Question
I live on the southwest side of Houston and I tested my soil today with an at home kit. It shows that the soil I have my roses in is very high alkiline. How can I lower this? And do you know why I would have moss growing in my bed? How do I get rid of it? I plan on redoing my whole bed with new roses. Any thoughts on the best bred to grow?

Thank you for any and all answers.

Sally

Answer
Dear Sally-

One of the easiest ways to make soil more acidic is to add used coffee grounds into the soil and mix it in well.  Let it compost for a few weeks then re-test the soil.  But, I also know that the soil in this area is very clay-like.  I would really recommend that you dig a hole at least three times the size of the rose root-ball, and fill it in with rose soil (that you can buy from Loews or Houston Garden Center).  That will pretty much take care of the problem too.  Or, if you have a flower bed that already has good soil in it, but just alkaline, try the used coffee grounds as I said above.  I am not an expert on moss, but I know it grows on the surface of the ground.  Just dig up all traces of it - and throw in the trash.  Try a fungicide and spray where the moss was growing, then fill the holes with good planting mix (or rose soil). Good roses to grow in this area would be: Belinda's Dream, Knockout rose, Angel face, Europeana, Confetti, Gene Boerner, Buff Beauty, Penelope, Don Juan (climber), Mrs. B.R. Cant, Duchess de Brabant, Nearly Wild, Bonica, Chrysler Imperial, Veteran's Honor, Gold Medal.  Try Chamblees Roses on the internet. Walmart and Houston Garden Center and Loews all sell good roses. The roses I named are all tried and true roses, and very disease resistant.  I am growing all of these in my garden and they have superior garden performance (I live in Katy, TX).

Have fun smelling the roses!

Carlene
aka the Flowerlady