Miniature Roses

Miniature roses - first bred for containers, this class includes small-scall versions of other classes. The term miniature is relative. Shrubs of this class range in height from a few inches to 18 in (45cm), while climbing miniatures may extend their canes several feet. The perfectly formed blossoms, which are commonly of the hybrid tea type, range in size from 1/2 to 2 in (1.3 to 5cm) across.

Where to grow miniature roses

Miniature roses will grow anywhere and under most conditions. They can be grown in tubs, in borders, in hanging baskets, in rockeries or in beds all on their own. There are miniatures that will tumble down walls, that can be pegged down to cover a bank, that can be trained up fences and that can be used to cover garden eyesores to a height of about 8 ft (24 m). They are also even hardier than ordinary roses and need far less pampering as they get on with the real business of the rose -producing a continuous round of blooms from late spring until midwinter. The flowering period can be further prolonged by potting up some plants and bringing them indoors, where they will continue to thrive when other roses are taking their annual rest.

Today miniature roses are produced by the million in countries allover the world. In some countries most miniature roses are sold on budded or grafted stock, and some Californian miniatures are also sold in this way. The great majority, however, are grown from finger-length cuttings that can be sold as tiny plants within a year, and often within six months. The differences between the two are that the potted plants will be quite small and they can be bought at any time of the year. The budded or grafted plants are much bigger and stronger, arrive on bare roots and must be planted between late autumn and early spring.

The chief advantage of roses grown from cuttings is that they are small but vigorous and can, therefore, be used as pot plants before being transferred to the garden or to a larger pot where they will last for years. Budded plants are really for outdoor garden growing. If you want to grow them on a patio you must have a large tub to give the big, flourishing roots room to grow.

The first requirement is to find a good site, one that is airy, bright, sunny and well drained. This can be a whole bed, or miniatures can be planted to great effect in a rockery or in front of a border, where the small blooms can be appreciated fully. Try to dig over the site some time before planting begins. The earlier you can manage to dig over the plot the better, and a good time to begin is early autumn. If you leave it later, the messiness of trying to prepare wet soil in winter will be frustrating. Whether you are using bare-root, budded or grafted, roses or those that have been grown in pots from cuttings makes no real difference in the area to be planted, but the tiny miniatures will do better if left for some time in their pots because they are initially so small that they may be swamped in the garden.

No matter what types of miniature you are planting, however, they need the same sort of treatment. There are five simple requirements to remember if you want to grow great plants. Your miniature roses must have light, sun, water, food and a little bit of love. These five needs apply more to plants grown in the open garden as they cannot be moved than to those grown in pots, which can be moved about until you find the best site.

Giving a plant light means that it must not be pushed under the shadow of a large rose or any other flower and that it must be planted away from overhanging trees. It is very simple when planting a rose in winter, when most trees have shed their leaves, to put it in a position that will be quite dark when summer foliage has returned. In addition, miniatures can often be lost by placing them in a mixed border when the foliage has died down, so that in summer the roses are surrounded by plants that have grown much faster and taller than ever they do. So give your miniatures an area where they will not be overshadowed by their neighbours.

Providing sun for your roses means finding a position where they will have about six hours sunlight every day. A minimum of six hours sun is required to really bring them to top condition, and if that sun is in the morning so much the better. If your garden does not allow for that, find a place where the roses will get as much sunshine as possible. No one has ever seen a really successful shaded rose bed.

You must keep the ground around your roses moist. If a rose wilts and dries out there is no method by which it can be resuscitated. This does not mean that roses have to stand all day long in puddles of water -indeed, good drainage is essential to good growth -but it does mean that your roses need special watering care. Roses drink far more water than is generally suspected, and the gardener who gives his roses a daily drink will be rewarded with very good plants.

Good soil is where feeding begins. If the soil is wrong there is little or no hope for success with miniature roses -or with any other plant for that matter. Many rockeries, for example, are built with alpine plants in mind, and the soil requirements of a miniature rose will be far greater than those of alpine subjects. The most suitable soil will have a pH of 6.5, but, even the best soil has to be supplemented with humus and with a fertilizer such as bone, fish and blood meal and provision made for other feeding. Every gardener knows that all soil can be improved by good tilling and fertilization, and that is why the soil should be prepared well in advance of the actual planting. The more humus that can be added the better. If the soil is a good medium loam that is a great starter, but whatever sort of soil makes up your rose planting area, it can always be improved.

