Any advice on how to revive my roses would be appreciated - I recently bought a pot of four miniature roses of some sort (um, they have white petals, that's about all I can tell you - I am very amateur indeed).

They seemed sturdy enough, but I did repot them because the pot was tiny - I used an all-purpose compost (was that wrong?) and followed the instructions carefully. They were fine for a few days, but having left the house for one night, I came back to find that most of the heads were drooping, two flowers had died completely and the rest have brown patches on them.

I noticed that the compost was completely dry - is this the reason why they look so ill? And if so, now that I'm back to resume watering, will they revive themselves or is extra help needed? Or have they had it? As a weather reference, I live in South London, and I keep the pot on or by the doorstep outside.

I'm very much a beginner in these matters so any help at all would be great.

(I also posted this on the 'roses' bit of the site, but it seemes very quiet there so I'm trying here)

Mercy

In article , Mercy Mercy.1teu80@garden
banter.co.uk writes

I noticed that the compost was completely dry - is this the reason why
they look so ill?

Yes, almost certainly.

And if so, now that I'm back to resume watering, will
they revive themselves or is extra help needed?

Possibly. Keep them out of the sun, possibly spray the leaves with water
as well as watering the soil. Stand the pot in a deep bowl of water for
a couple of hours to make sure the root ball is soaked through.

They will either recover or go brown and crispy.

Even if the leaves go brown and crispy, you may still get some new
shoots appearing, in which case they will have had a massive set back
but will be OK next year.

Meanwhile, treat it as a learning experience - you do need to make
arrangements for watering when you go away, and new compost dries out
very quickly, so do any repotting when you're around to look after the
plants.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Thanks for the reply. It does seem to be perking up just from being watered. I did ask for it to be watered, but that never happened... I shall not be asking again... The leaves look very well, actually, it's just the stems and petals. I've also been advised to cut off the blooms so the rest of the plant can benefit from the energy.

Much appreciated!

Mercy