Sir – Having just completed a Royal Horticultural Society gardening course, I was a little alarmed to see Val Bourne urging us to give our roses a high phosphorus feed to encourage flowering because “potassium is for roots and phosphate for flower”.
I have just been taught that it is potassium that encourages flowering and that phosphorus is for strong root-growth.
Indeed, on checking (in a panic, as I await my exam results!) I find that a popular brand of rose food gives five per cent nitrogen, 0.9 per cent phosphorus and 10 per cent potassium.
I fear that Val’s roses may have powerful roots and few flowers!
Mary Lewis, Summertown
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