In praise of supermarket mini roses.

I bought two mini roses last fall in a sale for about $1.00 each. There wasn't any tag in the pot. I don't even their name. Actually there were 4 branches in a pot. I splitted one pot into two parts. Each part had two canes. I planted one in a sunny spot int the garden, the other in a half shade area. I planted the other pot in the shade area too. I put some steak bone leftover from dinner, a handful of lawn fertilizer in the planting hole, watered and forgot about them.

A few days later, I found a big hole around the root in each rose. I guessed some wild animal dig out the bone. I covered the holes and watered.

In the early winter, everything turned into brown and black. These three mini roses were still green. Unfortunately for them, rabbit eat the twon in the shade area near woodland. When the snow covered the ground, the mini in the sunny spot were still glossy green.

Being impressed by their toughness, I bought another one from walmart. The tag said Parade Rose. I repotted them into a bigger container. I pushed each one into a corner. In the sunny spot inside house, they bloomed the whole winter. One flower one each cane. The bloom lasted for 2 weeks. After I dead head them. Another "wave" of flowers was coming. I was delighted. That was my first rose. I thought my rose was doing great.

In the sprint, when other plants were still sleeping dead, the mini roses came out. Too bad for them, the rabbits got the two in the shade area. One never recovered. It's still alive but barely. The other survived and bloomed OK.

The one in the sunny spot in the garden rewarded me with 2" flowers all summer so far. The inside house one was moved outside in the deck. It was covered 27 flowers last night, not counting buds!!!

It gave me much confedence about growing roses. I bought magic carrousel, Oh Canada, Proud Land, Austin Blush, Martin Frobisher, Morden blush and some yellow roses whithout tag. Of course I got more yellow and white Parade mini roses.

Reply to
Karen
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$1.00 each.

[snip]

I've also had luck with cheap mini roses. One thing I've found works to deter rabbits is those wire hanging baskets. I put them upside down over the small rose until it gets big enough to fend for itself. Sometimes I've left the "cage" for a year or more.

Mini roses do tend to be more tolerant of various cultural & environmental conditions than their larger siblings, and can be just as rewarding to grow.

Gail

Reply to
Gail Futoran

You mentoin el cheapo mini roses and Wal MArt I pulled 30 pots of miniature roses fro the local walmart dumpster awhile back. They had been reduced 50%, then after that they got thrown in the dumpster. They have all produced bloomms and are actually much nicer than some of the roses I paid a lot of money for from a Rose Nursery. They are all doing just fine so far, and its been at least 2 months or so. They say yu can't really transplant mini roses very well (the book I have n roses states this) but I have transplanted about 1/2 of the ones I salvaged, and had no problems. Visit my website:

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Reply to
Roy

Those people who tells you that you have to handle mini-rose gingerly are either never grow the cheap supermarket mini roses or want you to buy more mini roses. If every one finds out that they can grow mini-rose easily, who's gonna spend money on a new mini rose each year.

Reply to
Karen

Are these mini roses the same thing as shrub roses?

Reply to
Greg Miller

Reply to
ben boorman

The regular mini roses from nursery looks like shrub roses in smaller scale. The supermarket mini roses looks like annual flowers with soft cane, at least in the first two years. I haven't grown them long enough to know if they'll eventually grow hard cane.

But I've rescued a mini rose from my parent's front yard. That mini rose might be 5 years old. The main cane are still soft if you can call it main or cane at all.

Reply to
Karen

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