The good news is that this is most likely a warm climate rose, so you live in the perfect place for it. The bad news is that ROSES ARE NOT HOUSE PLANTS, period. However, the bad news is easy to solve! Put it outside in filtered sun immediately!. The air in our homes is WAY too dry for roses, they don't get enough light, and many other problems. It will die if you leave it indoors. After it is outside in filtered light (it should remain outdoors forever), wait a couple of weeks so that it can get used to being outside, and used to getting some light. Then you can move it into full sun. DO NOT feed it, do not spray it with anything - just make sure it gets enough water. Right now it is trying to grow roots. Oh, I just had a thought - is it in a plastic pot? I have had baby roses die in plastic pots in full sun in the hot summer simply because the pot got too hot and they literally cooked. If that is a plastic pot, I would leave the rose in filtered light for a bit longer, and then get a much much bigger clay pot and put it in that. Then you could put it into full sun. Then just leave it alone for 1-2 months. When it recuperates and starts growing, you can feed it according to the instructions. Nip off any flower buds you see while it is still tiny - it will grow better faster without having to support flowers. When it gets maybe three times as big as it is now, I would plant it in the ground (in full sun) - sounds as if you have other roses outside, and know how to do that. Good luck! When it blooms please please post pictures of it on here, and we can try and figure out "who" it is. Jackie

As rooftopbklyn said, sometimes they'll root on their own with no soil. And occasionally, I get surprised and find a little plantlet that has grown from a fallen leaf that I did not see. The leaf is already gone! These guys got rained on, but since they were already in gritty mix they survived. I would not water this heavily, but I do mist some of the leaf sprouts. I figure if there are roots it is OK to water a little. And this guy held on to that leaf for almost a year! I didn't think it would ever fall off! It never did shrivel up. It got water with the rest of the plant in this bowl. So I guess there are many ways to accomplish the same thing. I have never successfully grown an Echeveria from leaves.

I'd say Silica is correct about the ratio of light to soil temperature. This is only meant to simplify the balance of the relationship between leaves and roots. Leaves use light to start the process of making food. The leaves will tell the roots that it needs all the ingredients of the photosynthesis "recipe" to finish making food. So in normal ideal outdoor conditions, the roots provide and send up water+nutrients needed to complete the food being made in the leaves. Imagine that to citrus roots 55F and lower is considered to be like frostbite to the roots. The roots cannot do anything when the soil is cooler than 55F. It cannot absorb water, it cannot function at all and so it basically sleeps to conserve its energy. However if the leaves are having a blast above the soil and getting a sunny Hawaii vacation thanks to strong indoor lighting, it will try to make food. The leaves cannot stop itself from reacting to light. When light hits the leaves and warms the leaves enough for it to function, the leaves will react to light no matter what and must start photosynthesis. But if the roots are too cold, it cannot send up the missing ingredients because it will be in hibernation. Eventually the leaves will lose moisture since it is in active mode. While the leaves are active and losing moisture, the roots are inactive and cannot send water up to hydrate the active leaves. Like running a marathon without any sustenance. The tree will sacrifice it's own leaves if it cannot provide itself the water or nutrients that is needed to continue with the process. Sorry if my post was long. I feel that it can be simple to understand if I try to compare it to thing we already understand. So to answer your question Mike, when the tree is getting plenty of sunlight that means leaf activity goes up and therefore root activity must also go up in order to keep the balance in their relationship. In order to make the root function as much as the leaves, temperatures of the soil surrounding the roots must increase. If root temperatures (and therefore root activity) cannot be increased because heating is too expensive, then the activity levels of both root and leaves must be in balance. Either the root or leaves will have to follow the other. If root activity cannot go up to parallel the leaves then inevitably is it up to the leaves to follow the roots footsteps and also be very inactive. That means reducing light levels to reduce leaf activity for the sake of matching the cold/inactive roots. I think of the leaves and roots as two parts of one living creature. It cannot live without one or their other. Both parts must follow each other because they are two halves of a whole. One is the pie crust and the other the pie filling. You cannot have a pie with a very thick crust but 2 teaspoons of filling and vice versa! It just wouldn't make any sense. You would have a very disfigured and unappetizing pie! They must both contribute the same amount to create a balanced and delicious food! I can get creative when I need to when it comes to explaining things so if this still wasn't easy to understand at all, feel free to let me know. I hope this helped anyone confused about the whole roots and leaves matter

Even small leaves could propagate - depends if they are healthy, and what plant they are from. Some just won't grow, but most do. Some ppl propagated succulents even from small leaves on flower stalk - I never tried. Some succulents will drop leaves very easily, others are more 'resistant'. It is not easy to judge how hard or not did you brush it. If stressed from too much water, leaves could fall off easily. But there could be other reasons. I would definitely consider water-retention of your potting soil: it may be too water-retaining. What I see is lots of residue from too much watering of the soil that may contain lots of peat: just inside of the pot. I could be wrong...but would use fast draining mix, and check how dry or wet is the soil deep down in the pot before watering. Depending on potting mix and temperatures, plant could e watered every few days, or much less frequently. And, it may be good idea to use more mix when potting succulents, so they 'sit' higher in the pot.