros, cons, reasons to purchase, points of differences, and price range, about each product to help you narrow down your research further.
Table of Contents
Best Fertilizer For Roses Comparison Table
Eight best fertilizer for roses
1. Jobe’s Organics Flower & Rose Granular Fertilizer
This Jobe’s organic fertilizer contains rich organic ingredients like bone meal, biozone products, feather meal, and individually collected and well-processed animal manure. It works well for almost all types of rose plants; planted in pots, garden beds, established plants, and seedlings.
The most highlighted feature of this plant food is the addition of biozone microorganisms which not only helps to break down complex material into simpler ones but also enhances the fertilizer’s NPK ratio. USDA confirms that this product is free of all kinds of chemical contaminations.
The biozone culture possesses archaea that improve the soil quality by adding more nutrients to it, inducing tolerance against pest attacks and weather extremities, and resistance against plant’s contagious diseases.
Applying the fertilizer is also very handy since you just need to mix the recommended quantity with water and pour it around your flowers. You can also sprinkle it over the topsoil every month to trigger flowering.
We also tried this fertilizer for cannabis plants and it worked equally fine to grow exquisite blossoms. The plants showed multiple signs of improvements including faster growth, greener leaves, luscious foliage, and stronger roots in just a few days which was really impressive at this tiny cost.
- Contains biozone blend
- Fast-acting and easy to use
- Improves soil quality
- Imparts a quick boost
- Budget-friendly
- Safe towards kids and pets
- Smells fishy
Due to having an all-organic nature, you don’t have to be worried regarding root burn. The only problem is it smells stinkier due to having manure in it. Still, it’s the ideal fertilizer for plants that need a sudden boost up and immense growth.
2. Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Rose Plant Food
It has been seen that the tiny or newly planted plants show signs of destruction when granular fertilizers are applied to them. The reasons for doing so are numerous including compaction of the soil, interaction of heavy chemicals with the fragile roots, and many others.
In such circumstances, water-soluble fertilizer is mostly recommended since it interacts with the delicate roots of newly planted plants in dilute form and delivers the nutrients in the quantity that is optimally required.
This miracle-gro water-soluble plant food works similarly. You need to dilute the fertilizer first by mixing it with water and spraying it all around the flowering plants using a sprinkler hose or watering can. In this way, your plants could take up the nutrients quickly and show visible results.
We also applied this plant food in the same manner to our garden beds two times; once a week, and were amazed by seeing the quick outcomes like shiny foliage, super-fast growth, and maintaining the plant’s health.
If we talk about the composition and class of this fertilizer, then it possesses almost all the inorganic ingredients including copper, ammonium sulfate, potassium, phosphate, zinc sulfate, iron, and manganese, which makes it somewhat, harmful to kids and pets.
Due to having a high amount of magnesium, your young plants will grow new buds and cans more rapidly.
- Fast-acting and inorganic
- High NPK ratio
- Easy to use
- Best for newly planted or young plants
- Small bag
- Not safe towards pets and kids
The 18-24-16 NPK ratio is seriously so alluring if you want to cultivate roses for commercial purposes. Likewise, this fertilizer is perfectly suitable for the plants grown in beds, borders, and containers; both indoors and outdoors.
3. BioAdvanced Bayer Advanced All in One Rose and Flower Care Granules
As the name implies, this rose and flower granular fertilizer is designed to provide all sorts of care and maintenance to your flower garden by delivering everything that is required.
Your plants are frequently getting attacked by pests and diseases, this plant food has a solution! Your entire harvest is getting ruined due to fungal diseases, here’s your cure! Your plants are not growing normally, this fertilizer is a life-saver in this situation as well!
All in all, there’s not a thing this plant feed doesn’t cover. How is it being way too versatile? Let’s make it clear by discussing its composition. First thing first, this bioAdvanced flower care feed is a synthetic fertilizer, loaded with chemicals. However, that’s also for a good reason and on opening the packet, we didn’t smell the intense chemical fragrance. One packet is enough to feed about 30-32 rose plants and a one-time application is enough for six weeks.
