(Sorry for my typos)

ours has a bunch of minis on clearance for 1.98

I have bought many mini roses at Trader Joe's for outdoor pot combos, then eventually in the ground. All of them have thrived, although all if them have blackspot battles. Walmart's seem to be Kordana (?) bred, so they are a different breeder, but they should work just as well. The only down side is it's hard to find out the variety name!
Carla in Sac

sultry_jasmine_nights - Lucky! when I arrived at Walmart the roses had just arrived~ they won’t be on clearance for a LONG time (my Walmart hasn’t marked down its bags of dried dirt that were once bare root annuals and perennials and it is still selling those spring bulbs ,the ones that are in bloom already, at full price even though they stopped blooming a long time ago- they are already going dormant ).My walmart gets stingy with its plant clearance.

I just bought 3 of these roses today at Walmart - the blooms are bright yellow and very large for a mini rose so they might be a mini-flora. The plants are healthy but there are 3-4 "cuttings" in each pot. I want to be careful about the kind of soil I repot them in. I have some bark fine/mushroom compost/sand soil that I use on my sturdier flower beds but I feel this is too coarse for these tiny rooted babies. I am thinking of a soilless mix that is quite fine - which is what they are in. Maybe even a seed starting mix? I have a friend who put a grocery store mini in Sta-Green soil with fertilizer in it - this mini is now huge - super healthy and just beautiful. He pots all his roses in this and they are gorgeous. It is a nice looking blend, not too coarse. Wondering if I should repot in a seed starting mix, like it looks like they are in now, then let them grow and get stronger then put them in this Sta Green mix. Would appreciate any input!

Thanks -

Judith

I have cut each rooting apart and planted them straight in the ground, and they are fine (when not done in high summer/100 degrees LOL). What is your concern about using actual potting soil?
Carla in Sac

Due to what looks to me like the fraility of the little cuttings. They make up a nice bushy plant [in a small pot] but as they are potted in what looks like very fine fluffy seed starting mix, I was afraid of potting them up in a more coarse mix. I am 2 hours NE of Houston - our weather is still quite hot here....am going to keep them out of hot sun - a little morning sun right now. They had just come in at Walmart, were on trays, and am sure they have been grown in a greenhouse, so wanted to treat them gently. I carefully lifted them out of their little pots to see if there were any roots - and they have good root systems, but very fine roots. Just wanted to be extra careful with them - think they have the potential to be really pretty roses; their blooms were much larger than the red ones in the same bunch.

Judith

Yes, but seed starting mix has no nutrients, you would have to be constantly fertilizing them.
Maybe you could plant the entire root ball in a larger pot filled with potting mix and/or soil from your garden, and wait to split them up until the roots have filled out the large pot. THEN you you cut them apart for individual planting.
Carla in Sac

Thats my plan - dont want to split them - want to nurture them in pots outside my greenhouse/potting shed and grow them there. It will be easy to water and fertilize them as I work there daily. Just want to make sure I pot these fragile roses up in the right potting mix - I have available a trailer load of my coarser mix - mushroom compost/sand/bard fines, Sta-Green mix with fertilizer, Black Kow composted manure, Miracle Gro Rose soil and seed starting mix. Thinking of doing a mix of these with seed starting mix as base but not sure so wanted to get advice here.

In TX, HEB brings in these mini Rose's for 1..98 during the holidays if anyone is interested. Some survive, but back spot a lot.

Rekha-yep you can say that again. These roses have had the tendency to get A LOT of black spot- I would know as they were leafless “sticks” for half the summer until I

started spraying them for blackspot.

I split up a pot of 4 of them, i think the yellow kordana, and another pot of beigy ones and stuck them in the ground in spring and they’re all doing great. But I don’t have winter or too much blackspot.

After reading all this welcome advice, I decided to mix up some seed starting mix with some Sta Grow mix [the kind my friend uses who has fabulous roses]. I put them in 3 larger pots - I put some soil in the pot, made an indention while the roses were still in their small pots, and carefully teased them out of these pots and put in the indented hole in the new pots and filled with the mixed soil, watered well. Am keeping them out of direct sunlight as the stems/leaves look to me to be fragile. They seem fine, no wilting. They new pots wont overwhelm them while giving them room to grow. I think they will climatize given some time, then can start getting dappled sun. Hoping their stems will strengthen.