Roses For Florida

It is a common misconception that Floridians must struggle endlessly with roses just to keep them alive....weekly sprays of toxic pesticides that kill off beneficial garden allies while straining one's budget and already busy schedule, not to mention the environment. But a great many roses, both Old and Modern, if grown "own root" and in fertile, mulched, pH neutral soil fed organics like menhaden fish meal or 'Mill's Magic Rose Food', and given a deep weekly watering during the spring drought, will utterly thrive. Isn't that what we all want...the decadent beauty of roses to counter life's daily assaults? Many folks are also finding that many roses grafted on the rootstock of choice for Florida, 'Fortuniana', also respond quite well to an organic regimen if one grows a polyculture of roses with perennial flowers plus herbs and veggies vs. the classic rigid roses-only monoculture thst gave roses in Florida such a bad name.