Hi Jenkins, In some ways Petrushka has a point. This plant is almost dead. It's gonna be awhile before you see any success and there is a chance that the plant will alternately die. This is really a matter of how badly do you want to save the plant. The question you need to ask yourself is whether this a plant has any emotional significance to it. If it's just a plant that you picked up at the grocery store and now it's not doing very well, I would be inclined to agree with Petrushka and suggest you throw it out. Then you can go to the store and get a nice African violet that you can enjoy right now. With the new plant I would be inclined to put it in a better soil though. On the other hand I've seen plants like this one survive. But you will need to make the changes that I suggested very quickly for it to have any chance at all. Oh, and I forgot one thing. After you re-pot it, put the whole thing in a plastic bag for about three weeks. This will give the root system and plant a chance to recover from the manhandling that it has had and will get when you re-pot it. DO NOT put the bag in direct sunlight! You will cook the plant. If you do buy a new plant and put the thing in better soil, I would suggest you do the following. Take the plant out of the pot and break off as much of the old soil as you can. Don't worry too much about losing some roots. Then make your soil as I have suggested above and re-pot your violet. Remember to use a pot 1/3 the diameter of the plant . Now the root system has been damaged by the soil change so you need to give it a chance to recover from that. Put the plant and pot in a plastic bag for 10 days. That will give the roots a chance to recover and multiply. When removing the bag do so over a period of three days. First day open the bag a little bit. The second day open it a little bit more and you can take it out of the bag on the third day. Many people don't bother with this step but the plant will like it. Larry

I started out years ago with handwritten markers next to the roses and a drawing of the garden bed with the roses marked on it. Then I gradually increased until I needed a looseleaf binder to hold a page for each rose I had planted, and finally I graduated to an Excel spread sheet. I still do the hand drawn map of each bed (there are now over a dozen distinct areas in my garden so that many maps) and I still have markers next to each rose although now I use a labeler to write out the name. I can identify from memory almost every one of my 200 roses. (But now and then I have brain fade and I have to bend down to check the marker, LOL!) The spreadsheet just helps me track where I bought the rose, own root or grafted, what year, fragrance, size, disease resistance and other info I might find useful.

I've been growing about 40 roses (mostly DA's, about 1/4 of them OGR's, and then just about 5 or 6 are HT's) in large 24" terra cotta pots for about 7 yrs since I rented a house. I finally bought my first home last spring on a huge lot, and will finally be planting all the roses in a new designed garden I'm planning, next month. They have always performed great for me, but do take a lot of watering especially during the summer. At least I thought they were great until I compared them to my mother's English garden that I had planted 2 yrs ago for her as her 50th birthday present. Her DA's grew much faster then mine did and bloom larger and more profusely than mine ever had. So yes you can grow roses just fine in pots, but I really can't wait to get mine in the ground and see what they can really do!! Brian This post was edited by ocbrian on Sun, Jan 18, 15 at 21:45

This is what I do, and I never lose any roses, and it doesn't matter what zone the roses are rated at: I overwinter my 50 roses in large pots in my garage with the 2 cars. LOL Three car garage. Here's what I do: - I keep deadheading until it's time for them to go into the garage. - I keep feeding them and watering well until it's time for them to go into the garage. -Then when the temperature gets to be about -6C I cut all the leaves off at the point they join the heavier stem. I don't cut any height off of the plant. - At this point I water them really, really well and move them by dolly into the garage. - I cover them with thick blankets, layers of flannel sheets or sleeping bags when the outside temp gets colder than -20C. - My garage is insulated. - Then I leave them alone in the dark. Doesn't matter if the garage door is opened and closed. - Around January, I look and see if they're dried out a bit. - If they are, then I water each rose 1/2 cup. - I repeat this every month. - As the weather starts warming up, I take off some blankets - so they don't start making new growth in the heat. - Any new growth should be broken off as you would thorns - just push them to the side, and they'll fall off. - If you have only a few pots - you can start taking them outside during the day when it gets about 5 C outside. Bring them inside until the night temperature doesn't drop below 2C. - Remember to water really well once you take them outside. - If you have a lot - then either wait until night tempreatures are 2C before you take them outside - or cover them with blankets at night. ----------------- This winter was really warm, so I didn't cover them at all. Hope this helps. :) Carol