I use a mix of amend, compost, and either Mastery Nursery Gardeners choice or the Dr Earth one as it states it can be used for large outdoor containers. It also depends how much rain you get in winter and if you plan to keep them in pots permanently. Mine are permanent in pots. Miracle grow I have found can get quite compacted over time in my rainy zone so I have switched to the other two and every year I take out a third of the soil and add Vermonts Compost plus but you can use any compost. Here is a couple pics of my potted roses.Those are two Joseph's coat climbing roses and are only two years old in my garden. These are new this year and haven't bloomed yet as I cut both blue Girls buds off and potted them up to promote a bushier plant. Although Blue Girl doesn't have too many leaves naturally anyway. Closest to farthest is Blue for You, Blue Girl, Earth Angel, Blue Girl, and last is Heirloom. These are new eden climbing roses and I have one on either side of my archway but are training along the fence as my archway is covered with grapes and clematis. This is Earth Angel, also new and only came with three thin canes but all that shorter growth is new canes coming out from the roots. This photo is a little old as it's gotten bigger since this photo. I have many more but I don't want to bombard you with too many photos. Bonus: Sharifa Asma just opening. Not potted but still pretty.

I live in the UK and see Cordyline australis everywhere. Indivisa isn't so common though, I know there are some in very wet parts of the UK like some gardens in Northern Ireland and Devon. Occasionally we have a cold winter and there's a mass die off inland, but it's no big deal really. Most come back very strongly from the roots, especially if they were a large, mature plant before they died in the winter they reach their former size in a couple of years and come back very fast from a strong root system with fresh, new growth. What actually kills them is when you see well-meaning but misguided people wrapping them up in winter with bubble wrap and frost fleece. It's the worst thing to do in my opinion, these things hate to be soaking wet in winter and the frost protection people put round them just makes them rot. I don't protect my ones that are in the ground. If they die back they dieback, the soil doesn't freeze deep enough in Britain to kill them in most cases. Container ones i just put in a cold greenhouse to keep them from dying from the damp of winter which is the real cause of death. I have noticed a lot of variation in the plants grown here. Some are very narrow leaved, but mature plants are usually wide leaved, not sure if the leaves get wider over time or different varieties are tougher. I suspect the narrow leaved plants are the "Atlantic green" variety whereas the wider leaved ones are generic australis with maybe some indivisa introgression, although according to something i read somewhere the narrow leaved varieties are meant to be hardier. I've also never seen a mature, large plant of the red, pink or variegated varieties though i know some examples exist, they're probably less hardy and were perhaps selected from stock from the North island.

You may keep them unless they are spotted from mites or leaf spot diseases. If your Cordyline is growing at an indistinguishable rate it will take longer for the plant to suck all the nutrients out of the browned leaves before dropping them naturally. Probably by now ( 9 months after your post) you can trim them off if they are the lower older leaves. Just know if you change anything about their culture they might bounce back to a deep maroon/brown green if they are lower leaves. A shocked cordyline will neglect to nurish 2/3 of lower leaves turning them an unattractive color but possibly without dropping them. If they are papery like papyrus then they are long dead and removing them is fine. Heck removing lower cordy leaves is always fine I'd just add a bit of nutrient solution to the next water bath and give them brighter shade for a few days. Remember low humidity will brown leaf edges working its way into the center. None of this applies if they are new leaves. I hope to see an update on how the color is now. I'm suspicious that the first post is actually 'kiwi' or 'pete's rainbow". Let me know if I didn't make sense or miscommunicated. My miss Andrea needs a humidifier and to be cool but my red sister doesn't and likes warmth. Hope that helps. I'm z7a in Nashville and all my Cordylines are indoor specimens that enjoy co-potting with tropical epiphytic vines for humidity and awkward small talk.

I can relate to that! :-) I've used so many different materials to make tags with over the years... and not many seem to weather well or hang in there when attached to branches, or stuck into pots, etc. The plastic ones become brittle after time, markers fade, and forget wooden stakes which just decay along with the mulch! I finally ended up, about 8 years ago, buying a roll of aluminium flashing and some suitable metal shears to cut pieces of it into the size(s) I wanted. I borrowed my husband's tool engraver and made some nice, serviceable tags. I drilled a small hole at one end with his Dreml tool on it's little drill press stand, then used long pieces of heavy gauge wire, more like some of the thinner welding type rod, (similar to your older coat hanger material), to bend into what are doubled loops at one end to hold the tag, and sink the other end into the soil next to the plant fairly deep. One could just buy those nice metal engrave-able tags, but they're very costly. The copper ones are nice, but again, they only come so many in one package and they cost an arm and a leg! I figured it would be better to make my own. I also use the welding rod-like wire to make stakes with loops that effectively hold the leaves and flower stalks of my Amaryllis bulbs more upright in their containers while they're blooming. Again, I can buy those... but the loops are always a little small for my application, or too big, or rather costly, and I end up having to cut off half the height, anyway. Most of the tags hung in there nicely... and many are probably still there, under what are now massive ramblers that have taken over fencing, or climbed the side of the house. On the west side, we have a massive Paul's Himalayan that has taken over part of the porch and a doggie door with an extension exit that was built onto the house to help mitigate dirt from paws and the entrance of cold winds, etc... and that moves right into a row of alternating Rugosa Rubra and Alba roses that run along a fenceline that contains a small herd of goats. The goats keep the roses trimmed on their side. :-) Those are the hips I use for making jelly with. They mix nicely with organic Fuji apples we grow elsewhere on the property. It's a farmette, you might say. Not big enough to label a full fledged farm, but not small enough to call a "city lot", either. My husband and I actually help care-take the property for its elderly owners, but we're reaching retirement, ourselves. We're very slowly paring down our material possessions and readying for a move to live with our son and his family. I plan on taking some nice rose starts with me, along with all the knowledge I've gained. We hope to live out in the country with our family, grow an organic garden and small orchard, and teach our grandchildren about self-sufficiency and living close to the land. :-) If you have the ability and tools, you may want to look around your local home center type stores, like Home Depot, Lowe's, or Menard's, and find items that will make better, larger, longer lasting tags for your roses. I had thought about going over the engraving work with brightly colored paint or some other permanent type craft paint pen meant for outdoor use... which might make the names easier to see or read... like in a white or bright yellow or other color, but I never got around to it. I'm sorry... I do get carried away. I love getting up early and using my quiet time to visit these forums while having my coffee. Happy Gardening!