3 reasons your roses are falling off the plant too fast – and how to help them last longer

When I planted my first rose, one mystery kept me guessing during the first flush of flowers: why did the roses fall off the plant so quickly?

Usually, we learn how to plant roses with non-stop displays in mind, so when the flowers start dropping just days after opening up, it’s a little disheartening. I managed to avoid other rose problems and diseases like powdery mildew, but I wondered: should the blooms be falling that fast?

To get to the bottom of why the flowers were falling off my rose plant so quickly, I spoke to the experts – and found out how you can help the blooms last longer.

1. Lack of nutrients

I started growing my rose in a pot when I first brought it home, because I didn’t have room for it in my garden border at the time. It was Rose ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, which you can buy for £14.95 from Gardening Express. I chose it for its gorgeous scent – it's just like perfume!

For a few days, at least. I found that the flowers looked their best for a day or two before fading and falling off the plant.

The problem, it turned out, was the pot – and the soil inside.

‘A lack of available nutrients can mean that your flowers may fail to open properly or drop quickly,’ explains gardener, writer and BBC Radio Wales gardening expert Liz Zorab. ‘A stressed plant may lose its petals sooner than a healthy plant.’

Looking back, the pot I chose for my plant was probably too small, and my novice self didn’t use mycorrhizal fungi or dig in any organic matter to prepare the soil before planting. A lack of space and soil preparation likely joined forces to keep my rose from reaching its full blooming potential.

You can actually buy specialised soil for roses, like Miracle-Gro's Peat Free Premium Rose, