Q. Trying to follow the rose-pro method from the So CA month-by-month guide is my goal this year. However, I can’t seem to find milorganite anywhere. Is there another option that I can just plug into the rose-pro schedule instead of milorganite?

A. Milorganite is still available at Ace Hardware among other locations. However, if you can’t find Milorganite, Gro-Power makes a good substitute, though it contains more and faster-acting nitrogen and therefore should be applied later, in mid-to-late February. I know a gardener who feeds her whole ornamental garden with Gro-Power, including roses, and they do well. (Gro-Power is mainly though not totally organic because it contains some synthetic nitrogen.)

But now I have important news for you: The old Rose-Pro Method given in “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide,” published in year 2000, has been completely updated. This book is now out of print and a completely revised new edition, “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month by Month,” has taken it’s place. This edition, as the title suggests, is completely organic. No chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers are recommended. It also contains an updated and entirely new Organic Rose Pro Method on pages 418—421 along with detailed instructions and explanations for following it in the rose-care section of each month’s chapter. What’s more, I give the reader a choice of two other ways to go, one which is very easy and another that takes more individual thought. The new edition, published by Chronicle Books in January 2010, is already in bookstores and available online.

Many gardeners find that raising roses the organic way not only works but leads to fewer problems. Spider mites, for example, are a thing of the past. They simply disappear. It does take a month or two to begin to see results but now in January is the time to begin since when raising roses the organic way we start feeding now to give the slower-acting organic fertilizers time to work.

Related Articles:

1. Transplanting Rose Bushes
2. Rose Canes That Fall Over
3. When to prune climbing rose
4. Transplanting a Yellow Rose
5. When to prune climbing rose