Question
QUESTION: Hi,

I brought my Grandfathers roses from California to Florida last year.  He got them from his Great Grandmother, so they are pretty special.  They did great last year, they bloomed beautifully.  I put them in pots but noticed they were not blooming anymore.  So about a week ago I planted them in the ground, we used a lot of dirt from our compost and continue to compost in it. They are looking much healthier, and starting to bloom, BUT....they are ALL MINI ROSES NOW.  What happened??  Will they remain miniature roses?  These were roses that had big beautiful blooms on them.  One is kind of a lavendar color (babyface-angelface style rose) and the other is a red/orange two toned that used to have large full blooms as well.  Can you help me?  Appreciate your advice.

ANSWER: There is a major difference growing roses in California or Florida. You can just simply plant a rose bush in California and it will grow for you, However in some areas of Florida, the soil has nasty nematodes in it and these tiny wormlike things can kill rose roots because they live off them. The roots have small lumps all over them. So in Florida, gardeners use a special understock on roses. This understock is called Fortuniana and is immured to the nematodes.If you used soil from your garden, it may contain these nematodes. The symptoms of nematodes are stunted growth, lack of vigour so plant and flowers smaller, wilting leaves and yellowing foliage. I really hope I am wrong because there is no cure for the rose bushes and you will have to destroy them. Will you please get back to me if you think this isn't the problem. Thanks.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I don't see any yellowing foliage.  It's green, and growing more foliage since
I've put them in the ground.  They are also starting to bloom again, but with
small miniature roses.  They had roses the size of the palm of my hand, now
only a quarter of that size.  

I am concerned about the threat of these nematodes, which I have never
heard of.  If the some preventive measures I can take?  Should I get them out
of the ground?  In pots, I only used potting soil but I was thinking they were
becoming root bound in those.

I have (in the past) fed my roses bananas every week along with miracle grow.  
It's make a smoothy out of the peels and any rotten bananas I had.  Anyway
that worked beautifully (last year).  I will try that process again.  But if you can
give me any preventive advice and I would do all I can.  THese roses are an
heirloom, and cannot be replaced.  

Thank you kindly for your response.

Answer
You can put your mind at rest as it is only in certain areas of Florida that they are concerned with the nematodes. There is no need to take them out of the soil because you are gardening in Washington. If the roses bloomed correctly once in their new area then they will do it again. I had though that maybe the understock had started to grow but now I am sure that isn't the case. As I can't see them I can only guess why the flowers are so small. I wonder if there is something in the compost that is effecting them. One of the main reason that you don't get large flowers from a rose is when the rose bush goes under stress and moving a rose to a new location will do that. Just be careful what you feed them I would treat them like they were fragile. Bananas are a source of potassium and this encourages flowering but most soils have enough of it in them. Too much can cause problems. If the roses did well it wasn't because of the bananas it was the compost that fed them. Also be careful of giving a rose too much fertilizer. Compost is really all they need for the first year and if you top up the compost yearly believe it or not that will make heathy roses. Then you need only give them one doze of fertilizer.
I would protect the roses for the winter by mounding them up with soil to about 8 inches all round the base of the bush. I would also only give them liquid fish fertilizer until they get back on their feet. Be careful that you don't kill them with kindness. All they really need right now is good compost, water and every two weeks a cup each of the liquid fish. If you do that then the roots will settle in much quicker
and the flowers will become normal again. Next spring watch them carefully and again don't over fertilizer as that will change the soil and could cause problems with the roots which are trying to grow in a new area.