Men, women, and children; gardeners, nongardeners, and the family cat—everyone is captivated by a four-inch rosebush with precise little leaves and thorns, studded with button-size buds and flowers, twinkling in its pot on the window sill. On her weekly visit the cleaning woman checks on its health and welfare. The baby-sitter has her boy friend come in to see it. The milkman wants to know where he can get one like it for his green-thumbed wife.
But if I had a dime for every eager buyer who has found these midgets disappointingly difficult to grow indoors, I could start building my dream greenhouse tomorrow. There are simply too many floriferous pictures with thimbles to show how cute the flowers are, and too few responsible growers who give specific cultural directions with every sale.
In the garden there’s no problem. These are by nature outdoor plants, mostly sturdier and more winter-hardy than the full-sized hybrid teas and floribundas. For some reason, they even seem to be less subject to the depredations of insects and disease. I can pick handfuls of Japanese beetles from the regulars in the rose garden, but few from the miniatures little more than a hundred feet away.
I’m not implying that miniature roses are impossible indoors. One of the most perfect blooming bushlets I’ve ever seen came to our flower show from a sparsely windowed, steam-heated Brooklyn apartment. I simply want to spread the gospel that, to avoid risking disappointment, everybody should know what kind of cultural conditions they need.
Potted miniature roses are positively precious in cool, sunny window gardens, with rows of matching pots on glass shelves up and down the window, or singles or small groups in mixed arrangements on the sill or in a window greenhouse. Although they are not the most adaptable subjects for growing under artificial light, I’ve known several people who have been successful, particularly when the plants were started under lights from seed.
In a harmonious decorative container, a flowering miniature rose makes a small plant-and-container decoration to inspire the prettiest compliments. With suitable environment a tiny bush can be used as a center of interest in an indoor model landscape. A small greenhouse should hardly be without one of these brightly blooming babies.
Miniature roses have many uses in sink or trough gardens, as single specimens, pairs or quadruplets in formal plantings, even hedgerows kept carefully trimmed. I don’t know whether anyone has ever tried them for miniature bonsai. This would be a process of dwarfing a dwarf; and my mental picture of the proper plant, artistically trained, is enchanting. I must try this, before long.
Outdoors, miniature roses are delightful in all kinds of containers—tubs, strawberry jars, window boxes, and other planters. They’re often used as a low hedge to edge a path, driveway, or the beds of a formal rose garden, or around the base of a birdbath or sundial. In mixed flower borders they’re planted singly or in small groups toward the front. In rock gardens they keep most safely cool and moist when planted low, near the base of the garden; and they show off most effectively with something like a dwarf evergreen as background.
Gardens featuring miniature roses are most often formal in design—round, square, rectangular, the beds divided with geometric precision by narrow strips of grass or gravel paths. A small, formal pool or piece of statuary may be the center of interest. In a sunken garden outlined with an eight-inch brick or stone wall, the planting pattern is particularly pleasing. In raised beds each individual shrublet can be enjoyed at eye level. In a single or double row at the base of a low retaining wall, the plants show off to advantage.
Beds of miniature roses can be carefully arranged strips, or groups of separate colors, or mixtures. They can be edged with shrubs such as dwarf box, perennials such as dwarf lavender, dainty annuals such as lobelia or alyssum. In the center a tree or standard is often used as accent. Or a bed may be backed by a wall, fence, trellis, or arch on which miniature climbers are trained. If the soil is slanted slightly up, toward the center, it is easier to see the plump perfection of each little bush.
Dwarf evergreens, particularly junipers, are popular backgrounds for miniature rose gardens. Upright types with symmetrical pyramid, column, or cone shapes are often used as accent—for example, a matching specimen of one of the dwarf varieties of Juniperus communis in the exact center of each formal bed.
Miniature or not, rose gardens are most often conceived in formal design. But to me, the cheerful dwarfs are more friendly when planted informally—popping up at the base of a tree stump or boulder, spotted here and there in the rock garden, a few at the top of a flight of small steps.
