Spanish bluebells and rose

[Trix]

I wonder if I can get some advice about a rose and some bluebells? I have one growing in my new garden a messy corner near my (newly created) compost pile and would prefer not to destory it if possible - it's biggish but looking a bit sickly at the moment. I highly doubt it's been cared for at all in the last few years and I have no idea what it needs!

There are (Spanish, I think) bluebells growing tightly around the base of it and a healthy looking fuscia (also surrounded by bluebells) next to it. Could these be causing the rose problems? I have removed lots of the bluebells from other parts of the garden over the last few weeks so know how deep and clustered their bulbs are and I'm wary of damaging the rose if I just start digging.

Tbh I'm not too fussy either way - I wouldn't have chosen a rose myself - but it seems a shame not to attempt a rescue if I can and it's in a nice little corner. Same for the bluebells - it's a fairly contained patch and surrounded by paving stones so they can stay or go. So - should I try to pull the bluebells? Leave them? Mulch over them to suppress them (no idea it this will have any affect).

Has anyone got any advice? Thank you!

[WendyC]

Have you given your rose a feed? Mine get a mulch of garden compost each spring or a forkful or two of manure if I have some. There is also specific rose feed you can buy but I suspect it is the same as tomato feed.
When you say sickly what is the matter with it? It is a bit late this year to be pruning except you could take out any stems that are clearly dead and any really thin spindly ones. Feed it something! Has it got a good root system ,I.e can you rock it in the ground? Roses have deep roots so forking around for a few bluebells won't matter. Their leaves will die down soonish so there will be better air circulation. I would wait until the autumn to remove or thin the bulbs as you are going to do less damage to actively growing plants.

[fishpond]

"Mulch over them to suppress them (no idea it this will have any affect). "

I had some Spanish Bluebells buried by a digger 2ft deep, they still came up, now its a pain trying to dig the bulbs up.
Couple of thousand or more bulbs have now been dug up by hand, at least the same again to be dug up.
I wouldn't bother mulching them.
Made the mi

[Trix]

Thank you both - I was afraid mulching would be too easy for the bluebells but I don't mind leaving a few in this patch if they won't damage the rose and fuschia. I'll just dig them up where I need to plant then chop/pull any excess in the spring so they don't smother everything. I want to stick some bee friendly flowers in this corner (foxglove/borage and maybe others) - I hope they'll hold their own if I dig out enough bulbs to let them get established.

Wendy C - I have cut any obviously dead bits and there are some healthy looking new shoots so a good prune this autumn might work - thank you. The compost pile next to them is mainly manure so far so I'll dump some on the rose. If they like manure they'll soon be in paradise!

Thanks both - I'm really new to this so all advice is appreciated.