Yes ma'am, Annabeth. The yellow genes in Teas and the associated Tea-Noisettes produces some wonderful plants, but they can be SLOW right out of the gate and they HATE hard pruning. They, in particular, require all that stored food in the thick, old wood to explode into the growth you expect from them. It takes them what seems like an overly long time to create the roots and produce the wood they require. Add cooler temps, reduced sun, perhaps drainage issues and any disease or insect inhibitors and you have some real performance issues. Personally, while I love the idea of own root plants, for those types budding IS preferable because of the increased, artificial vigor the root stock adds to the mix. Even budded, they improve and benefit from the TPN treatment. Keeping them canned while you do it speeds things along greatly due to the increased cellular activity of warm roots and warmed sap, as well as the increased bacterial activity in warmer soil. From what I've read, most soil bacteria are fairly dormant in soil temps less than 70 degrees F, so the higher heat (as long as it isn't to the cooking levels) of canned roots helps push them even faster than when in the ground. That's also why standards on suitable stocks (read IXL where the sap flow is tremendous, as opposed to Huey, which is today's standard, and whose flow rate significantly slows as the trunks get longer), tend to grow a lot faster and flower earlier and often longer, than traditional bushes. Putting something weaker on an IXL trunk can push the dickens out of it! Susan, what would I do to push something like I did now? Whatever the size pot the plant is in now, presuming the roots are nearing or have reached the point of benefiting from being up sized, I'd go to the next size pot. I don't like jumping sizes because the roots seldom knit the whole together sufficiently to prevent the root ball from disintegrating when either up sized or planted. Going from a one to a two, then to a three or five, followed by a seven then perhaps a fifteen gallon, gives the roots enough time and warmth to infiltrate the soil ball and create a tight whole with good structural integrity. I hate when I tip the ball out of the pot and the danged thing bare roots on me. I would (and am) use whatever potting soil I find beneficial for my climate and gardening style. Here, because of the high evaporation rate, I use Moisture Control Miracle Grow. I like the timed release fertilizer in it, though be aware that time released anything, releases faster in higher heat. That's why they print "up to three months" on the labels. Make the soil hotter and it leaches out and breaks down faster. Pot the plant in the next size larger can in the soil you prefer. I like to mix organic and inorganic fertilizers. Organics feed the soil, inorganics feed the plant quicker and the additional nitrogen feeds the active soil bacteria so it doesn't rob nitrogen from the plant when it needs it most. Mixing them gets the soil cooking, allowing both the plant to make use of all the nutrients as well as the soil bacteria to do its thing and digest the organics, turning them into the salts which are absorbed by the plant roots. Nitrogen leaches from the soil in water. Potassium and phosphorus tend to stay put where they are, requiring roots to find them for absorption. With any heat, you should start noticing growth pretty much all over the plant in fairly short order. Keeping the flower buds pinched off stimulates an even higher level of growth activity. After several weeks, if the plant is continuing to push the growth, you might consider using a diluted foliar feeding of liquid fertilizer. It can be fish emulsion, Miracle Grow or whatever you prefer. If the instructions state to use a tablespoon per gallon every two weeks, consider using half that strength at twice the frequency. Say half tablespoon in a gallon, weekly. Plants will absorb nutrients through their leaves and canes as well as through the roots. I found in the Valley heat, hosing the plants off to rinse off dust and pollution, watering them well and allowing them to drain and air dry, then following that with a foliar feed pushed them like crazy. In that climate, at that time of the year, diseases weren't an issue. A film of water on the leaf surface won't cause disease. It can actually help prevent them. The spores germinate on dry leaf surfaces, in the presence of humidity when the temperatures are conducive for them to germinate. Rinsing off your foliage can actually help hydrate the plant and remove residues from smog, dirt and other sprays. Some of the most glorious foliage I ever grew were in the old Newhall garden where evaporation was extreme. There was constant wind, constant sun, high temperatures and without the extra water, leaves tended to be smaller and more stressed looking. Running an overhead, oscillating sprinkler on them for a good soak resulted in enormous, clean, healthy foliage on husky, amazing plants. Yes, I know, not everyone has those conditions and these days, none of us can justify nor afford that kind of water. Adjust it to what is appropriate for your conditions and water situation. The hotter, dustier and drier your garden, the more the plants will benefit from overhead watering. Just do it early enough to allow the added humidity to dry before night and you should see benefits from it. I'd had spider mite problems for the longest time when still in the Granada Hills garden and I read and followed all the Organic Gardening suggestions to the letter. Marigolds not only did NOT repel them, all the marigold plants were tented with their webs. Breaking all the rules, eliminating the plants they seemed to prefer and drenching the plants tops and bottoms with a water wand cleared the miserable things up in short order. The roses seemed to love it, too. You have your plant up sized, in the soil of your choice and are feeding it with your food (s) choice. Place it where you feel it receives the best air flow, light, heat, wind protection and can benefit from your focused attention to make sure it has the water it needs. Permitting it to dry out will bring all activity to a halt and can result in parts of the plant dying back, which you know from your normal gardening. If you're trying to create a spectacular plant in a shortened time, it will require more of your attention. A few minutes a day pouring over it to check its progress and attending to any new needs shouldn't add enormously to your gardening time. It will teach you a great deal while you're at it, too. Watching what the plant does in response to what you do is quite educational and a lot of fun! You may stop this treatment when you determine it is appropriate for what you want/need the plant to be as well as when you feel is appropriate for your climate. I can almost do it year round here in Encino as we will never have snow and very, very seldom have any weather cold enough to do any real damage. More severe climates will require tweaking timing and amounts to adjust for the beginning and end of their growing season. It serves no good to keep providing all the resources necessary to push all this lovely growth when a killing frost or several feet of snow are expected while it's still soft. That is pretty much what I did at Limberlost and The Outdoor Room to produce those specimen quickly. You may do any part of it, or all of it to suit your time, energy, interest, checkbook, etc. It does work and it's a very fun, interesting experiment which will teach you more than you ever expected it to. You'll be taking one (or more) of your plants and basically putting them under a microscope. You'll see concentrated results from your actions as the plants respond faster to all you do to and for them. All you're really doing is what specialty growers do to produce the photogenic examples to entice people to buy their wares. If you expect to hold an open garden, or have guests planned for a party or wedding in the garden later in the season, you can really push the maturity of points of interest this way. Without a greenhouse, it's the best way to produce these kinds of results. And, it CAN be a whole lot of fun! (I know, I need to get a life! LOL!) Kim