The tight buds may be as big as the eraser on a pencil, or as tiny as a grain of unpolished rice, and the flowers may be single, semidouble, or double. The doubles may be formed like a hybrid tea or be full-petaled and fluffy, in clusters like a rambler rose. Some varieties stay very dwarf and bushy, from four to six inches tall; others are more robust, with larger flowers, and may grow to ten inches.
Climbing miniature roses are usually sports of bush varieties, with supple canes four or five feet long that can be trained on low fences, walls, trellises, or arches. Otherwise, every part is in perfect miniature scale.
All of these types are recognized by fanciers as authentic miniature roses because they grow on their own roots. And so is the rare tree or standard grown with a single trunk-like stem that is kept free of side growth, then pinched at the top to form a crown and symmetrical head. But standards that are budded or grafted onto the stems of other root stocks (which most of our American miniature tree roses are) are excluded by the experts, which is a matter of concern only to the serious collector.
Since miniature roses seldom spend the summer indoors, they are usually purchased in fall or winter from the local florist or greenhouse, or by mail from house-plant or miniature-rose specialists. Pot-grown plants are most likely to succeed indoors because their roots are not disturbed unduly. Except in Hawaii and Arizona, mail-order plants arrive with the soil ball complete about the roots, the stems cut back to about two inches. They start growth almost immediately, and flower within six to eight weeks.
If you have miniature roses in the garden, you can root cuttings in early fall and force them into winter bloom indoors. Or you can dig the plants, pot them, and give them their necessary dormant rest before you bring them indoors for forcing. Sink the pots to the rim in soil, in the cold frame or in some spot protected from severe winter weather. When the temperature dips low, mulch with salt hay, straw, evergreen branches, or the like. In late December or January, after six weeks or more of dormancy, lift the pots and bring the plants indoors. Prune back the leafless stems and water sparingly until new leaf buds appear.
After they have flowered indoors all winter and spring, I always plant my miniature roses out in the garden and let them resume their natural outdoor growth cycle. I may root cuttings, or I may bring others indoors the following fall; but I have never tried to force a plant a second time without letting it live at least one year in the garden first. I have heard that some growers (probably city dwellers or others who have no outdoor garden facilities) simply let the plants rest outside in summer—on a shaded ledge or in a window box with moist peat—prune them severely in fall, and grow them again. I haven’t heard how many years a plant will take this unnatural treatment or how much it suffers from missing its cool fall nap.
Soil
A fairly heavy potting soil packed quite firmly in the pot seems to help keep the plants small without sacrificing foliage or flower. One expert recommends a mixture of two parts garden soil, two parts humus, one part moderately coarse sand, with a light sprinkling of superphosphate or bone meal. When I use my ready-prepared potting soil, I always add sand, and sometimes some humusy soil dug from immediately under the leaf mold in the woods.
Potting
I’ve used both clay and plastic pots with equal success, always of the shape with the greatest depth, as miniature roses are naturally deep-rooted. Each pot has the usual layer of rocks or pebbles in the bottom for drainage. Small, newly purchased plants usually start off in three-inch pots, are shifted to four-inch pots before they become severely root-bound. Some larger varieties may take larger sizes.
Sun
This is one of the three important cultural requirements. Miniature roses must have sun if they are to bloom. A minimum of three hours is sometimes set, but I should think this amount would be applicable only to midsummer or to mild climates. In winter the plants need all the sunshine they can possibly get.
Temperature and Humidity
Second in importance is a cool 65 degrees or even much lower (maximum, 70 degrees), and third is the humidity which keeps the plants at their best. Leaves curl and dry, buds and flowers drop when the air is hot and dry. Miniature roses should not be set anywhere near a heater or radiator of any kind. Unless the air in the growing area is really cool and moist, set the pots on moist gravel or make some other provision for increasing humidity, as outlined on pages 76–77. It even helps to cover the plants with a tent of plastic every night, and let them emerge only for the day.
Watering
Keep the soil always moist, never soggy and muddy, never dry and caked. As a humidifier and refresher, mist the foliage as often as you can.
