Indoor rose care is extremely simple, but there are a few best practices you should adhere to for a healthy rose and the best flower show.
- To avoid root rot, choose the appropriate pot.
- Put your rose in a location that receives six or more hours of sunshine per day.
- In hot weather, check the soil moisture twice a week.
- once a week, water the well (not little and often)
- Winter care instructions for indoor roses
- adequate airflow (keep away for air con)
- In the early spring, trim your indoor rose.
- Pick the appropriate fertilizer (avoid unpleasant smells)
- Flower waste should be removed for greater blooms.
- When to move your rose to a larger container
Let’s now examine each of these steps in greater detail.
Table of Contents
Choose the Right Pot
to Prevent Root Rot
It’s crucial to pick the ideal pot for your indoor rose.Verify that the bottom of your pot has enough drainage holes to let any surplus water to flow freely.
Roses prefer a “soak and dry” watering cycle, in which the soil is given a generous amount of water and then left to dry in between waterings.
This inevitably means that if your pot doesn’t have drainage holes, water will pool in the bottom.
It is obviously impractical if the extra water from watering your rose always pours out the bottom onto your window sill or bench.
The remedy is to set the pot on a piece of paper towel and let it sit there for at least 10 minutes to absorb the extra liquid that has been drained.
Another typical error is to put the rose’s container inside of another, prettier container or on a plate that gathers and holds any runoff from watering.
The rose’s roots will be resting in stagnant water if the water remains in the puddle beneath the pot, which will eventually cause the roots to rot and the plant to die.
You won’t experience any issues if you let some water escape through your pot.
Place Your Rose in the Sunniest Spot in your House
For roses to remain wholesome, disease-resistant, and to produce an abundance of blossoms, they require at least six hours of light each day. The rose will develop lanky, with lots of poor growth and a clear absence of blossoms if it is partially shaded.
Take the time to keep track of how much sunlight your conservatory or window sill receives on an average bright day.
Although morning sun is ideal, it is more crucial that the rose receive more than 6 hours of direct sunshine each day during the growing season to ensure a healthy rose.
Check Soil Moisture 2
Twice Per Week in Hot Weather
Your indoor rose could become dehydrated if you’re not careful because the soil in pots dries out much more quickly than the soil in gardens.
Roses enjoy a lot of sunlight on their leaves, but if this sunlight heats the roses’ container, the soil will evaporate more quickly.
Additionally, you must keep in mind that because your rose is confined to an indoor container and does not receive any additional rainfall in addition to your weekly watering, and because there is a finite amount of soil from which the roots can draw moisture, you must be consistent with your watering and monitor soil moisture in the hot summer months.
Place your finger about an inch into the soil to check for moisture to determine whether your rose needs watering. You can wait a day or two before watering the soil if it is still wet. This is the ideal time to water if the soil is on the dry side.
Do not feel that by waiting for the soil to dry out you are neglecting your rose because roses want the soil to be relatively dry between waterings.
The goal is to water your rose once each week, but if the soil feels dry and the inside of your home feels especially warm due to the warmer weather, water it again.
The rose only needs water once every four weeks once it has reached its dormant stage in the winter.
Water in a ‘soak and
dry’ cycle, not ‘little and often’
Watering indoor roses sparingly and seldom is a common mistake. Soil that drains well is ideal for roots since continuous moisture can cause root rot.
In the spring and summer, it’s a good idea to water your rose once per week and really soak the soil in water. This is typically all your rose needs to thrive in most environments.
Your rose will become sickly and possibly die from root rot if you water it too frequently.
Naturally, you must have a container with a bottom that allows water to drain freely and monitor the soil moisture levels in the hottest weather as instructed in the other procedures.
Winter Care for
Indoor Roses
In contrast, outdoor/garden roses often don’t need watering in the winter, but indoor potted roses will occasionally need watering due to the generally drier environment within a house than outside.
The foliage will turn yellow and fall off as the rose enters its dormant stage, protecting it from winter frost and minimizing water loss through transpiration.
At the first indication of new growth in the spring, begin watering your rose once weekly once more.
Good Air Circulation
(Keep Away From Air Con)
Your rose will welcome an occasional light breeze that blows over its leaves and wafts through an open window, carrying the smell of the bloom throughout the home. This keeps the foliage dry and lessens the likelihood of bug pests and illness.
Avoid placing your rose in regions with significant condensation, especially if it will be in a humid room like the kitchen where there may be a buildup of steam.
A strong breeze might also be detrimental. Even in cool air, if the rose is left in a constant draft of dry air from a heater, radiator, or forced air, this will speed up the rate of transpiration (water loss from the leaves) and cause the rose to become dehydrated.
Your indoor rose will thrive if you maintain a comfortable temperature with an occasional breeze coming via an open door or window and away from artificial air currents from cooling and heating systems.
