Just reading these posts made me laugh.. I am new to the Garden web... but looks like a great place to learn.. I also have bought some of those pretty miniture roses at W/M they are just irristable huh? anyway.. after i got home i started to read up about them.. I have 10 plants and I am excited to see what will happen.. so far they are looking pretty healthy.. i think the key will be to keep them pruned back to the height i want them.. cause all i have read say they get like 4' tall. anyway. HAPPY SPRING TO EVERYONE..

I don't get what greensand is, a chemical or just a type of sand, I'm not adverse to either, just asking. Spread it on top of the soil or it in or put it around the roses? I currently have lots of blooms on all my new minis with the exception of a couple and they have new growth. Apparently they don't know they're not supposed to grow in alkaline soil. I did get some sulfer and mixed it lightly in the soil about 4 to 6 inches in about 6 to 8" from each of the roses, I was afraid of disturbing my roses though. They are doing so well. I don't feel they're fragile, just I'm enjoying the heck out of them, they're not sick they don't have any diseases, they don't have aphids or anything else knock on wood, if it's not broke don't fix it.... I am interested in what you're saying. It makes sense, it's what I was doing, I quit fertilizing the next to last week in Sept. so that all this new growth would slowly stop and harden up whenever we stop having warm weather. You're right, nothing I do seems to change the soil. You're correct. Thanks for talking with me, can you tell me more what you're meaning about this sand?? I'd given up on this thread. Leslie

I had Renata in a pot for a couple of years. It didn't make it through last years polar winter for me though. You shouldn't have any such problems in your zone. It was a very pretty mini that bloomed frequently and with good sized flowers with lots of petals. I live in black spot central so it did spot for me but I don't think you have the same disease pressures that I have so it may do much better for you. You said you think it is too cold? How cold are we talking about? Roses are fine outside in any temperatures above freezing and do not suffer permanent damage until temps go below about 28 degrees. So if you won't get that low it will be best outside. Roses are not house plants and you stand as much chance of losing it inside as you do outside but for other reasons. Roses need SUN! Even in a sunny window they do not get adequate light. For good blooming they need about 8 hours of direct sunlight. And they like high humidities. You don't keep your home anywhere near humid enough to keep it happy. Roses are always happiest outside! Follow Ken's advice on acclimating it to the outside. It's very good advice. As I said earlier, roses need a lot of sun to grow and bloom well so you need to get it into full sun as soon as possible. Don't worry about rain. Even in a sheltered spot if a rose is prone to black spot it will spot, rain or not. Besides, roses love rain! They like at least an inch of water per week and those humidities I was talking about before. In your hot summer the key thing you'll need to do is keep it watered! Otherwise a shot of fertilizer once in a while and it should give you many years of beautiful blooms! One tip, DO NOT try to separate the canes in the store pot. When you go to transplant it into that gallon size pot you may find that there are 3 or 4 rooted cuttings in the pot. That's how they get these to look so full and pretty for the florist trade. A lot of people try and separate the cuttings when they repot but I don't recommend it. I'm pretty experienced at roses and cuttings and such and I've found that I almost always lose them all when I try to separate them. It isn't worth it if you want to keep this rose alive. It's much better to pot it on as one plant with as little disturbance to the root ball as possible and wait for it to grow up and then take cuttings of your own to root if you want to make more plants.

I have a modest amount of experience with mini's. I don't live in your zone and I'm pretty sure that my growing conditions are different than yours so take what I say with a big grain of salt. I have grown Rise 'n' Shine. It's a rose I loved. It was run over a total of four times by people turning around in our drive or workmen who came to fix some problems with our house and it didn't survive the last time. I tried moving it twice but it didn't help the rose and didn't stop it from being run over again, either. It opens a nice sunshine yellow but after opening, it fades to a pale yellow. It has a slight fragrance but it wouldn't be the reason for growing this rose. Mine seemed to bloom in flushes. I had it planted by Sweet Chariot before the final accident and it was a nice combination. I also recommend Sweet Chariot if it will grow in your area. It opens a violet/pink that has a fragrance that wafts. For me, it blooms like there's no tomorrow in the spring, scattered blooms when it's hot and then another nice flush in the fall. The bush itself has a nice form, sort of a weeping or vase shape. It has thorns but not too many and they're manageable. Rosy Dawn is also a nice red and white rose with a touch of yellow in its center that fades to white after being open awhile. It isn't spotless for me and it may lose a few leaves to blackspot when it's especially bad. Yet it never seems to be affected by it and never stops blooming. It's a tall rose for a mini and grows taller than wide for me. It may also have a light fragrance but not a reason to grow this rose. I have a few more that might grow where you are but have had them for less than two years and don't feel that I can comment on them yet.