How long will my rose take to grow back?

Question

I bought a Lady Marmalade rose (suitable for containers) a month ago. It came in a pot and I was intending to re-pot it into a larger container and put it outside. Before I did that I thought I would see how it got on indoors and I put it in a sunny bathroom. At first it did well, putting out new growth and even a couple of buds. Then it got what I think were red spider mites (or aphids?) on the new growth but I rinsed them off and sprayed with diluted washing-up liquid and they didn’t come back. Then the rose started dropping its leaves and within about two days all the leaves were lost. The leaves didn’t go yellow, they just wilted and fell off. I have now re-potted it and put it outside. But will it grow again and how long will it take or has it died?

Answer 1

Lady Marmalade is usually a very hardy floribunda rose with very good growth. I suspect two things have led to the problems encountered. First, the pots that rosebushes come in when we buy them are meant only for very short term stays by the rosebushes as they just do not have the room needed for the root system. Thus if left for longer periods of time, the root system starts growing in a circular fashion or to match the pots shape and literally starts to choke itself. Root systems that are found to be in this shape or starting to be, should be pulled apart a bit when replanting them to help bring them out of this death spiral growth motion. Two, you mentioned using some diluted washing up liquid on them for the insects. I suspect that, even though diluted, some chemical in the liquid made it down into the soils and thus into the root zone and the roots did not like it much. This can be helped out by watering the rose heavily to help wash out the harming chemical but only works if done immediately upon noticing its effects but may stunt the rosebush or have caused some permanent damage. Even though a room may be sunny, for roses they need good full sun exposure and the nicely lighted room just may not have been enough of the type of sun it needed. I would suggest watering the rosebush with water that has both a good root stimulator in it and a product called Super Thrive if you can get it where you are. The root stimulator alone will help some but both together really get things going if there is any life at all left in the bush, such as green canes and a small amount of foliage.