Growing roses in an unsuitable space is difficult, but I still insist on growing them

Starting this spring, I developed a new hobby of growing flowers, and among all the flowers, my favorite is the rose, commonly known as the "medicine jar." My balcony is not suitable for growing roses. The balcony faces south, which should have good sunlight, but because there is a tall building next to it, the sun is blocked early, so the sunlight hours are not long. The sunlight duration in autumn and winter is fine, but in summer, it can only get 1 or 2 hours of the hottest sun of the day, which is really torture for roses that love sunlight. But no matter what, I got addicted to roses, and in mid-May I bought two medium-sized seedlings - Mona Lisa and Olivia.

When they arrived, they both had flower buds. Actually, if I were truly experienced, I should have cut the buds off and let the plants recover properly and adapt to the new environment. But I, having never seen much of the world, just wanted to see what the flowers looked like, so I let the buds stay.

Unfortunately, Mona Lisa was already infected with black spot disease when it arrived. Everyone says roses are medicine jars, and it is really true, especially when growing roses on a balcony. Without good sunlight, there is no best fungicide, and potted plants are not as sturdy as those planted in the ground. I pulled off the black-spotted leaves and bought spray medicine online, and only then did I get it under control, but there were not many leaves left, and it looked especially pitiful. Worse still, recently it started getting black spot disease again. After summer passes, I plan to strip all the infected leaves, let it regrow leaves, and then add a thick layer of new soil on top of the pot, which may isolate the spread of black spot disease.

Olivia's bud had already shown color. Before two days had passed, the flower opened. When half-open, it was truly beautiful, but it was just too small! After only one day, it opened into a sorry sight, completely premature aging! I cannot bear to show it here, I will post photos later.

Mona Lisa was also in the making.

When the flower blooms, it is beautiful, with many layers of petals, and it can bloom longer than Olivia.

After about a week, Olivia had another one about to bloom. The stage when it is about to blossom is the most beautiful.

The petals are layered, very many.

But unfortunately, in just one day it went from a young girl to an old woman!

And Mona Lisa also finished blooming. The lower petals looked like they were edged with gold, and even decline has its own beauty.

In early June, I got itchy again and bought more roses. This time 6 arrived at once, all small seedlings, buy five get one free.

Red Leonardo also came with flower buds. Again I could not bear to cut them off.

Cool Beauty came with flowers already.

The way Red Leonardo opens is rather ordinary, but the flower's scent is very pleasant.

The south balcony having no sunlight worried me to death. I discovered that another utility balcony has good morning sunlight, so on sunny days, I went to great effort to move these small seedlings to the utility balcony to sunbathe.

The one on the left is Queen of Sweden. When it arrived, it was the thinnest and smallest, and now after more than two months of growing, it is still the thinnest and smallest one.

I went to Qiliping for a few days. When I came back, I found that the rose that was given as a gift had already bloomed, and it was quite pretty, but I do not know its name.

Unfortunately, I found that my roses were sick. Mona Lisa had red spider mites. Red spider mites are not real spiders, but a kind of mite. They like to grow on the back of leaves. If the infestation is relatively serious, you will find webs like spider webs on the plant, and the leaf surface will form tiny holes one after another. I was really careless. I looked at them every day, yet only discovered after watering one day that they had already formed webs, and then I hurriedly dealt with the red spider mites. I really do not like spraying medicine, so I used a folk method - wiping with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. Some other roses also showed signs of powdery mildew, and I still used the same method.

It took two or three hours and used a lot of cotton swabs, and finally I wiped them one by one. This method takes too much time, so I do not recommend it. If you really must use it, remember to spray clear water on the leaves after wiping, so that the alcohol does not burn the leaves.

In July, the sky over Chengdu was like it had sprung a leak, raining every day. For two consecutive weeks there was no sun, and I was very worried that my roses would not grow well. But even in such a poor environment, Morris (climbing rose) still opened its first flower.

The flower was small, but it still looked very cute.

The flower was not big, but it could stay open for several days, which still made me feel somewhat comforted. After all, I watched it from bud formation to blooming.

Mona Lisa's flowering ability is too strong. With only a few leaves, it still kept growing buds. All at once it produced three more buds, but summer flowers, honestly speaking, are really a bit ugly. Recently I found another bud. I thought it should grow leaves first, so I hardened my heart and pinched off the bud. As a result, a few days later, another bud appeared. Sigh, seeing how eager you are, I will still let you show off, so I will keep this bud. Summer flowers are clearly not as pretty as the first round of flowers, with fewer petals and smaller blooms.

The star rose that surprised me appeared. When I bought Juliet, I only did it for its yellow flowers, and I had no idea that it could also produce standard flower form in summer. It is really outstanding!

The bud began to reveal its flower color.

Before many days passed, it was about to open.

When it truly opened, it was astonishingly beautiful, so gorgeous! I completely did not expect summer flowers could also be this beautiful!

But maintaining a perfect state is not easy. In one or two days, it will become like this.

After another day, I cut Juliet and put it in a vase. Juliet really is a flowering machine. From July 14, after I cut the flower, only one month has passed, and now it has grown another wave of buds, and this time there are three flowers! The fastest-growing one is already about to bloom!

Mona Lisa continued to perform, though the summer flowers were still a bit lacking. Look how pitiful it is, with only a few leaves left.

On July 22, the sunlight was very good. While wandering outside, I happened upon a small flower market and brought home another pot of roses. They were all small cuttings, several plants in one pot, and the seedlings were even smaller than Queen of Sweden.

At the same time, I also brought home a pot of jasmine. The story of this pot of jasmine can wait until later. It also tormented me badly.

It also opened a small yellow rose. Haha, this is obviously not the right variety. The others are all pink. In the future, if they bloom together, I will just have to look at two colors at once.

For the few days after repotting and recovery of this pot of domestic common rose, it produced a large number of yellow leaves every day, and I kept pulling them off and off, very worried that with one careless move it would be beyond saving. But it really is strong. After only one week, it began to send out new shoots. Seeing the new shoots, I felt much more reassured.

The free rose from the buy-5-get-1 offer has buds again, and two came at once!

Cool Beauty was also unwilling to be left out and began its second round of flowers.

And Juliet too, so strong. It had just finished blooming and already began desperately growing, sending up very healthy shoots, and suddenly produced three buds.

Even Morris, with only a few leaves, began growing new leaves. New leaves are hope. If they grow well in summer, they can bloom even more in the future.

Red Leonardo followed the pace of the main group. Its leaves are especially cute, glossy and smooth, and the new leaves are especially beautiful.

This gifted pot bloomed for the second time.

Cool Beauty also bloomed. Probably due to insufficient sunlight, the color is not purple enough.

The common rose is really strong. It had just finished blooming and already has buds again, and four at once. Let it bloom. Whether it is pretty or not is secondary. At the same time, there are still five kinds of roses with buds or in bloom! Tell me, how could you not love roses? They bloom batch after batch!

Olivia has the best growth. I estimate it is growing leggy badly. Its current height is already over 1.7 m, but it just will not bloom. I hope it will perform well in autumn.

Growing flowers is absolutely one of the most wonderful hobbies!