Q.Mini Roses
I bought a mini rose plant for indoors. I live in Qatar in the Middle East. I kept the plant in the window but the tips of the petals, which were facing the sunlight, dried out. So I kept it indoors without sunlight. After another 2 days, I found that all the leaves in the bottom branches have dried out and fallen, whereas the leaves on the top are fine. Can you guide me in taking the best care for my roses?
Roses love sunshine. However the sun coming through a window is kind of like sun directed through a magnifying glass. So you need to keep some window tinting covering that can be applied to the window glass. This will still allow some of the suns rays to get through, yet will not allow it to be so intense that it burns the petals and foliage. Many of the mini rosebushes purchased in various stores actually have more than one mini rosebush planted in each pot/container, thus they can become root bound in a big hurry as all struggle to obtain the available moisture and nutrients. I would suggest checking the base of the rosebush to see how many plants are actually there. Then re-pot them so there are no more than two to a pot that is 8 inches in diameter or no more than one to a pot 6 inches in diameter or less.
As with larger rosebushes, the upper dense foliage sometimes creates sun blocking or limiting shade upon the lower foliage. This causes the rosebush to drop those lower leaves as they are not performing well to help the rosebush survive any longer. They also drop their lower leaves first when the plants are becoming root bound and cannot obtain enough moisture and nutrients to keep all the foliage alive and well. In such cases they will also either totally stop blooming, produce buds that just fall off or have only one or two blooms.
