Miniature roses
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Like most retail stores, garden centres stack their check-outs with colourful tempters to attract customers waiting to be served. As spring turns to summer, among the great favourites for this treatment are the miniature roses. And although there are genuine collectors and enthusiasts for miniature roses, many of the little roses found in gardens were bought on a whim or gifted to the gardener.
Consequently, miniature roses are often planted without much planning, either with regard to their needs or their development. And miniature roses, just like kittens and puppies, bought because they look cute when young tend to grow up to become something far less appealing. But it doesn’t have to be that way because miniature roses certainly have plenty to offer. They simply need the same level of planning and care that your other plants receive.
Before elaborating on the development, needs and wants of miniature roses, I should say that despite the name they’re not really miniature. Well, the flowers are, but not necessarily the plants that bear them. There are genuine mini-roses — small bushes with small flowers — but others are large bushes with small flowers and some are small-flowered climbers. Granted, they seldom display the super-fast growth rates of some of their larger cousins, but not all are small or even restrained.
History
Although there have always been roses that were smaller than the norm, particularly the 19th century Fairy Roses, the plants we call Miniature Roses are a reasonably recent development.
The first widely recognised miniature was ‘Rouletii’ (syn.‘Roulettii), which originated in Switzerland around 1917. Its exact origins are open to debate, though it is named after a Swiss gentleman called Roulet who supposedly discovered it on a farmhouse windowsill in Mauborget.
Regardless of the accuracy of the story, ‘Rouletii’ certainly inspired two very influential breeders: Jan de Vink of Holland and Pedro Dot of Spain. Their work in the 1930s and immediately after World War II, along with the early plants of Ralph Moore, laid the foundations for the modern Miniature Roses.
Although there are specialist breeders of Miniature Roses, such as Moore and Harmon Saville, many of the famous names of general rose breeding have produced miniatures too. These include McGredy, Meilland and Harkness.
The influence of such distinguished patrons has ensured that the miniatures have become firmly established. And even though they are perhaps thought of as the poor cousins of the large bushes, their popularity is immense.
Cultivation
Miniature Roses are best grown in full sun, or at least half-day sun, with plenty of air movement to lessen the development of fungal diseases. They need moist, well-drained condtions and prefer a fairly rich soil that will keep them growing steadily. A near-neutral pH of 6.5–7.5 is ideal.
Prepare the soil well in advance by digging it over and incorporating plenty of compost. Soak the roses before planting so they don’t suffer any transplant or moisture stress and water them in well. After planting keep your minis moist and mulch and feed them. They do far better if kept growing steadily; tending to suffer more with pests and diseases if stressed.
Of course, minis aren’t just open ground plants, they are superb in containers, including hanging baskets, but you have to take care to water and feed them regularly.
Trimming
Note that heading — trimming, not pruning. That’s because miniature roses rarely need anything more than a light trimming to shape combined with thinning out any congested growth. Most of the branches are quite wiry and covered in buds, so there’s little point in carefully cutting them back to outward facing buds. Only old bushes with a few heavy branches will need any serious pruning, in which case treat them just as you would a regular rose bush.
Propagation
Miniature Roses, unless grown as standards, are now generally grown on their own roots and are propagated from semi-ripe cuttings taken from late spring to autumn. You can also take cuttings from older wood and strike them outdoors, but semi-ripe cuttings struck indoors and quickly grown on usually produce stronger plants.
The method is no different from any other semi-ripe cutting. Tip growth is preferable to wood from further down the stem. Take a cutting around 10cm long, neatly trim the base, remove the lower leaves, dip the base in a root-forming hormone and insert the cutting in a light, moisture retentive free-draining potting mix.
The cuttings must be kept moist and turgid — mist propagation is ideal — and they should have roots within four to six weeks, after which they can be potted on.
Some nurseries still bud Miniature Rose bushes and their slightly larger cousins, the Patio Roses, are often budded, but there’s no need to go to that trouble for home production.
Pests and diseases
Miniature roses suffer from the same pests and diseases as their larger cousins, but because they’re often smaller plants they can become rather more debilitated by them, sometimes fatally.
A miniature rose smothered in aphids is obviously suffering and you’ll deal with the pests accordingly, but more insidious troubles can go unnoticed until it’s almost too late. Mites, black spot and mildews are the main problems and can easily kill small plants or at least set them back severely. Consequently, if you’ve more than just a few miniature roses, vigilance and prevention have to be your watchwords.
By all means try organic controls if you wish, but I have to say that I’ve not found them far less effective with miniatures than with the larger roses. The miniatures seem too susceptible and too easily overwhelmed by a sudden onset of disease or influx of pests to allow organic controls the time they need to work effectively.
Miniature roses indoors
In a word: don’t. I know miniature roses are often forced into bloom out of season and sold as winter-flowering house plants, but they’re rarely successful and usually end up dying from mildew, mites or drought long before they can be planted out in spring. Do yourself a favour and chose an azalea instead, or better yet a cineraria or a pot of early-blooming bulbs.
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Thousands of miniature rose varieties have been produced over the years and now hundreds are available. Just about every garden centre and nursery stocks them and most carry a good range.
The large selection can be confusing, but provided you know what size and style you’re looking for it’s largely a matter of choosing the colour and shape of flower that most appeals to you. You’re unlikely to find any really shocking clashes in the colour palette and most minis are compatible with one another, so you can’t go too far wrong.
I suggest that you don’t take too much time selecting from books or catalogues but instead visit the nursery and see what you prefer. And because most Miniature Roses flower for so long, you should have a wide range of plants in bloom from which to pick.
Copyright Geoff Bryant
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