A synthetic fungicide named Tebuconazole gets absorbed into the soil of your landscape fully. When plants take up this fungicide, it develops the resilience to fight over the fungal diseases within their bodies. In the same way, if a fungal infection is spreading in your harvest and you apply this granular fertilizer to the soil, your unaffected plants will get saved.
Now comes the problem of the retarded plant’s growth. I briefly go through the product composition and also witness the immense growth in my garden’s plants by myself. I came to the conclusion that it’s the phosphate that triggers the healthy cell division which in turn, leads to the desired plant’s growth.
In addition to phosphate, the other two most essential nutrients; nitrogen and potassium, are also present in bulk in the composition making it the best fertilizer for roses and other popular flowers like hibiscus, azaleas, iris, rhododendron, camellias, and many others.
Not only the fungal diseases, but the nearly balanced NPK ratio of 9-14-9 also prevent your plants from catching other widespread diseases like scab, petal blight, rust, powdery mildew, and leaf spot.
- Contain safe fungicides
- High NPK ratio to boost growth
- Develops resistance against pests and diseases
- Don’t smell bad
- Carefully crafted plant feed
- No need to dilute or mix
- May harm kids, pets, and pollinating insects
- Not safe towards pets and kids
The method of applying this fertilizer is also quite convenient as you don’t have to mix it or spray over flowers through a watering can. Just sprinkle the granules around your flowers near the roots and let this bioAdvanced flower fertilizer show its miracle.
4. Miracle-Gro Plant Food Shake ‘N Feed Rose and Bloom
It’s another organic fertilizer from the miracle-gro brand that mainly serves the purpose of blooming more flowers and developing richer hues and fragrances in them.
This plant feed mainly works by delivering the food to the already existing microbes of the soil so they can work better to improve soil quality and nutrient content.
The main ingredients of this fertilizer are bone meal, feather meal, kelp, and earthworm castings. Plus, the NPK ratio is 10-8-9 and suitable for both newly planted and established plants.
The composition cannot be classified as all-organic since it possesses some amounts of processed products. Due to being granular, it takes a little more time to break and become a part of the soil. Thus, it works as a slow-acting fertilizer and its one-time application is enough for two to three months.
When the microbes take in this rich nutrient-filled natural feed, they get potent enough to break down the unprepared and complex materials into simpler and prepared ones readily.
When plants absorb more and more nutrients, they not only get stronger and grow better outwardly but also show better growth inwardly. The root system gets fully developed which better the plant’s water intake and balances moisture level.
- Effective for two to three months
- Easy to apply
- Promote inward and outward growth
- Doesn’t smell bad
- Improve soil’s nutrient content
- Not safe for kids and pets
- Overdo can harm your plants
Due to being synthetic fertilizer, it doesn’t smell stinkier but might harm kids or pets on being engulfed. You don’t need to mix or dilute it in water. Just shake the content, open the cap, and sprinkle around the bases but make sure not to pile the granules up around the shoot since it can damage or burn plants.
5. Dr. Earth Organic 3 Rose & Flower Fertilizer
For all those looking for an environmentally friendly and 100% organic rose fertilizer, this Dr. Earth plant feed could be proved your best friend as all it possesses is organic. Its NPK ratio is 5-7-2 which is relatively much lower than that of synthetic fertilizers but that’s acceptable.
Its list of ingredients says that this plant food doesn’t contain chicken manure or any other sewage waste. Despite consisting of a very heavy amount of forest products, multi-minerals, humic acid, carbohydrates, proteins, and probiotic organic strains, it smells fishy.
This fertilizer possesses Trubiotic technology that mainly works to break the soil nutrients into smaller ones which, in turn, improves soil’s fertility and increases the number of nutrients in it by releasing micro and macronutrients in it.
The mycorrhizal culture induces resistance against drought and other weather conditions and makes them bloom to the fullest. Since rose plants need more moisture for proper growth, the mycorrhizal fungi partner with plant roots and arrange water and essential nutrients for them.
