Caring for a miniature potted rosebush

[An Officer]

I've had this for about 2 weeks, and it appears to be in its final death throws now. The roses have shriveled up, lots of leaves seem to be dropping off, and the remaining leaves are sort of sagging and loosing their colour.

The pot incidentally, is quite small and and no more than about 5 inches across. I had been watering it everyday with about 40ml of water initially, then I decreased that to 40ml about every four days, and it still continues to deteriorate.

It's been kept indoors, on a window ledge, with plenty of direct sunlight. The average temperature outside has been about 10 degrees in London these past couple of weeks. Of course, the indoor temperature has been more stable and hospitable than that.

What should I do? Is it at all salvageable now? Should I snip off the dead roses? If so, at which point, just beneath the petals, or that whole little branch? I know very little about gardening, so please do tell me anything I need to know or buy in simple layman's terms. Thank you.

I had such high hopes of starting out small with little roses, now it turns out I'm little more than a clumsy plant killer... Help!

 

[propita]

My little roses outside can take just about anything and come back strong--even losing 90% of their leaves. The big ones come back from near death just fine as long as they're regularly watered--especially in 100F weather. Mom's grew back after gardeners mistaken cut them all the way to the ground and she never watered them.

A tiny indoor rose bush I had years ago did just as you're describing--no idea why.

I think that spent blossoms on these should be cut back only to the leaf below the blossom. This works on my little rose bushes outside--if they're not cut, that's where they die from (the little bit of stem from the last leaf up to the spent flower).

 

[An Officer]

Ah, this is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for... thank you.

Am I perhaps using too much water? Or too little? Should I be using fertiliser or some type of food? I've no idea where to begin with these things...

 

[propita]

Oh man, that I cannot answer.

Surely there are websites for help? I'm better at not killing the outdoor plants. I don't have any indoor ones: They don't last with me and Hubby doesn't like bringing dirt and the possibility of bugs into the house. So he showered the yard with rose bushes--around 50!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I'm no horticulturalist - heck, I have a bamboo plant in my house, which is traditionally low-maintenance but is starting to look frayed around the edges (but this is me we're talking about here ) - but what often works with my bamboo plant is occasionally pruning the dying ends of the plant to the right level, enabling newer growth. It might also work for your roses.

Also, have you tried "softer" water? (i.e. water with not so much calcium compounds in it) Perhaps the roses are intolerant of the "hard" water from SE England, in which case you might want to distill your water and also go to the local Homebase or something and seek out some suitable plant food supplements to try. It's a long shot, but perhaps you could try that.

 

[bigdaddy]

As a gardener there are two things that will NEVER live in a pot, rosemary and mini roses.

Your best best is to stick it in the ground outside and hope it's hardy, most should be. You did nothing wrong they just dies and always will die. If you don't water them enough they will lose their leaves and dry up and die. If you water it it will get some fungus and lose it's leaves and dies.

If the bamboo leaves tips turn yello or brown it's because the house is too dry, stick it in the bathroom for awhile and it should look better.

 

[Jadzia]

A lot of plants dislike new homes. Plants react to light and temperature and weather -- those are their senses. They get used to the environment they grew up in.

Furthermore, sometimes in transport to the shops they spend a few days stuck in the back of a trailer with no light, and they don't recover from that. It's best to buy from a place where the plants are grown or have happily lived for a few weeks, so you know they're not in a state of death.

One thing you could try is to keep it in a cool but bright place. A little direct sun each day is good, but plants don't like baking heat, so the evening sunlight is best.

Also try increasing humidity, and less soil watering. One way is having a tray with some pebbles in the bottom, and stand the plant on the pebbles and keep the pebbles wet. This will humidify the air around the plant. Also if you get a sprayer, you can spray the plant all over a couple of times a day with chilled water.

A lot of plants also benefit from a light breeze and dislike stagnant air.

I hope it feels better soon

 

[propita]

As a gardener there are two things that will NEVER live in a pot, rosemary and mini roses.

Your best best is to stick it in the ground outside and hope it's hardy, most should be. You did nothing wrong they just dies and always will die. If you don't water them enough they will lose their leaves and dry up and die. If you water it it will get some fungus and lose it's leaves and dies.

If the bamboo leaves tips turn yello or brown it's because the house is too dry, stick it in the bathroom for awhile and it should look better.

Thanks! I feel less guilty about mine dying.

I still feel guilty about killing the first snail I saw in my yard this week. I know it would be dead one way or another, but I still felt guilty.

 

[bigdaddy]

Snails are fun, drop them in salt.

 

[farmkid]

As a gardener there are two things that will NEVER live in a pot, rosemary and mini roses.

Your best best is to stick it in the ground outside and hope it's hardy, most should be. You did nothing wrong they just dies and always will die. If you don't water them enough they will lose their leaves and dry up and die. If you water it it will get some fungus and lose it's leaves and dies.

If the bamboo leaves tips turn yello or brown it's because the house is too dry, stick it in the bathroom for awhile and it should look better.

That's not entirely true. I have a mini rose I gave to my wife several years ago. It's been living in a pot now for at least 6 years, maybe closer to 8 (I don't remember for sure). We transferred it from the small pot it came in to a larger one, maybe 10" or so, and that helped. It's done the best when outside somewhere it gets direct sunlight most of the day. We simply keep it watered and give it a little miracle grow from time to time. I recently pruned it back considerably and removed all the dead stems because it was looking rather tattered and it looks much better now. It is probably 18-24" tall now.

It regularly blooms (many blossoms), then all the blossoms die and it seems to go dormant for a while and looses most of the leaves, only to come back again after a few weeks.

 

[An Officer]

^ Great news. Fantastic.

Right, I'm going to give it mineral water from now on, along with the miracle grow. Will get a trey of pebbles too - what a fantastic idea! And let it sit outside the window on a ledge during the day to catch the breeze, then bring it in for the evenings. I hope it doesn't get blown off - I think I'll wait till I transfer it to a bigger pot as mentioned, should also help to steady it.

Will normal scissors do for pruning, or should I purchase specialised ones?

Gosh, that sounds like an awful lot of work, for one tiny plant! I'll enjoy it though.

If all this works, I think I'll get some more for the bathroom, great idea - it could do with some brightening up. Thank you all for the wonderful advice! I'll get started tomorrow and post updates.

 

[bigdaddy]

Use kitchen scissors that you can cut chicken bones with. Thsoe are great for gardening.