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I just bought a miniature rose from the store & placed it on my kitchen table, next to a window. In the morning, I found the leaves closest to the window were curled and dry looking, some having turned purple. I assume it was just cold enough near the window to damage the rose.

Does anyone have tips for helping the rose to recover?

Rose

Stephie
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L. Bake
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I doubt you have done any long term damage to the rose at all. Most miniature roses are more frost hardy than "normal sized" varieties. Burying it in a snowdrift for a month wouldn't do it any harm.

The only "problem" is that your rose has been forced into bloom out of season, and you have just reminded it that this is really the middle of winter, and it should be dormant with no leaves or flowers at all, waiting for longer and warmer days to start growing again in about March.

There probably isn't much you can do to keep it in its unnatural "forced" state if you have kicked it back into its normal annual cycle, but if you want to keep it for the long term, put it somewhere cool in the house, don't over-water it or give it any liquid feed, and just wait till it starts to grow again later in spring. Then put it outside for the summer.

It might not flower much this year, but it should be back to normal for summer flowering in 2020.

alephzero
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  • Awesome, thank you very much. I'm not concerned if it goes dormant, I was just worried I may have killed it! I appreciate the info. – L. Bake Feb 09 '19 at 21:07
  • Another thing - since it's probably "a bit confused" right now after being forced, I wouldn't attempt to prune it until it has started to grow again. Then you can cut back some of the old stems to 1/4 inch above a new bud, if looks like it is going to get too untidy-looking as it develops. – alephzero Feb 10 '19 at 21:23
  • Roses ( full size) are exceptionally cold hardy; I once had one bloom in the Chicago area in February. I had started cuttings in a cold frame in the autumn and forgot about them , I removed snow cover and found the bloom. – blacksmith37 Feb 15 '19 at 16:00