Fertilizing
A balanced soluble house-plant fertilizer (never one with high nitrogen content) can be fed in half-strength solution every three weeks beginning about three weeks after a freshly potted plant begins active growth. Or you can use any special rose food according to directions and at half the strength recommended on the package. The idea is to encourage the plant to grow and flower, but not stuff it with so much nutrition that it gallops gaily up to nondwarf size with leaves only.
Pruning and Grooming
I seldom prune miniature roses indoors except to cut off cleanly any stems that may have been accidentally broken or that may grow unattractively long or misshapen. I do try to douse the plants in slightly sudsy water, to clean the foliage, every few weeks; and I pick off faded flowers promptly. Actually, instead of being in continual bloom, these plants usually flower for a few weeks and then take a short rest before they send up buds again.
Insects and Disease
Again, preventive spraying is all I’ve ever done. I use my handy house-plant aerosol bomb almost every week. If disaster should strike, I’d probably use the special rose spray or dust I use on the regular garden roses.
In all except mild or warmer climates, bare-root plants bought by mail from nurseries or garden-rose specialists should be planted in early spring, when vigorous root action and growth are beginning. Potted plants or any that come complete with a soil ball around the roots can be planted almost any time the garden soil is not frozen. But in sections where winters are severe, I think spring planting is always safest. In fact, in Connecticut I like to give new plants a longer growing season their first year by starting them a few weeks early, in pots, indoors or in the greenhouse.
Location
Plant miniature roses where they will get at least half a day of summer sun (a full day is best) but where it is possible to keep the soil suitably moist. Avoid low, muggy pockets where air does not circulate freely or where water can collect and make the soil muddy. Good drainage is vital. In cold areas, select a spot sheltered from icy winds by a wall or low shrubs.
Soil
To help keep them dwarf, miniature roses need a fairly heavy soil, but not, of course, too clay-like. Dig down at least ten inches, to prepare for the deep-growing roots, and improve the soil you remove with whatever is needed before you replace it around the plant. Clay-type soils will need the addition of sand, for drainage, and leaf mold needs rotted or dry cow manure or other humus to lighten the texture. Sandy soils need humus to help hold moisture. In even average fertile soil, miniatures appreciate an extra ration of humus at planting time.
The ideal soil for miniature roses will pack firmly around the roots, yet won’t cake and crack in the sun. It drains perfectly, so excess water does not stand around the roots, particularly in winter. Yet it holds enough moisture so that the roots don’t dry out so fast you can’t keep up with the watering job. Soil should also test neutral or slightly acid (pH 6.0), never extremely acid. In acid-soil areas, apply a light sprinkling of horticultural lime each winter.
Planting
Plant miniature roses about a half-inch deeper than they were before, and far enough apart so that they will have room to spread as wide as they will be tall. Crowded plants have no individual beauty, but they are prime targets for mildew. If the weather turns sharply cold or dry and windy after planting, protect the plants by mounding up soil around the stems. Remove it gradually as spring days grow balmier.
Watering
Miniature roses suffer seriously from drought, and will drop their buds and flowers after only a few days of hot, dry weather. Keep the soil constantly moist, and spray or mist the foliage once or twice a day. A mulch of pebbles, a mixture of half soil and half peat (peat alone packs down too heavily), or something similarly porous, will help keep the soil cool and moist.
Fertilizing
Light feedings of organic fertilizers such as bone meal or cow manure once a year, in early summer, are usually recommended. Or supply small amounts of a balanced garden fertilizer, or special rose food, in late spring and again in early July. A weak solution of liquid manure is also good and can be fed about twice as often.
Pruning and Training
In early spring, when new growth is first beginning to show on bush types, shorten all stems severely. I usually cut mine back to a uniform four inches. And of course, cut out cleanly any dead or mutilated branches. Make every cut just above a new shoot or leaf bud. Otherwise, pruning is limited to keeping the bushes shapely, removing faded flowers, and occasionally thinning the growth of old plants to admit air to the center.
Miniature climbers bloom on last year’s wood. They can be cut back to six inches when first planted, but are otherwise not pruned except to control ungainly canes or remove dead ones. Train the climbing canes into an attractive, open pattern as they grow, by tying them to the arch, fence, or other support they are to climb on.
