Roses, Mini
Outdoors:
1. Plant miniature roses where they will receive 5 or more hours of sunlight.
2. Space plants about one foot apart.
3. Use 50% sphagnum peat, 25% perlite, and 25% garden soil for planting.
4. Water well during the growing season.
5. Feed each plant one tablespoon of rose fertilizer (8-12-8) in March, June and July.
6. Miniature roses are winter hardy in this area.
Indoors:
1. Keep plants on a sunny window sill.
2. Place pots in a tray filled with pebbles or sand. Keep the pebbles or sand wet all the time.
3. Water plants every two or three days (less on cloudy days). Keep the soil in the pot moist, then slightly dry. Do not allow plants to dry out completely. Don’t allow them to sit in water for more than 1/2 hour.
4. Feed with houseplant fertilizer once a month. (15-30-15)
5. Give plants an eight week rest in the hydrator section of the refrigerator during June and July.
6. After the rest period, cut plants back to about 3 inches and resume normal care. Roses need more humidity than modern home heating systems provide. To solve this problem the pots should be set on the tray of pebbles so that the water evaporating from the tray will raise the humidity around the plants. Yellowing leaves indicate that the air around the plants is too dry, and soil has dried too much.