Hello everyone,

I honestly just wanted to share this as a sort of reflection.

I bought some miniature roses about a month ago from a grocery store and I was super excited to finally have my own rose, but it wasn't doing the best...
A few weeks ago I realized what I was sold was actually 8 different roses stuffed together.

I separated them, hoping they would survive and do well and potentially even give them away to family/friend or sell them for cheap
Unfortunately, that's not what happened.

I have a tendency to overwater especially in this situation because I had thought they were drying out
Additionally, I bought new pots but completely forgot to check their drainage holes which were extremely small meaning the water wasn't draining well
Adding on to that, the soil I was using wasn't the greatest, it was very heavy.
Finally, the nail in the coffin, I was watering the roses at night time and the water would remain stagnant in the cold night.

All these things added up and all 8 of the roses got root rot and today I dug them up and washed the roots and discovered the rot and it was unsalvageable.

I 100% believe that they could have all survived with the proper conditions.
It's very disappointing and saddening to say the least.

However, it was at the very least a learning experience for rose care and knowing what roses want.
I know it's a very basic lesson but it's one I really needed to learn; water isn't always the solution.

If I had the chance to redo it, I would get better soil
Not water them so much, even if the top looked dry, I would give them like a week or so just to hang out
Make sure it has proper drainage/really good drainage
Water in the morning or maybe even in the full sun as I feel that would have been more effective than night time.
(I'm not sure if anyone would have better advice?)

As a last ditch attempt at trying to save any piece of the mini rose, I decided to try and propagate the healthiest canes so we'll see what happens but i'm not really expecting the greatest results given the time of year

Anyway, I know this was probably long but I felt like I needed to type this out and maybe it'll help out other rose lovers

Have a great day everyone! (:

Good story, Daniel.
It's a cautionary tail. There are many things that can go wrong with
roses (and most other things in life), but over time you will remember
stuff and good habits will form. I'm still waiting for that! David

A lesson learned that will stay with you forever. So it was a good experience. Trial and error are how we learn best. The grocery minis are a good, inexpensive way to practice.

All of those small grocery potted roses are just several sticks stuck in a pot and rooted. They are forced to bloom so they will be attractive and sell. They are meant to be like florist roses and, once the blooms die, tossed out. But they are real roses and with time and patience to grow them out can be planted in the garden. I don't try and separate them any more. Their root systems are so small and fragile that I found I lost all the roots just trying to get them apart. I just transplant them as is into the ground now.