For better outcomes, you should try to maintain the moisture level around the bases of roses by watering the plants on time and adding good-quality mulches to your flower beds.
You can use this fertilizer as per your choice; by mixing it with water in liquid form or digging into the soil. One-time application is enough for several months. This plant feed also showed impressive results with other annuals, perennials, shrubs, and vegetative plants.
- No GMO, manure, and sewage waste
- Doesn’t harm kids and pets
- 100% organic and OMRI listed
- Contains Trubiotic technology
- Environment friendly
- Smells shitty
- Overdo can harm your plants
The weirdest thing about using this plant feed is that its shitty smell is highly loved by the dogs and they could even eat it out of craving. The only relief here is its organic nature which makes it safe to use, even if someone swallows it.
6. Espoma Rose-Tone Plant Food
This espoma rose-tone fertilizer is also an all-natural plant feed containing some highly rich organic ingredients like poultry manure, bone meal, alfalfa meal, feather meal, greensand, potash sulfate, and potash sulfate magnesia.
The NPK ratio of this fertilizer is also less than other inorganic chemical-stuffed products and is about 4-3-2. However, this NPK content is also heavenly enough for nourishing the rose plants, whether they are shrub roses, floribundas, and tea roses.
Along with these essential macronutrients, the product possesses fifteen nutrients that play a very constructive role to make your rose garden full of alluring, bulky, and glossy roses.
For example, calcium strengthens the cell wall. Similarly, magnesium assists chlorophyll to capture sunlight and accelerate the rate of photosynthesis.
Due to the presence of humic acid, these nutrients are readily taken in by the plant’s roots and they start to show more signs of improvement in lesser time.
In addition to imparting nutrients, this chemical-free fertilizer also develops resilience against fatal diseases. Using this fertilizer is also quite hassle-free since you just need to sprinkle it over the soil; no digging, no mixing.
We have tried this fertilizer on both indoor container plants and outdoor garden beds and didn’t observe any difference in performance. Besides rose plants, it’s also beneficial towards other flowering plants like Lilies, peonies, and clematis.
- 100% organic
- No GMO and waste products
- Save for kids and pets
- Slow-feed mechanism
- Suitable for indoor and outdoor plants
- Induce resilience against diseases
- Affordable
- Aco-friendly
- Smells shitty
- Smells fishy
The only problem is that it has a bad smell, just as other organic fertilizers have. But that’s bearable, especially when you are getting such an amazing formula without a heavy price tag.
7. Down to Earth Organic Rose & Flower Fertilizer
This Down to earth organic rose fertilizer is known for its OMRI listed, natural ingredients that are extremely valuable and rare including langbeinite, seabird guano, kelp meal, blood meal, fishbone meal, and rock phosphate.
Since this plant feed is water-soluble, the nutrients it possesses reach the targeted sites sooner than you think. We got this product in non-resealable packaging which might act as a drawback while storing the leftovers.
These nutrients mainly act as food for the microorganisms already existing in the soil. When these microbes take up this energetic foodstuff, they get into a symbiotic relationship with the plants and make the soil environment better, potent and healthier.
The NPK ratio is 4-8-4 that’s perfectly fine for the rose plants since the high phosphorus concentration causes the development of bigger, fragrant, and luscious blossoms.
In addition to raising beautiful roses and flowering plants, we found this fertilizer also very effective in growing edible bulbs like beetroot, garlic, onion, ginger, etc.
- OMRI listed, valuable composition
- Optimum NPK ratio
- Safe towards kids and pets
- Fast-acting and long-lasting
- Environment friendly
- Smells stinkier
Since there’s no chemical present in the composition, you don’t have to worry about the root burns or the consequences of overdoing it while using down-to-earth organic rose fertilizer.Likewise, its non-synthetic nature preserves the freshness of our ecosystem and lets the healthy stuff flow in the food chain.
8. Jobe’s Organics Rose & Flower Fertilizer Spikes
We already have mentioned Jobe’s organic rose fertilizer which is highly recommended by all professional horticulturists and gardeners. This product is almost the same with a few modifications.
