How can I get my rose bush to bloom this year?

Roses are gross feeders and Kerrias are big thugs. This combination will never work without help.

Dig out as much of the kerria as you can, including the roots. It will grow back very quickly so don't worry about killing it. You can plant the material you dig up in another part of the garden if you are really keen on this plant.

Personally I would look to eventually removing the kerria completely but that's my personal preference for roses, you may not agree. Kerria is a wonderful plant in the right place, the little yellow puffball flowers are lovely and i love the brightness of the foliage but it will take over if Left alone.

You will have to supplement the soil round the rose. Buy multipurpose compost or soil improver from the garden centre while you wait for your own compost and mulch your rose in spring and autumn. Fertilize in spring and again in mid summer and never let the soil dry out completely.

Kerria is a bit of a thug - can you remove some of it that's near the roses as its probably taking all the goodness. Roses prefer clay to sand so you will need to try to get some humus into the soil. If you can get some well rotted manure that is what they will like best, but sometimes you can get something suitable from garden centres. Riding stables will often let you take what you want as long as you get it yourself.. Put lots on every year. You can buy a fertilizer called Rose Food which will help, and be sure you prune them very thoroughly, taking out all the weak wood and cutting the strong wood back to not more than about six inches, cutting above an outward facing bud. It's not always easy to see the buds at this time of year but there is usually a little mark on the stem where they will appear.

Go to the garden center and ask for help they will show you how to prune a rose. Do not know where you live but roses in the north are trimmed back in the fall to protect them and then pruned in the spring to remove dead branches and to make the rose compact relatively. Select about 4-8 main branches and take them back to about 2-3 feet long or shorter even depending on the size of the rose. Remove crossing branches coming from the main branches. Then give it some fertilizer and maybe some systemic fertilizer and pesticide combination like Ortho. This keeps japanese beetles off of them along with other pests like aphids. The garden center or hardware store will show you where to trim the branches.

Type into google rose pruning and they have several videos that show you how to trim a rose. And remember gird thyself against the thorns.

Rose success....

1. Cut them back ASAP to wood no larger than your little finger. I know it sounds wrong.. just do it and wince.

2. Fertilize real well with a high phosphorous solid fertilizer (phosphorous is the middle number in the analysis of the fertilizer)... something like 10-30-10 would be good...

3. Buy a water soluble high phosphorous fertilizer to use as 'snack food' for the bushes through the summer. Use solid to re-fertilize every 4-6 wks... about 1/2 strength by suggestions on package.

4. Mulch around plant at least 2 ft with ANYTHING but bark or pine straw.. grass clippings are best.. ground up leaves anything that will mat down and suppress weeds from growing around the bush.

5. When you cut flowers ( and you must if you want to make plant continue to bloom) cut them WAY down the stem to thick wood.

6. Avoid watering that gets leaves wet...

7. If plant doesn't respond well, try the "bloom or die" approach... which is quite successful with stubborn plants of any sort.... over fertilize it and sock the water to it. It will either bloom like a demon.. or make space for something that will.

I hope I helped.

Roses need potasium. bury some bannanna skins around your roses and pruneing them back each fall is helpful.