Miniatures in the garden

In the open garden the imagination can be allowed to run riot where miniatures are concerned. There is absolutely no restriction on where or how you can grow them as long as you remember to site them in good sun.

• Edging for Beds and Borders
  Miniatures can be particularly effective as edging to any sort of bed or border or simply along the sides of a path or driveway. As larger roses grow older they tend to become leggy and the old wood looks ugly, but this can easily be concealed by miniatures. The smaller roses can be of the same color as the bigger ones, or you could use a contrasting shade. A complete range of colors is now available in miniatures, and finding a closely matching shade should not be a problem. The brighter, lower growing varieties should be selected here as many new miniatures can grow tall and, unless pruned properly, will themselves become leggy after a while. Special care should be taken when edging old borders or beds with new roses. The old soil will be worn out and should be replaced, especially in the area in which the new rose is expected to grow.
• Hedging
  Hedging might sound an ambitious way of growing miniatures, but by carefully selecting a number of the bushier varieties that keep their size a very effective hedge can be grown. The hedge can be anything to 3 ft (0.9 m) high if the new Patio or Sweetheart roses, which are larger than normal miniatures, are used. If you are looking for miniatures for hedging, select very bushy and vigorous varieties that do not throw their new growth way above the earlier flowers. Alternatively, use plants that you have been able to grow on their own roots for a couple of years in adequate containers. The Californian Roselings - rooted plants that have been field hardened - are also effective. For hedging, the roses should be planted about 9 in (23 cm) apart, and in one summer they will have formed their own mass of close growth. Intensive planting like this will mean that the roses do need extra feeding and watering, and at the first sign of any disease they should be given special care
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• Raised Beds
  Raised beds planted with miniatures are extremely  effective, and the great advantage of this type of planting is that the beds are much easier to work than those at ground level. The beds can be constructed in many different places - the top of a bank that may be at eye level, for instance, or in a hollow in the top of a low wall. Patios are often surrounded by small terrace-type walls, and these are ideal for both the trailing and the upright miniatures. There is absolutely no limit to the type of rose that can be planted here. If you are constructing something new, it is advisable to plan a corner bed, which can be planted in one eye-catching color, allowing the accompanying straight lines to complement the rest of the garden or to be a delightful confection of all colors.
• Rock Gardens
  Rockeries are ideal spots for the smaller and low growing miniatures, but the bulkier rooting systems of the budded or grafted plants are not acceptable here. The smaller bushes grown from cuttings are ideal. They fit into the whole layout of a rockery, and, used in small batches, they can provide a really eye-catching splash of color. Remember, however, that rockeries and alpine gardens are generally purposely constructed of poor and gritty soil, and this is not much good for roses. You must change the soil in the pockets where the roses are to grow, putting in new, well-fertilized compost.
• Beds
  It goes without saying that miniature roses make wonderful bedding plants, especially if one color is used. Trying to mix and match miniatures in a bed is asking for disaster. If you want to have a collection of different varieties, put them in a border, where the uneven growth will not be as noticeable. Bedding roses should be of one color, although it can be effective to plant the centre with a variety that you know will grow fairly tall and to use a known low grower of a different color in the front row or two. Apart from that, stay away from mixed beds. If you feel that you want to give height to the miniature bed, it is possible to buy tree or standard roses, which come in different sizes and can be selected to provide the required height.

Miniatures in Pots

In most parts of Europe and throughout the United States and Canada, the majority of miniatures are purchased as very small plants in 2 in (5 cm) pots. These roses will have been grown on their own roots from cuttings or through tissue culture, a method that is not as yet proving successful with larger roses but is quite successful with many miniatures. The little roses may look very puny to the untutored eye, but in one season alone they can make marvelous growth, and the finger-length rose bought in early spring will be quite a robust grower by the end of the summer.

These roses are treated differently from place to place, but in general, the small miniatures are immediately potted on into larger containers because they are too small to be planted out in the garden. If the plants have been mailed by a nursery, they will need to be thoroughly watered to help them over the stress and dehydration of travel. Whatever your reason for buying a little rose, the plant still needs a certain amount of care. If it is purchased as a once-off house plant all it needs is water; do not soak it but provide continuous light watering, which never allows it to dry out. These plants will normally last for some weeks in average house conditions, but after that will begin to show their yearning for the great outdoors as the blooms fade and the foliage yellows.