The manufacturer of this plant feed is well aware of the mess caused by applying fertilizers. Similarly, understanding the sharp need for fertilizer is also a great hassle. To discard all these problems, he gave the shape of spikes to the fertilizer where each spike contains a consciously measured amount of nutrients.
This constant amount of fertilizer, when added to the entire landscape, feeds your plants at a constant rate which, in turn, leads to the formation of a huge harvest at the same time. The major ingredients packed in the spikes are potassium, feather meal, bone meal, and biozone.
The microbial culture present in the biozone components, not oy unlocks the miraculous nutrients of the soil to the plants but also helps them to develop a highly mighty, resistant, and extensive root system. In this way, your plants grow at the most desired rate without stopping by drought, pest or insect attacks, and diseases.
To make these super-effective spikes a part of your plant’s metabolism, you just need to dig the recommended number of spikes in the rose beds, along the dripline. Water the beds by following a sharp schedule so the nutrients can get released quickly and start working.
- Mess-free and pre-measured
- Safe and easy to use
- All-natural and Organic
- Feed your harvest constantly
- OMRI listed
- Improper watering can drag the progress
- Improper application can cause damages
This Jobe’s organic fertilizer is an ideal nurturing solution for all those gardeners looking for easy, safe, and mess-free plant food. No need to mix, dilute or make any preparations to get astonishing results.
Buying guide
There’s a huge misconception about the growing roses that this plant requires immense care or needs way too many nutrients to grow. However, the truth is far different and roses are one of those plants that are easiest to grow.
The reason is that they are highly dormant and possess a tendency to grow newer, greener leaves even if they remain detached from the base for days. That’s why choosing the best fertilizer for roses is not a big challenge if you know some basic soil, watering, and nutrient requirements.
Start with the soil conditions, then just like other plants, roses also love loose soil; one where the air can flow easily and water drainage is excellent.
Thus, the very first thing to consider while buying fertilizer for roses beds is that it should not possess a larger block of perlite or any other bulky ingredient which could clog the soil.
Similarly, go for the fertilizer that maintains the pH of the soil in acidic regions. The soil pH where the rose plants grow perfectly and exponentially is 6-6.5. If we talk about the watering conditions, then as mentioned before, roses love moisture but that doesn’t mean you buy a fertilizer that turns soil completely clogged.
Remember, your fertilizer should act to better the soul quality by enhancing the flow-through and drainage. The texture of soil should get airy enough so water can travel to the deepest root and your plants won’t get exposed to any drought-like conditions or fungal infection.
Lastly, organic fertilizers are mostly preferred for rose plants since they deliver everything to these gorgeous plants without being hard on their fragile stems and roots. However, organic plant food smells fishy which makes them a bad choice to be used for indoor plants.
FAQs?
Final thoughts
Roses are one of those plants that can be grown in almost any type of weather since they possess an intense level of dormancy in them. However, it’s only possible if it gets external aid during the non-dormant period of the year which can act as a supplement or growth booster.
Only the best fertilizer for roses can prove this highly essential nutrient booster and for your assistance, we reviewed and pen down our thoughts on the eight best commercially available products in this article.
All the products we’ve mentioned here are top sellers and are loved by the gardener community. However, the top-three fertilizers which have won the battle are
Jobe’s Organics Flower & Rose Granular Fertilizer due to having biozone blend, rich composition, fast-acting formula, and being budget-friendly.
Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Rose Plant Food due to having a fast-acting formula, a high NPK ratio, and is convenient to use.
Espoma Rose-Tone Plant Food due to having 100% organic composition with no GMO, slow feed feeding mechanism, and wide suitability range.
Don’t forget that it’s not only the choice of fertilizer that makes a difference but the other aspects like soil conditions, watering schedule, and sunlight exposure also play a crucial role to decide the fate of your harvest.
Thus, choose a fertilizer that benefits you from all the aspects and must consider the points mentioned in the buying guide so you can get nothing but the real-life bed of roses.