If you can't change/amend the soil, or if you can't partially sink the containers into the ground (a good fix unless it's clay), you have to be extremely careful of how you water and continue with the wicks until the planting has matured considerably, or pot-down to a more appropriate size.

Al

I have not had any luck with any of the moisture control potting soils, in particular, the Miracle Gro brand. Every rose I have ever planted in the stuff died.

I use an organic potting soil that Jungle Growth puts out, but any organic based product would work. My advice would be to re-pot your roses as soon as you can.

Sandy

Al,

What is the more appropriate size - 7"?
I would be happy to repot if this is your suggestion.

Sandy,

I have never seen Jungle Growth here, the best I can do is MG organic.

Irina

I am not a rose expert, but won't they grow to 3' tall plants in a single season? If so the 9 and 12" containers don't sound like over potting to me. I am trying 2 roses for the first time this year. One is a miniature rose I bought on a whim at the grocery. I repotted it into a bark based mix and it's in an 8" pot (came in a 4"). The other is a hybrid tea whose bloom intoxicated me with it's scent so I just had to have it. It was in a 1 gal pot at the store and I put it into an 18" pot as it gets 5' tall and wide according to the label.

Anyway, in both cases the roses got nasty with me being repotted. The lower leaves on the mini yellowed. On the larger rose some of the newest growth wilted and when it looked too far gone I pruned it off.

I just chalked it up to the fact I bare rooted both and then plopped them into containers in full sun, such as that is in Wisconsin. That was 2 weeks ago. Today both look fine and are starting to bloom again.

The moral is, they may be fine, just going through a little transplant shock/adjustment period.

Still, the wicks aren't a bad idea until they get larger and use water faster.

They are not over potted, just in the wrong mix. I would use the same pots and simply change the mix. All the information needed for mix is on this forum. Al

That's the first thing I thought of, Al, but she said she couldn't switch mixes at this point ..... kind of limits the options, huh? ;o)

Al

OK, I will start looking for the ingridients for Al's mix.
You twisted my arm, lol.

Irina

I would think the Miracle Gro organic mix would be fine to use. I looked at a bag of it in Home Depot tonight, and it doesn't appear to have anything in it roses wouldn't like. In fact, since it was convenient (I was already there buying clay pots), I bought a couple of bags to try.

Sandy

Robert Mattock Roses (UK) seem to be able to grow very large roses, particularly climbers and shrubs, in very small pots (10 liter). It seems to be achievable with a combination of re-potting and simultaneously shortening the tap root to promote finer feeding roots ever year or second year - which is in line with Al's recommendations regarding trees and shrubs in containers.