Dale........ When I first started growing miniatures, it was in southern California where there is no real winter. Since then, I have moved to the mountains of northern California. The first year I moved here, I was gifted with more than 60 miniature and miniflora roses in April 2004. Since I was working on the house I just purchased, I potted the roses up in the largest pots I could find because I didn't know a thing about over-wintering roses and figured that it would take longer for soil in a large pot to freeze than a small pot. It turns out that was a very wise decision. Some of those roses have been in pots for four winters. So far, I haven't lost one rose to winter even tho'temps have gotten down to the low teens one winter. (Most of the time we can expect low 20s) All of these gift roses came in 2" to 4" pots and, like I said in my other post, I just put those tiny little plants into the big pots. The roses were full size by the end of summer. Then I had to learn about over-wintering roses in pots because I didn't have time that first year to plant anything. I suggest a spring order. Now that I have experienced over-wintering roses in pots, I know it's easier to work with a plant that has already developed a root system. You can pot up in your new roses in smaller pots than I did, if you plant to put the roses into the ground in the fall. Mad-gallica - Micro-minis might get lost in the grass, but I have tucked them into the rose bed in front of larger roses and they can really add to the look of the bed. I have also planted them in a cluster of small plants in one bed and it seems to work. There are miniature roses that can grow to 5' tall... those plants do not get lost and can be quite lovely. And, of course there are roses in both the miniature and mini-flora classes that are taller than the micro-minis and shorter than the big mini roses. Deb and Dave Boyd, who often post here, have a garden listing on HMF. You might want to check out some of his photos of minis. He grows several of my favorites in a zone that is similar to yours. Lyn Here is a link that might be useful: Deb & Dave Boyd's Garden on HMF

Your roses look to be about 1/2 dead at this time. The watering for container roses is insufficient for newly planted bare roots. If the containers have good drainage, you should be watering them about 2-3 times a week. You say you used a 2:1 mix of potting soil and perlite. Potting soil should be planting mix and less of the perlite, if any. Roses need a sandy loam growing environment. Potting mix is for houseplants, not garden plants. Cut off the dead ends of the bushes with sharp bypass shears to 1/4 inch about the new growth or a burgundy bud-eye. The cane damage is canker dieback and is often found on bare roots that are stressed for water. The ceramic containers are about the right size, I think. They should be about 24" x 24" by 30" deep for a large rose to grow to mature size in two years. Rose bushes are frost-tolerant; immature rose leaves and blooms are not. Remove any damaged leafsets. If possible the roses need to be in rising sun until about 12N in the summer then can be shaded from the afternoon sun. Roses need at least 4-6 hours of early sun in order to thrive. Too much sun and they'll bake in the container. Too little sun and they'll have twiggy growth without much bloom. Hope this information helps, Jeannie Cochell, Master Rosarian, Phoenix Rose Society

Just a few weeks ago I was asking similar question on another forum, but my newly planted (fall 2015 ) plants have quite a few buds - 2 to 7 with everything in between in fact on different ones. One bud is perfectly fine, a few one are fine as well, just cut the flowers off right after they are done so they do not produce seed. I previously had plants with as many as 3 and they were fine afterwards. I got rid of some of my buds by the way - the most numerous ones.