I officially announce my resignation as rose gardener...

The most beautiful roses I ever had were in my garden that had a clay soil. People would stop and admire them. We moved and have never had such lovely roses since.
Sorry your roses were disappointing CanadianGran.

My roses bought from a good garden centre have been very disappointing too canadagran, it’s a shame given they aren’t cheap.

I inherited my beautiful roses from the previous owner. I do nothing; I just watch them flourish. I do throw in an odd used teabag, when I remember.

canadiangran,as a fellow Canadian gran I too have given up growing roses, they just do not seem to like the soil or the extremes of climate.🥲

One last shot maybe?
ministryofthefence.me/2017/03/06/celebrate-canada-with-a-brilliantly-hardy-rose/

Casdon, it's tempting but I mustn't! I came back from vacation to shrub roses nothing but stems... no leaves left at all (eaten by something) and a few pitiful buds bent over and mildewed.

I was spraying every week with bug soap and then anti-fungal. I just give up!

As I've moved into a retirement flat, I don't have a garden, except for a little patio with pots, a hanging basket and a beautiful rose - petals that form perfect rosettes, a light pinkish, peachish, creamy colour and a delicate scent. The first flowering over, I dead-headed it severely and have been rewarded with a prolific display on a second blooming. I can report myself as an excellent dead-header. The autumn pruning will be fun.

I do understand CanadianGran, it’s hard to give up trying with a plant you love though. My garden will not grow poppies, I’ve tried numerous times, so I know how frustrating it is.

crazyH, I do hope the tea bags don't have plastic in them. I'm in a (very long) process of sieving all the compost - well rotted, from years ago - to get out the Yorkshire teabags that will never decompose. The insides have gone, but not the bag itself. I think they've changed them now, but wish I'd have known.

Oh Hetty58 - I didn’t think of that 😫

OH planted a large rose garden before my arrival, some varieties thrived some declined, the originals are now 12 yrs old, we are now planting the gaps with other herbaceous to maintain the colour.
This year with more rain than average it looks lovely with second flowering of the roses just beginning

You could do a soil test. As AGAA4 said, roses do like a clay soil; ours is clay on limestone and occasionally the roses look rather sad but we give them a severe pruning in about March and 🤞 they seem to recover.

Because our soil is clay, we can't grow blueberries which like acid soil.
You could dig the bed out deeply and add compost and manure.

I've lost a lot of plants which on't seem to like the soil here, it's an odd mix.

Callistemon21

You could do a soil test. As AGAA4 said, roses do like a clay soil; ours is clay on limestone and occasionally the roses look rather sad but we give them a severe pruning in about March and 🤞 they seem to recover.

Because our soil is clay, we can't grow blueberries which like acid soil.
You could dig the bed out deeply and add compost and manure.

I've lost a lot of plants which on't seem to like the soil here, it's an odd mix.

We have very dry sandy soil, once roses are established they tolerate dry weather quite well although we do water them in a prolonged dry spell. They won’t like being waterlogged for long periods in heavy soils.

I have two roses that predate our arrival in this house. I have no idea what they are called but both are lovely but are prone to black spot. I planted two new roses in pots this year and while they got off to a slow start their second flush of flowers has been very rewarding. I can’t say I’m a born rose grower though! I like things I don’t have to worry about!
That Canada rose looks as if might be worth one last throw of the dice CanadianGran🙂! It’s a beauty!

Some of our most successful roses on poor soil were bare root ones from Woolworths.

My best rose is a cutting from my neighbour's climbing rose that I accidently chopped off when cutting back the overhanging branches. I simply put a small cutting straight into the ground under my pear tree and another one against the shed wall and they flourished. My David Austin rose has not done half as well.

I think I will be abandoning rose growing after a particularly bad year and four 'special' roses bought in the spring are now just sticks in the ground. Yes there is blackspot in the ground but I did spray. I think the wet summer was the final straw.

With some reservation , I've just bought some new roses for my father's garden .

Roses don't seem to do that well in it .

There is one rose , which is successful the others need a lot of nurse maiding .

He used to live a few miles away and the soil was very heavy clay .The cheapest roses that he bought from Woolworths were absolutely magnificent .

In my experience , roses don't like light soils and neither do they like being shaded or rain dripped on by trees and shrubs .

Prior to planting , I'll have a major prune and fingers crossed .

I've grown roses successfully in various gardens for many years but now just have a balcony so I'm having to grow them in large containers, without much success. I'm getting a lot of fungal disease and am going to try some Rugosas next year as I've always found these are very healthy - if that doesn't work I'm giving up on roses!

I TALK TO MINE AND STROKE THEIR LEAVES . BUT I'M OLD AND BATTY but I do have exquisite blooms all summer long .

I like shrub roses and have planted 'Ballerina' in 3 different gardens. They flower early and prolifically, always look lovely and are trouble free.

I have lots of roses in my garden and they were either bare roots from our local market (which is where my Dad used to buy his) or reduced plants from the garden centre sale. Roses are very tough once established and survive very well in my dry, south facing garden. However, they are hungry plants and need feeding. What I do (as per my Dad's teaching) is to dig a big enough hole to start with, add plenty of garden compost which will help hold water and keep the roots moist and add a handful of blood, fish and bone which will feed the plants. Newly planted roses should be watered regularly until they establish a strong root system. Then, every March after cutting them back I feed with Westlands rose food with added manure and I get lots of beautiful blooms. Gardening experts recommend feeding again in the summer to give them another boost but sometimes I don't have time for that. If you have particularly fertile soil they will probably do well without feeding. New roses need watering until they are established, but older shrubs are fairly tolerant of dry soil for short periods, Afterall they originated in the Middle East. If your roses get blackspot or other diseases it's usually because they are under stress so check you are giving them what they need. Hope this helps.

Heavy clay garden here. Roses thrive, despite my minimal care. Grape vine is also a beast. But others, clematis for one, just refuse to live for long. They know what they want!

jojo60 is right.

Uk , prune in march, and feed, a couple of handfuls of organic chicken manure pellets and same of blood fish and bone and if you can get it, a bag of well rotted manure tipped all around the base of the plant as a mulch.

So long as the plant has enough sun I’m sure this would produce a lovely bush full of flowers. Dead head and feed with a seaweed feed every so often when you remember. I think they are just hungry plants?