Prune Back your
Indoor Rose in Early Spring
Prior to the plant emerging from its winter hibernation is the ideal time to cut back your indoor rose.
Indoor tiny roses should be pruned according to the same guidelines as outdoor roses.
The best time to prune is in the spring, just as growth is starting and the uppermost buds are beginning to develop slightly but there are still no leaves to be seen.
Pruning is performed to:
- Take out the dead wood and the brown, used canes.
- Take out the weaker, spindlier canes.
- As this might result in injury and illness, take out any canes that are crisscrossing or in contact with one another.
Every year or so, the tops of more mature canes naturally turn brown because they are “exhausted” and no longer able to produce blossoms.Eliminating this dead wood is crucial to promoting new growth, which increases the number of flowers produced and neatens the rose bush’s appearance.
For a stronger, more disease-resistant rose, weaker spindly growth and crisscrossing canes can be cut out, leaving just the strongest, healthiest canes.
Your rose should only be cut with a clean pair of sharp pruners (also know as secateurs). Don’t be timid; little roses are tougher than they appear.
I trim the canes of my indoor roses back by half (and occasionally by a third, depending on the rate of development).
A dormant bud that is facing outwards should have a sloping cut made about one centimeter (just under half an inch) above it. The new season’s growth will originate from this bud.
If you’re unsure, I suggest watching this YouTube video for a helpful visual tutorial.
Fertilize for Indoor Roses for More Flowers (and Avoid Bad Smells)
Although fertilizing your indoor roses is not very different from fertilizing your outdoor roses, I tend to favor Miracle Grow’s readymade rose feed over using a lot of organic fertilizers on my indoor roses.
This is merely a result of the odorous nature of organic fertilizers. I usually stay with a readymade mix that doesn’t smell bad because things like fish emulsion and blood and bone meal will make the house smell awful.
Miracle Grow Rose Feed offers all the nutrients a rose requires in the right concentrations with only two applications of granules every year, eliminating all the guesswork and making it as simple as possible. This is why I adore it so much.
My indoor roses, which I personally use Miracle Grow on, have always been brimming with blossoms and free of illness.
Apply a tiny handful of granules around the rose’s base and then water them in. Once at the beginning of spring, when the rose has started to grow, and once in July. All there is to it is that.
Avoid fertilizing the rose too early in the season before any growth has emerged or too late in the season (after the 15th of August) since fertilizer may stimulate new, soft growth that can be damaged in colder temperatures. The rose needs time to prepare for its winter hibernation.
An indoor rose is less likely to have a natural ecology in the soil than an outdoor rose, thus a good fertilizing regimen is crucial for the health of the plant.
Deadhead Spent Flowers for Better Blooms
Indoor tiny roses should be dead headed according to the same rules as outdoor roses.
Deadheading is done so that the energy of the rose bush can be directed into growing more new shoots from which to bear fresh flowers rather than creating rose hips (seeds).
Regular deadheading encourages more blooms for an improved floral arrangement.
Use pruners (or sharp scissors) to make a 14-inch cut on the spent flower stalk above the stem with the first five leaves during deadheading.
It may seem harsh to have to cut below stems with fewer than five leaves, but generally speaking, if you cut the stem above, say, three leaves, you risk having “blind wood,” which bears no flowers.
Check out this YouTube video on how to deadhead roses for a fantastic visual explanation.
When to Transplant your Rose to a Bigger Pot
Due to their naturally smaller size and slower growth rate compared to other rose species, indoor tiny roses only require repotting every few years in my experience.
It is recommended to wait until your rose is in winter dormancy to repot it because this will lessen transplant shock. However, miniature rose types often are resilient and will tolerate repotting at any time of year.
Although you can use garden compost if the pH is 6-7, multipurpose compost is ideal for a nursery or garden center (slightly acidic). For a wonderful price, you can purchase a soil test kit on Amazon to determine the pH. The rose won’t survive in soil that is either too acidic (pH 5 or lower) or too alkaline (pH 8 or higher).
Make sure the large pot has drainage holes in the bottom and that the rose’s bud union—the place where the canes and roots are connected—is buried below the soil line. You should also water the rose after repotting it.
FAQ
Can mini roses live indoors?
The majority will bloom for a week or two indoors, but they must be planted outdoors to enjoy the sun and other long-term growing conditions. However, with a little attention, small roses can make wonderful, albeit transient, houseplants.
How much water does an indoor rose plant need?
In the summer, the roses should be kept continuously moist, and if the weather is particularly hot and dry, you might need to water them up to once a day. You should only water your plants once a week during the winter. The ideal temperature for miniature roses is between 65 and 75 degrees during the day and a little colder at night.
How do you water mini roses?
A steady supply of moisture is also necessary for miniature roses. Water the plant until water drips out of the bottom of the container when the soil surface feels dry to the touch. Get rid of the extra water. Apply a diluted fertilizer solution to the miniature rose once or twice a month.