Mardi Berkhouse Jones - Growing Miniature Roses

by Mardi Berkhouse Jones

Fairy Rose the name along conjures images of elfin creatures tending their diminutive gardens that burst with tiny replicas of hybrid teas, grandiflora, and floribunda roses. But miniature roses arent part of a nursery fable, they are quite real and available to gardeners willing to become enchanted by these cheerful, perfectly sculptured little gems.

The miniature rose meets all qualifications necessary to blend into our fast-paced lifestyles. They are hardy, easy to grow, long-flowering with a painters palate of colors to choose from, as well as small, compact, and truly exquisite to look at. They seem the perfect answer to a variety of gardening needs.

For instance, we are fast becoming a country of small gardeners. Condo and apartment decks have replaced the large family gardens so familiar to past generations. Also, time is at a premium. Hence, minis are the perfect answer for the limited-space gardener or the gardener on the go.

Although these little plants with their jewel-like flowers and enchanting fairy names seem fragile, they are in fact cold-hardy, versatile, and charming additions to any garden or windowsill. Minis are also portable color. Their symmetry, compactness, and abundant blossoms make them perfect for ornamental ceramic containers or redwood planters placed around the patio or pool area or put them in smaller pots and bring them indoors for a colorful centerpiece. Its also easy to picture a hanging basket spilling over with lush green foliage dotted by perky colorful blooms.

Hardier than regular roses, since they grow on their own roots (minis are not grafted as hybrid teas and floribunda), they survive winter with amazing ease. There is also no need to painstakingly prune minis. An occasional shearing is all that is necessary to keep them compact and blooming steadily.

So whether youve already been charmed by the Fairy Rose or are just wondering what all the fuss is about, this book will help you understand, care for, and perhaps fall in love with the most exquisite little jewels in the garden.

The miniature rose (Rosa chinensis Minima) is currently enjoying a resurgence of popularity. Although often thought to be a new development in the culture and hybridizing of roses, the mini has, in fact, been around long before the popular hybrid tea rose, which makes it much older than the floribunda, grandiflora, and standard, or tree rose.

Pick up any five books that detail the history of roses, and you will undoubtedly read five different stories detailing the miniature roses arrival to European society. Some rose historians claim the hybrid chinensis Minima, a dwarf of the old Rosa chinensis China Rose was found on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean by Robert Sweet and taken to England by him around 1810. Other reports place the species R. chinensis Minima in England as early as 1762. There they became known as the Lawrance Rose, named after a Miss Molly Lawrance who wrote a book on roses and published it in 1799.

Despite their rather obscure arrival on English soil, the miniature rose caught on, both in England and France, and by 1823 the tiny rose was being cultivated as a container plant called Pompon de Paris. They became the rage of French aristocracy but were mistakenly thought to be only delicate houseplants that would perish outdoors. By 1848, William Paul in England had about 15 miniature varieties for sale, and a 1906 catalog of Simon and Cochet listed 59 minis.

The miniature roses popularity died down around the turn of the century and, remarkably, were nearly lost as a species until 1917 when Colonel Roulett discovered a miniature rose growing in a window box in a Swiss village. As the story goes, this little plant had been growing in the pot for over a century, being passed down from generation to generation. Upon closer inspection, Roulett discovered this little plant that had been cheerfully blooming all summer for nearly 100 years was a perfect specimen of a dwarf rose.

Roulett told his friend, Henri Correvon, a Swiss nurseryman, of his remarkable find and delivered some slips for Correvon to root. The nurseryman painstakingly cultivated that priceless rose, and named the product of his hard work Roulettii, after his friend. Soon a horticulturist in Holland, John de Vink, heard of the discovery and secured slips of Roulettii, crossed them, and by the early 1920s had seeds. About that time an American rose grower, Robert Pyle, happened on de Vinks miniature roses and asked for some plants. In 1933, de Vink sent Pyle a perfectly formed, tiny-blossomed rose. Pyle introduced his charming prize to the public in 1936 as Tom Thumb the first truly modern miniature rose.

Since that time, other hybridizers such as Meilland of France, Dot of Spain, and Moore of the United States, as well as many others, have put much effort into growing and perfecting miniature roses.

When breeding, rose growers look for those miniatures that retain the usual rose attributes of vigor, hardiness, and good flower form. In fact, breeders have provided modern gardeners with numerous sizes and bloom forms (singles, semi-doubles and doubles), as well as a rainbow of colors to choose from. The result, today, is the bountiful supply and amazing variation of miniature roses on the market. The exquisite little rose that was almost lost to antiquity has made a stunning comeback and regained a permanent place in the garden.

The Fairy Rose, like its larger sisters, comes in a multitude of colors and shapes. Miniatures of all types of roses have been developed tea roses, cabbage roses, moss roses, climbing roses, and tree roses are all available in miniature. More than 200 varieties offer the enthusiast an abundance of forms, styles, fragrances, and, of course, colors to choose from. Vibrant oranges, delicate pinks, deep crimsons, unique lavenders. The miniature rose provides a kaleidoscope of colors to suit every taste and garden need.

Although there are small-growing roses, the truly natural (genetic) dwarf rose is defined as a plant less than 18 inches tall with blooms the size of a quarter. The micro-minis are those plants that grow to 6 inches or less, sporting blooms the size of a dime.

Miniature roses carry their flowers singly, in clusters, or both at the same time, and the blossoms can have anywhere from 5 to 150 petals. Many minis now have a heavy fragrance, some a delicate fragrance, and others have no fragrance at all.

Although seemingly fragile, miniatures are extremely hardy and disease resistant. They are cold-hardy, easy to grow, and bloom through most of the year where climate permits, needing only short periods of rest.

The minis leaves vary from dainty, feathery leaflets, to those that are large and leathery. The serrations can be deep or the teeth barely visible. The leaflet color ranges from a deep, healthy green to a bluish or reddish hue, sometimes with a lavender tinge on the back. The number of leaflets ranges from three to nine (roses, in most cases, have odd-numbered leaflets.)