The last couple of years, I have dumped all my mini roses from the garden and containers into a big hole and have covered them up with peat moss as well as an upside down planter. Mini roses are not hardy here (zone 3) and I lose fewer roses this way. We have chinooks throughout the winter which are quite warm. Dessication kills a lot of plants here. So during the last chinook, I dug up all of my mini roses, potted them up, and put them under lights for 16 hours a day. I plan to start hardening them off as soon as it is warm enough, even if it is only a couple of hours every day. So these roses will be fully leafed out and probably blooming by May, when I transplant them into outdoor containers. As it is, several of them are starting to bud.

Last year, I lost only one plant, and I have one plant which seems to be following the same path - the leaves start off a nice green, but quickly shrivel into a light brown crumble. I thought the plant last year might have dried out but that isn't the problem with this one. I've seen similar damage on leaves if I rushed hardening off, and so it might be light damage, but that doesn't really make sense to me because it's probably the lowest plant under the lights. There's a good 6 inches or so to the light.

Any ideas what might be the cause?

I have this same exact problem! I think it's the humidity and lack of. During the winter, we have the heat on, so it's much drier than during the summer. I had a beautiful rose I got for Valentine's day do that same exact thing. I kept it well watered, but the bottom leaves went dry & crumbly while the top leaves were pale like I was watering too much. I took it home & put it in my window with my African violets. It seems to be a bit happier there.. probably because it's much cooler in that window than at work.

Hmm. It is dry here, particularly since I got the bathroom tub tap fixed. I've put it on a pebble tray--can't hurt. None of the other plants appear to have the same symptoms, but that could just be genetics. I'm not sure, but I think it is the Green Ice that has problems. Its leaves are smaller with more leaflets on a branch than the other types.

Thanks for the suggestion.

It's most likely spider mites. A severe infestation makes all of the leaves turn brown and the plant looks dead. They love warm and dry conditions. To get rid of a bad infestation, just wash the undersides of the leaves daily for 3 to 5 days. Even if all of the leaves fall off, this breaks the breeding cycle of the mites on the plant.

General practice is to wash the undersides of the leaves of even a healthy plant weekly to avoid infestation.

To double check, just place a white piece of paper under the leaves and tap the plant. If you see a lot of tiny black spots, it's spider mites.

Smiles,
Lyn

Dora - How's your roses doing? Since I took mine home & put it in the kitchen window (diffused eastern window, pretty chilly) and kept the saucer underneath w/water, I've gotten new growth everywhere. All the rose buds, though, have blackened & look nasty, so I'll be cutting them off & giving the rose a major haircut pruning soon.

PPal - Mine didn't have spider mites. It was 100% dryness from being inside w/the heat on.

Mine don't have spider mites either, but they're all outside enjoying spring!

I put the roses outside yesterday (nice warm day) and all the branches fell off. I guess it was kind of tender and got caught in the wind, so I will have to wait for it to grow out again to test for spider mites. The other plants don't appear to have spider mites though.

It is about 20 degrees C colder outside today, so my roses are back under the lights. After I put them back on the shelf yesterday I found a green worm on the floor - I sent him to a watery grave in the toilet - but none of the leaves on the other plants appear to be damaged in any way so I don't know where it came from.