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I bought a mini rose plant from Trader Joe's a few months back and for the first few weeks it did really well! It was growing a lot of new buds that were blooming. But recently the flower petals started to turn brown so I trimmed them down. The new buds that were growing in would fade and die before they bloomed and it lost almost all its leaves. I don't think my pot is draining correctly and my roommate thinks I was overwatering it and it was freezing by being too close to the window for sun. I live in a small apartment with not a lot of sunlight but it's too cold to leave it outside for long. What can I do to save my rose plant, or is it a lose cause? I will leave a photo so you can see what I mean.

Well, it certainly is in bad shape.

If it is draining correctly, if you keep pouring water in to the top, it will start running out of the bottom. You need to water it thoroughly until water runs freely out of the bottom and then not water it again for awhile, until the top part of the soil is starting to dry out.

I think humidity trays are helpful -- basically a saucer with small rocks or large pebbles in the bottom. So the water can run out into the saucer, but the pot will NOT be sitting in it, it will be sitting on the rocks, over the water.

Roses need sunshine! If you don't have a sunny spot you can put it, then give it a dedicated lamp.


(note, that is a humorous picture, your plant does need to stay in its pot)

Doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a compact fluorescent bulb (incandescent gives off too much heat).

Not sure what you mean by " it's too cold to leave it outside for long." Roses are exceptionally cold hardy. Look around your neighborhood. Do people have roses planted in their yards? Then roses can tolerate your winters. BUT, if yours has been indoors for awhile, it will need to be hardened off, gradually accustomed to outdoor sun and wind and temperatures. And while it is nearly dead is not the time to try that. But if it recovers and is growing well again, then I would start working on getting it used to being outside.

Yep. And when I have a cache/coverpot like your copper pail with a plastic nursery pot inside, first thing I do is raise the inside pot on a riser, because it’s way too easy for the nursery pot to be sitting in the water that drained out and pooled in the coverpot.

I usually use things like empty tuna can or orange juice jug lid, opening-side down ...something that sits underneath and raises the Nursery pot by about 1 inch or more. This usually also creates a gap where I can stick a chopstick or bamboo skewer between the coverpot and the nursery pot to see if there is any water. Of course you can also lift the pot out to see, which is now easier to do.

good point, applestar. I completely failed to notice that was two pots, inner and outer. Those are deadly!!! Water can be pooling in the bottom with the (inner) pot sitting in it and you don't know. I would just get it out of the decorative pot and put the functional one on a humidity tray.