Please help me with my brown thumb

I have been given a yellow rose plant as a gift but I’m hopeless with plants. My parents both died within the past 2 years and we have their ashes scattered on two potted yellow rose plants at my sister’s house so this gift means a lot.


The plant is healthy & flowering but I think it needs repotting into a bigger pot. I don’t even know if it’s a miniature variety or just a young plant. Hopefully the attached photos will help. As far as I understand, I shouldn’t repot it whilst it’s flowering. It will live it’s life in a pot as I live in an apartment but it can be outside although I only get about 5 hours of direct sunlight a day. I live in the Mediterranean and today is 26 degrees where it will stay for a couple of weeks before getting cooler. It never freezes here but we do get terrible rain & wind storms (I can bring the plant in when necessary).


The advice I need please is:

When should I repot the plant into a bigger pot? Is the new pot I have big enough?

I will put stones in the bottom and use potting soil; do I soak it afterwards?

I don’t want it to get too big so will keeping it in the new pot keep it small or will I need to repot into a larger one in the future?

How often do I water and feed it?

Any general tips to avoid it’s premature demise? The photo on the window sill was taken today.


Thanks to everyone.

 

Hello Jacquiec, welcome to GC I would guess from the size of the leaves that your rose isn't a miniature, so it will appreciate being potted on into a pot a bit bigger than it's current one. It will also do better in a soil/compost mix. I doubt you'll find John Innes No.2 here in France but it's easy enough to mix your own. You need a 20l bag of terre vegetale, a 20l bag of peat-based compost such as Algoflash or Fertiligene and some Osmocote slow-release fertiliser granules or small boxes of Sang and Corne. I think that those are the minimum quantities available here. Thoroughly mix the soil and compost 50/ 50 and then add a couple of tablespoonsful of Osmocote or the same quantity of a mix of corne and sang. Make sure that the rootball of your rose is well-soaked before potting on, and water it in well. Top up with soil mix as it will sink a bit
Roses are bone hardy, so no need to worry about leaving it out over winter. Wind won't bother it either until spring, when it starts to put out new leaves. A bit of shade and shelter will protect the new leaves. You'll know when it's roots are out into the soil mix by it's happy, vigorous growth. Three ways of knowing when it needs water....stick your finger into the soil or lift the pot (allowing for the stones in the bottom!) If it feels light it needs a good, slow soak. When you gain experience, you'll know by looking at the leaves if it's in need of water. They'll look less shiny and green than usual. Hope this helps, but if there's anything else you need to know, this is the place to find out

 

Thanks so much for your reply. Do you think the new blue pot in the photo is big enough? Also, is it ok to move it to a new pot now whilst it's in flower? It's been in flower since I received it 2 weeks ago.

 

Hello again. I guessed that it was sitting in it's new pot It's a bit on the big side to do in one leap. You'd need to be very careful about not overwatering so it's not sitting in a big quantity of soggy compost. If you can re-pot it in something a bit smaller that would be ideal, but if not then make sure that you water the existing rootball rather than the surrounding soil and don't leave it sitting in a saucer of water

 

Thanks a lot for your help; I'll repot it today