It is important to remember that miniatures growing in containers will dry out more quickly than plants grown in the open garden, so correct watering is vital. If you grow a lot of miniatures, the perfect way to make sure that the watering is correct is to use an emitter system. This is simply a hose that runs along the area in which the miniatures are growing, and from it a number of emitters deposit a steady stream of fine spray on to the plant and into the container.

When potting on, you will have to provide additional soil. Do not use ordinary garden soil, which may contain pests, bacteria and weeds that will not do your potted roses any good at all. If you are not going to pot up a lot of miniatures, many good commercial potting mixes are available that will take the guesswork out of the job. Look out for one that specifically mentions roses. The alternative is to make your own mix, which can be of peat, vermiculite or perlite, and some loam or soil pellets to give added weight. Sand can be used instead of the vermiculite or perlite, but it can become very soggy, so use it with discretion. The main problem with a peat and vermiculite or perlite mix is that it is very light, and pots can be easily knocked over, although they can, of course, be moved much more easily. Peat alone dries out very quickly.
 It is a good idea to put a layer of broken crocks or medium sized stones over the essential drainage holes at the base of a large pot to allow for better drainage.

The commercial mixes all have added nutrients, but a home-made mix will require the addition of a general fertilizer. The use of fertilizers has been made much easier by the introduction of controlled-release pellets, which can be incorporated into a mix without the need to add other fertilizers. If the nitrogen content of these formulations seems high, remember that it has to support vegetative growth over a long season. After its first season in a pot, the miniature will need a food renewal. This is better administered by granular feeding than by a powder, which can often get on the foliage and cause burning.

The pots themselves will require some annual care. Carefully take out the balled rose and lay it gently on a bench. Inspect the roots. If they are white and look healthy, all is well. If they are black and wizened-looking then something is amiss. Inspect the pot for any signs of weevils (these eat away the roots) or other bugs. It may be that the plant has just been neglected and not fed or watered properly. If it looks as though it has outgrown its stay in the pot - that is, if it is a mass of roots with nowhere to go - it should be potted on into a larger container with more soil around it. While the pot is empty, wash it thoroughly and dry it before using it again.

• Advantages of Container-grown Miniatures
  The most obvious advantage of container-grown miniature roses is that they can be moved around the garden. Potted roses can also be used as temporary spot fillers in the garden. If a plant fails, just take your miniature, pot and all, and drop it into the ground, covering it with a thin layer of soil. You should, however, make a note to lift the pot at the end of the season, or the plant will deteriorate. There is, of course, nothing to stop you just dropping the plant from the pot and putting it permanently into the soil.
  Growing a plant in a pot also gives you a good chance to evaluate it before you decide where it will be best in the garden, and this is becoming more and more necessary as the height and spread of each miniature varies considerably, while the feeding, spraying and weeding of a container-grown specimen can be monitored far more easily than specimens planted in the garden.
  Miniature roses will continue to grow well in containers for many years if care is taken to ensure that they have not become pot bound. If they do become too big for their containers, they can easily be moved into something of a more acceptable size. Just make sure that the root ball is kept as intact as possible and that suitable new potting soil is added.
• Containers for miniatures roses
  The more decorative types of pots are generally the clay or terracotta type, and they are also the top sellers for patios. They have a number of advantages over plastic pots; for instance, they keep the roots warmer in cold weather and cooler in warm weather, and they also absorb a lot of moisture and so help the roots. On the other hand, there is always the possibility that they will be blown over and broken. Clay and terracotta pots can also crack in severe frosts, and you should look out those that carry a long frost-proof guarantee. Do not be tempted to buy seconds from a potter unless you are going to use them indoors, because these are usually the first to crack in a hard frost.
  Wooden containers are also highly effective. Old cider, whiskey, beer or wine barrels make very attractive containers, but do make sure that these have not been carrying anything that might be poisonous to the rose. Almost anything that will hold soil will make a good container, but it must have adequate drainage holes. You will find that gardeners use everything from plastic pots to heavy-duty buckets, and even, in some cases, tin cans.