Miniature tree roses can be cut back to a small but symmetrical head in spring and all dead wood should be removed. To keep them shapely, prune as needed during the growing season.
Insects and Disease
I protect my miniature roses, as I do the others, with an all-purpose rose spray or dust applied first when leaves begin to unfold, and repeated every week or ten days until the plants go dormant. Occasionally, during a long spell of hot, humid weather, I see signs that mildew threatens. If the all-purpose spray contains a fungicide (which most of them do), I use it immediately. If not, I may resort to dusting sulfur (which does mar the beauty of the flowers) or whatever sterilant is on hand.
Winter Protection
What you do to protect miniature roses in winter, or whether you do anything at all, depends not only on your climate but also on the health of the plants. If they’ve been growing well, they’ll take lots of abuse; if they’re weak and ailing, their chances of survival are reduced.
Sometimes, a flower pot inverted over the leafless stems is all that’s needed. Or you may mulch with salt hay or evergreen boughs. In Connecticut we mound up soil so it covers the first three or four inches of the stems, and remove it gradually in spring. It is most important to make sure that water does not stand around the roots in winter, next most important that alternate freezing and thawing don’t heave the roots out of the ground and break them.
If they are likely to be whipped by wind or covered with ice, the canes of climbing varieties are removed from their support and laid flat on the ground, where they can be covered with either soil or mulch. Since tree roses are inclined to be touchy, we wrap ours in burlap, with an extra layer or two around the graft and crown.
I’ve grown many miniature roses from seed, and had a lot of fun doing it. They usually germinate in about three weeks (best temperature about 60 degrees), quickly send out tiniest true rose leaves, and are ready for transplanting into small pots in another two or three weeks. I usually pinch the tip growth at least once, when the plant is about five inches tall. The flowers can appear within three months after sowing.
Of course, seedling plants are not named varieties. Most of them, in fact, have small single flowers in pale shades of pink or white. Your chances of double, more brightly colored flowers increase if you can get seeds of a good strain.
For new plants of named varieties, take cuttings in August or September—three-or four-inch pieces of healthy wood produced in the current season. If the stem can be pulled off gently with a sliver of the main stem still attached (a heel), rooting may be faster and is surer. Dipping the cut ends in hormone rooting powder is also helpful.
Make the moist propagating material firm around the base of the cutting, and make sure the air is kept humid in the propagating box or plastic tent, or invert a glass jar over the cutting. New growth is the signal that roots have formed and the cutting is ready for potting. These plants, too, will grow more compact and bushy if the tips are pinched out when the stems are about five inches tall.
Although new varieties of this popular plant are constantly being introduced, and most likely will have a wide appeal eventually, it may be some time before they appear in plant and seed catalogues. In compiling this modest list I have thought chiefly of what is available at the moment, miniature roses I have either grown, seen in friends’ gardens, or admired vicariously on the printed pages of magazines, books, and booklets. If you are interested, I am sure these bushes are readily available. If I am old-hat and you feel avant-garde, there are many persons propagating new varieties. Talk to some of them, or try it yourself, a most gratifying hobby:
‘Baby Bunting’—A delightful, small rose with red flowers of a deep, startling shade. This variety is an inch or so taller than some, but many of my friends think it ideal in that they like to make miniature flower arrangements and appreciate slightly longer stems. Among its other charms, the rose is most delightfully fragrant.
‘Baby Crimson’—I’ve never had this one grow taller than six inches. Since I have maternal instinct for the wee ones, I love it. Under the right conditions it will bear tiny crimson flowers and exquisite buds up until frost time.
‘Bo-Peep’—This one has a charm in its name, and is one of the more popular miniature roses. It has double pink blooms, forms a bush with a neat conformation, and is another favorite with those who make miniature arrangements. You needn’t worry about cutting its blooms. It is always growing more.
‘Cinderella’—This one fits beautifully into the legend about the girl with the glass slipper. It has dainty white blooms touched with pink and is in the true tradition of rose shapeliness. Seemingly, it loves to bloom.
