Hello everyone! I'm quite new to roses. I purchased a DA Heritage two years ago (February 2016) and we've getting along fine until this month.
After the last flourishing, the leaves started to look like this:


I pruned them, along with the old flowers (I always do that, is It ok?), and soon there were pleny of new leaves, but they look "weak": so tender and yellowish.



Now they are begining to fade, dry and die too. Looks like the whole plant is dying, starting from the tips. Surely the main branch is, and very likely the two younger ones. That leaves me with only one good looking branch (for how long?).



What can I do to save It? And in case It's not going to make It, do you think is wise to reproduce It? I really don't want to loose It.
It's planted in a pot (80l) on a balcony, with direct sun a few hours and pleny light all day. We are above 30° all summer but it hasn't been a problem so far. I've feed It with specific rose fertilizer. It' s supposed to be applied twice a year.

As @jeri (and others here at NGA) gave me an invaluable tip before: Never plant a rose that would grow greater than 4ft tall in a pot. The plant's root will outgrow the pot space over a single growing season. For instance, a rose that grows up to 3 ft tall requires a pot that's 3 ft deep. So you can imagine how huge a pot should be to support your DA Heirtage. And it has been two years now, so I'm sure the root has no more space to grow, and it is all tangled up. In other words, its inability to take in nutrients to support the top growth. I would recommend moving the plant into the ground right away.

In future pay attention to the rose's growth characteristic mentioned on the product page on the website, or you could use helpmefind.com to get accurate info on the rose you are planning to purchase. If a rose is expected to grow more than 4ft tall, it is not suitable for growing in pots. With roses growing in pots, one must change the pot soil every two years. Lastly, in my personal experience, the David Austin website lists rose information about UK weather, not US weather. It is not always accurate. So, I would recommend double checking the rose on help me find website before purchase a rose. Hope this helps.

Here's the help me find link to your heritage rose:
https://www.helpmefia nd.com/rose/l.php?l=2.1888.1

I'll try changing the soil, since I don't have a garden (otherwise it wouldn't be in a pot). I bought it from a flower farmer I know and she said it was Ok to grow it on a big pot like mine. The other people who bought at the same time didn't have any problems...
Thanks for the advice.

How large is your pot?

I grow this dwarf Noisette is a pot that is about 3.25 ft. tall and in diameter ...

It manages OK, though needs periodic soil replenishment.

But your Austin is a considerably larger rose than this, and would need a larger container.

I really agree that it is maxed out in your pot. I think you need to find a much larger container, OR you need to pull the whole thing out and root-prune it ... and this is the wrong time of the year for that. (Beside which, that's too much like real work.)

During a brief misadventure into the world of bonsai plants, I failed miserably, but learned one thing about potted plants that I've found handy. When a plant outgrows a pot, the natural instinct is to buy a bigger pot. A few years back, I decided to apply the only thing I learned from Bonsai-ing; I trimmed the roots and put the plant back into the same pot with some nice fresh soil. For the few summers that I had a house in the country, I was able to overwinter many container plants and revive them in the spring. This meant, of course, that the plants got pot bound pretty quickly. I would spread out a tarp and pull the plant out and clip about 40% of the roots and then loosen the rest or the roots and soil. This provided a nice opportunity to get some new soil and some peat moss (or homemade compost) in there. I was very timid at first, but as success followed success, I got pretty cut-throat about it. It was fun and rather rewarding. Now that all my plants are perennials in the ground (mostly roses), I don't do this any more. David

As Jeri said, that sounds like real work!

OK, I will try for the third time to get this out. UGH! I seem to be internet challenged today.

MyGardenIsAPot, you didn't state where you are located. One of the first roses I purchased was Heritage. I had NO CLUE as to what I was doing and had it in a pot in pretty much full sun all day. I recall pruning the whole bush after it bloomed (as I said, I had NO IDEA as to what I was doing). Needless to say, I eventually got rid of the rose. My garden was also in a pot for several years as I lived in an upstairs apartment. Over the years, I have learned a little bit more than when I started.

I found that Heritage did not like the intense sun and heat of summer where I live. If you have it in full sun and live in a hot spot of the world, you might want to give it partial shade in the afternoon. I find that most DA roses like partial shade over full sun (at least where I live). It has been a pretty warm summer so I don't know if that might be part of the issue with your rose. It has been 105 degrees or greater for the past 30 days with no sign of stopping (over 40 degrees C). Also, my patio was cement so the reflective heat off of it also contributed to heat stress.

I also found that roses in pots need more fertilizer than roses in the ground. I use organic fertilizers so I don't have to worry about burning the plant. Also when it is extremely hot, I don't fertilize as I know my rose is just trying to make it through the heat wave. So, I would just try to watch your rose for a while and see how it does.

I think there's an important caveat about the assertion that potting soil should be changed every two years. Potting soil is a misnomer in that it doesn't actually contain any soil (which is why it's sometimes more accurately referred to as potting mix). Instead of soil, it's typically comprised of peat moss, composted bark, sand, and perlite or vermiculite. This means that unlike soil, it contains few if any nutrients, other than the synthetic granular fertilizer that is typically pre-mixed with it in the bag. With that in mind, there are really only two reasons I can think of to swap out potting soil after time.

One reason would be if you water your potted plants with synthetic water-soluble fertilizer. This could lead to a build-up of the salts that are used to manufacture synthetic fertilizers, which ironically can interfere with the plant's ability to take up nutrients. However, if your potting soil is of a good structure that drains well, and if you aren't over-fertilizing your plants, I think it could take a long time for salts to accumulate to the point where the soil needs replacing. But better yet, if you use an organic liquid fertilizer which isn't manufactured with synthetic salts (my favorite for roses is "Bill's Perfect Fertilizer"), then there's no need to replace the soil due to salt accumulation.

However, another reason to replace potting soil over time might be if the structure of the potting mix has decomposed to such an extent that it sort of "collapses" into a wet mush that doesn't drain well, leaving the roots waterlogged, in which case they could rot. But even if that's the case, one doesn't have to throw out the potting soil, but can rejuvenate it by mixing it with some fresh potting mix so that the structure becomes loose and aerated again.

In my own experience, almost all of my gardens are grown in-ground, with the exception of a small courtyard that is devoted to 25 or so potted plants, most of which are annuals. Because I live in New York, I have to empty the pots of their soil every fall so that the soil won't expand when frozen during the winter and crack the ceramic pots. I remove the annuals after the first hard freeze, and then dump the potting soil into a large bin for the winter. The next spring, I reuse the same potting soil to refill the pots and plant new annuals, and I've done this year after year with excellent results. I occasionally mix in some fresh peat moss to rejuvenate the structure of the mix and aerate it, but I never throw it out. In fact, I inevitably find that it is populated with earthworms and assume that is has developed into a healthy microbial environment that may well be better for plant health than the sterilized soil you get when you buy a new bag of potting mix.

So that's my take on it, and I'd be interested to know what others think.