Hi there... im in a bit of a mix here. i bought a dozen rose plants from a local nursery (im new to roses). i planted some in the ground and some in pots. 6 months later this was the result: 6 rose plants in the ground: 2 happy (lovely sized blooms). 2 dead 2 rose blooms (4 in wide earlier) have shrunk to mini rosettes (1.5 inch wide)! 6 rose plants in pots (14 inch wide) 2 dead 2 blooming (1 - 1.5 inch wide blooms) 2 still thinking whether they like their new home or not.. how is this possible? how can their size shrink? the roses get 3 - 4 hours of full sun everyday. i live in Lahore, Pakistan and during the summers the temp reaches 48 - 49C. i need help! regards ayesha
Well could be two things that I know of - or any number of other things that maybe someone else may know. But without a picture these are my best guesses as someone who has had experience only with pruning other people's roses and watching my mother's. 1. Roses are a living plant and as such will adapt and change due to their surroundings (usually this is a slower process so I don't think this is your issue). 2. If they were grafted, you might be seeing what they were grafted onto due to allowing suckers to grow. If your original roses were red and you are seeing very viney, rapid growth with small roses, then it is likely to be the rootstock. My mother had this happen to two roses when she did not keep up with new growth below the graft line after a very cold winter. If yours were grafted, the second is most likely your problem. Nurseries like to graft more sensitive plants that either develop poor root structures or survive poorly if conditions are not perfect onto more hardy and faster growing rootstock. In my mom's case, this was a climbing rose with small red flowers but was far enough from anything to climb that it just sprawled out onto the lawn faster than she was willing to prune it. Yours sounds similar...have you noticed any massive differences in the growth rate and stability of the new greens on the ones with smaller flowers versus the ones with normal sized blooms? Yours may have been grafted to something similar, but without pictures of the blooms, no one can tell you what exactly you now have.
Actually, individual plants don't adapt which is how it is possible to get poor results or failure when placing them in situations they are not already able to cope with.