‘Granada’—In some listings I find the name spelled ‘Granata.’ Regardless of the spelling, I love the bushes I have grown, for the lovely, semidouble, red flowers which the bush bears so profusely. A tiny vase filled with them makes one wish to build a doll house in which to display it.
Days in the life of a miniature rose:
a. Leafed out
b. A growing bush
c. First bud
d. Full bloom
‘Little Princess’—So many of my small roses are either pink or red, I always try to find white ones for contrast. This is a variety I have often depended on. Sometimes the blooms are alone, but then again they may be in clusters. A cluster, snipped from the bush and wrapped in foil, looks very lovely when pinned on a little girl’s pink dress as she leaves for a party.
‘Mon Petite’ (sometimes spelled ‘Mon Petit’)—This one is truly petite, not once in a dozen times over five inches tall. But those five inches never seem to stop flowering with cherry-red blooms. And then, to make themselves even more fascinating, they often have a delicate haze of purple.
‘Patty Lou’ (patented)—This one is so delicate I imagine its creator must have had some particularly sweet little girl in mind when he named it. In bloom it is a pink bicolor, and it always seems to be blooming. A truly lovely little rose.
‘Perle d’Alcanada’ (sometimes spelled ‘Perle d’Alconada’)—May I warn you, this is a real charmer. Being somewhat on the stately side, it may grow to nine inches. It makes a neat and most attractive bush and then comes forth with pink blooms that slowly change to a white pearl-like effect.
‘Pixie Gold’—This is another dainty one, a yellow miniature with a lovely soft color to add to its beauty. It is really a miniature, and would consider itself a giant if it topped five inches. It has an attractive bush, but that is only part of it, the blooms follow a perfect pattern from the time they are buds until they are full-blown. It follows all rose traditions.
‘Red Imp’—Many persons consider this beauty the most perfect of all miniature roses. Certainly, with its deep-red blooms, it is one of the best known. Such a feeling of affection must be deserved. I think the first miniature I ever owned was a ‘Red Imp.’ If for no other reason, that would make me love it.
‘Rosa Oakington Ruby’—Some years back the English Royal Horticultural Society thought so much of this rose they gave it the Award of Merit, and well they might. The blooms are a rich ruby-carmine, are double, and are around all summer. In planting this variety, remember it tends to be an inch or so taller than the wee ones.
‘Rosata’—I love this one for its fragrant, pinkish flowers, which also have a touch of salmon. The blooms are delightful when made into corsages or miniature bouquets.
‘Rouletti’—This is a great favorite in rock gardens, and in edgings around beds of big roses. It is a true “shorty” and seldom exceeds five inches in height. But the buds, rose-pink, are so exquisite one wishes to put them into a setting for a ring to be worn on the finger.
‘Scarlet Gem’—This is what is known as a newcomer among miniature roses. But it has so much charm, I know it will be called an old favorite in the years to come. The flowers are an orange-scarlet, and fairly cover a handsome bush of nice conformation. Remember when setting it out in your garden, it may grow an inch or so taller than some of the others.
‘Sunbeam’—From the very name you may guess that this is a yellow rose, literally, a beam from the sun. It is a cheerful little dwarf, and has a tea-rose type of bloom. You’ll love it.
‘Sweet Fairy’—This is something out of a book of fairy tales, delicate and fanciful. It has pinkish blooms and a fragrance that will charm you.
‘Thumbelina’—Looking at this rose will bring back the memories of that delightful story “Thumbelina” which we all loved as children. As a rose, and not a story, it is semidouble and has lovely red flowers that open from delicately pointed buds. It flowers freely, and the blooms are most enchanting in small vases.
‘Wayside’s Garnet’—As I first bought this rose from the catalogue of Wayside Gardens, I’ll let them describe it for you: “... a neat, compact small plant with many perfect, fully-double, garnet-red little flowers. It is a prolific bloomer and a good grower ... much like Oakington Ruby, which is one of its parents. It probably has the brightest, darkest and deepest red to be found among miniature roses.”
‘Yellow Miniature’—This is a charming little rose, yellow, with a cheering tint. Many consider it to be the most attractive of all yellow miniatures. I will not argue with them. I’ve always been enchanted with it.