My roses are not happy

I had some roses from mum's garden when she passed away two years ago, they are in planters. They were fine for the first two seasons but this year they do not look happy at all.

They look very sad in fact, lots of buds coming but the bush just does not look healthy. Some pics of one bush below.



Any suggestions please?

Until two years ago i was not a gardener at all, i'm a complete noob at it but we decided to 'green' the small garden up a bit and have added lots more plants, generally with good success so far. Below is our main planter which seems ok so far, plants went in early last year and this year it has really gone nuts

 

Not a rose grower myself but roses in pots need more attention than those in the ground, have you been feeding, pruning them? Have you checked to see if they need repotting? Best I can come up with. There's lots of people on here with vast amounts of knowledge and I'm sure someone will come along and give you much more information.

 

I cut them back in winter, not sure if i did it hard enough though. They have been in the same pots for some years, about 12x12x12" so not sure how to tell if repotting needed.

Have been feeding them and just got some liquid rose food to try although the NPK makeup is not that far from what i have been using.

 

Hi there David! The size of the pot for the type of rose is important. 12 inch/30 cm is too small. A shrub rose needs a v big pot. Mine are in 60cm x 60cm x 70cm(H) which was minimum David Austen recommended. If they are miniature roses 45cm x 45cm x 45cm is ok. The potting mix should be John Innes no.3 with about a third manure/garden compost added and lots of gravel at bottom for drainage. Also add granular feed and mycorrhizal fungi. Signs that pot is too small that I have seen before are buds not developing into full blooms. Not sure why the leaves are brown at edges and curling like that - could be lots of things. Did you have aphids? Leaves are v shiny - look sticky?
Anyway the plants have healthy new growth, and even a very unhappy rose will revive quickly when given what it needs at the roots! So I'm sure these will be fine if you repot them. I learnt all this the hard way It is not the ideal time of year for repotting, but I would still do it (as gently as possible) now. After all, this is the time of year for planting out roses grown in pots, and I'm sure you'll get a good display by end of summer if they are repeaters.

 

Thanks for the information, i'll look at getting bigger pots

 

Shrub roses can be planted in pots, but they need to be bigger than this. My research when I planted mine suggested minimum was 60cm depth and width was pretty important, too. If David could recall how big the plants were before he moved them...

Not the best quality pic, but it shows my roses and the pots I use - 60x60x70 pots. Perennial blue (rambler) - 3 years old, and Lady of Shallot (shrub/small climber), 5 years old. I had to retrain LoS against the fence this year because just too vigorous as a shrub! But now she's getting a bit swamped by Pblue. Anyway, the point being, you can successfully grow many shrub and even *some* rambler and climber varieties in pots this size. Big pots = happy roses

I do dread ever having to change all the compost though, which some people recommend you do every few years. I have just added manure layer in winter so far. I also feed regularly through blooming season.

 

Nice roses there

Mine are all very small types, biggest is about 2' tall at most. Mum always had them in these tubs as there was no real soil/garden so have been in them for probably more than 5 years now.

 

Thanks The perennial blue smell amazing right now. I only have a small yard and the scent just fills it.

If your roses do not have the potential to grow so big, I'd go for 45 depth. I have Warm Welcome in 45x45 which is a miniature climber. It could also just be that they need a change of compost? Maybe try that first and then change the pots in the winter if they don't perk up again.