Right on the border of zone 6 and 7 in Northwest Arkansas. A few days after getting it, I re-potted it into a pot full of gritty mix, with a layer of pine bark mulch on top. Watered with a weak mixture of Foliage Pro once, and hose water once. Our tap water ph is between 6.5 and 7 according to the meter I have. Weather went from a few days of overcast drizzle to a couple days of hot and sunny, and back to drizzle again. It's placed on the southwest side of the house.

Hi, It could be both. But they do like to be kept moist, so I dont think thats it. They are very susceptible to spider mites indoors. You should be able to see them clearly by looking closely at the leaves & underneath the leaves. You will see little webs and small red/orange dots on them-those are the mites. They are very hard to treat, you will need a powerful fungicide. Follow the directions on the bottle and follow up if needed. If you dont have mites, let the rose go another day or 2 without water. You may also want to keep it on a moist pebble tray for humidity, but ONLY if you dont have mites. More humidity means more pests. Minis are just difficult to grow indoors for any length of time. Good luck! Jen

In my first rose garden I planted a lot of apricot, yellow and orange roses which seemed to be particularly susceptible to blackspot. The solution was Bayers Advanced Disease Control started early in the season and repeated several times at 10 to 14 day intervals. During a dry summer I did not need to spray but with fall rains and foggy days, I also needed to spray late in the season too. I have switched over to more resistant roses. Had to say goodbye to Ebbtide, Escapade, Apricot Nectar, Honey Bouquet, and climbing Peace. Back when I started growing roses one of the older guys in the rose club told me to remove all the leaves within 12 inches of the soil, rake off the dead leaves and mulch then keep the area clean. The bushes look funny when you first do this, but boy did it help esp. with hybrid teas and grandifloras.

Rose slugs, and yes that's the cause! They can do a lot of damage. I think they go away once the weather gets really hot. On my roses I usually catch them early, then just pluck them off and squash them. They did infest one of my summer flowering plants so badly I actually had to spray the plant to get rid of them. I would just keep checking the underside of the leaves to make sure you only had one left.