Indoor mini roses are a beautiful addition to any home. They are also relatively easy to care for. However, they do require more attention when it comes to watering.
Water you indoor mini roses every other day in summer, and once a week in winter. How often you should water your indoor mini roses depends on the season since your plants need more water in warm weather. In the cold, the rate of evaporation is low, so you don’t need as much water.
In this article, I will discuss the watering schedule when it comes to caring for indoor mini roses, as well as some other helpful tips and information. Let’s get started.
What Are Mini Roses?
Mini roses are re-blooming shrubs that look like regular roses, but smaller. They also come in various colors, and some even have specific scents depending on their petal color.
Mini rose shrubs can grow anywhere from 6 to 32 inches (15-81 cm). Those that have purple-colored petals have a particular fragrance. However, there are more options than just purple.
You can purchase them in the following shades:
- White
- Pink
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
- Russet
If you don’t want to buy mini roses that have already begun blooming, you can start from scratch with mini rose seeds from your garden store. This is a great way to get a variety of colors in your planters, and it’s more rewarding when you grow the mini roses yourself.
Caring For Plants Kept Indoors
Some plants don’t need much attention and do better when ignored. Although miniature roses don’t require constant attention, they don’t do well if forgotten, so make sure you’re prepared to provide this.
These roses are relatively easy to care for if you follow a few crucial rules.
Sunlight
Mini roses need about 6 hours of direct sunlight daily, except in the winter months when they only need about 2-3 hours. Enough sunlight is crucial to their health, so ensure they’re near a sunny spot in your home.
A southern or western window will provide your roses with sufficient sunlight to ensure they bloom even when indoors.
Humidity
Dry conditions are not suitable for mini roses. They do well with indoor humidity levels above 50%.
You’ll want to increase the moisture in your home using a humidifier because indoor conditions tend to be too dry for mini roses. Alternatively, you can also place your pots next to a sunny kitchen window or set them on a pebble tray with water.
Circulation
Mini roses need proper air circulation as well. You can improve air circulation in your home by opening windows or using a fan. However, be careful not to open the windows during cold weather to prevent drafts that can disturb the plant’s temperature sensors and elicit an untimely dormancy.
Pruning
You’ll want to ensure that you’re pruning your mini roses to keep them healthy. Get rid of all the dead or shriveled-up leaves and stems, which can significantly improve your plants’ health. Pruning can also prevent some types of bugs and fungi that like to dwell in dead leaves and stems and improve air circulation around your plant.
Watering in the Summer
When it comes to summer heat, your indoor mini roses will need more water to stay healthy. Mini roses prefer temperatures between 65 and 75 °F (18 and 24°C). So, if temperatures rise above 75 °F (24 °C), keep an eye on how dry they’re getting in between waterings.
You’ll want to water them every other day for a temperature between 75 to 85 °F (24 to 29 °C). For any temperature above 85 °F (29 °C), you’ll need to water them daily. You can also check how dry the soil is to gauge how much watering is required.
If you stick your finger in the top 1 to 2 inches (2.5-5 cm) of soil and find it dry, your mini roses need to be watered. If the soil is moist, don’t water them yet. Perform the same check the next day and go from there.
As long as your mini roses are in a rich, loamy substrate with excellent drainage, it’ll be easy to keep them well-hydrated.
You can also use soilless mixes with equal volumes of perlite, peat moss, and coco peat. However, you’ll need to fertilize your mini roses more frequently during the growing season because this mix doesn’t contain sufficient nutrients.
You’ll also want to keep your mini roses in a glazed pot. Unglazed pots allow more air into the soil, allowing it to dry out quicker.
Miniature roses like their soil moist, so make sure to put them in a flower pot with drainage holes so that excess water can get out. Besides, you don’t want your roses swimming in water as this can cause several issues like root rot and attract bugs that can harm your roses.
Also, ensure you water your mini roses at the soil level. Don’t pour water on the flower petals or leaves. Doing so can damage the plant.
Watering Indoor Roses in the Winter
In the winter months, your indoor mini roses won’t dry out as quickly with the lack of heat. Ensure you cut back to only watering once a week when it’s below 65 °F (18 °C). Mini roses also go dormant in winter and don’t need as much attention as they usually do if dormancy happens naturally.
Check out my other article for more tips on mini roses dormancy: 5 Reasons Why Your Indoor Roses Keep Dying
Bottom Watering
A common method for watering your plants that seems to work best is bottom watering. This method is straightforward. All you need is water, a bathtub or large bin/bucket, and your roses in a flower pot with drainage holes.
You’ll want to fill your bathtub or another large container with a few inches of water. Next, take your miniature roses in their pot and place the pot in the water. This method allows the water to get soaked up through the bottom.
Bottom watering seems to work best for many plants with roots that stay closer to the bottom of the flower pot, such as those of a mini rose plant.
This method allows for the right amount of water to be soaked up and saturate all the soil without the possibility of overwatering your miniature roses. You’ll want to let your plant soak up water for about 10-30 minutes before removing it.
Best Types of Mini Indoor Roses
We’ve already discussed how mini roses come in various shades of color. However, different types of mini roses aren’t merely different because of their varying petal color. They also vary in terms of size and blooming period.
Here are some of the prettiest miniature roses that would be perfect for your home:
Cupid’s Kiss
This type of mini rose has small clusters of pale pink flowers. Yellow stamens stick out of the center, and this mini rose grows bigger than others. It can get up to 4 feet (1.2 m) tall and continuously blooms throughout the season.
Empty Pockets
The flowers on this rose plant are bright pink and ruffled. These flowers are more medium-sized and bear a slight fragrance. These mini roses got their name from their rose breeder because he bred this plant after his divorce and always used to say, “all he had was empty pockets.”
Popcorn Roses
These miniature roses sport double-layered white petals with bright yellow stamen in the middle. The petals resemble freshly popped popcorn. However, they don’t smell like popcorn in the slightest. These flowers bloom all season, and the shrub can grow up to 12-18 inches (30-46 cm) tall.
Sun Sprinkles
These award-winning mini roses boast double petals and are bright yellow. The petals and how they are arranged resemble a bright yellow sun, hence the name. The flowers grow two and a half inches wide and bloom from spring to fall nonstop. These flowers also give off a unique sweet-spicy fragrance.
Conclusion
When temperatures are at their highest in the summertime, you should water your indoor mini roses once a day. If it is early on in the summer and still below 75 °F (24 °C), water them every other day. In the wintertime, mini roses only need to be watered about once a week.
Bottom watering is an excellent way to water your mini roses. However, if you choose to pour from the top, ensure you do not get water on the leaves and petals. Follow other care instructions discussed here to keep your miniature roses healthy and blooming.
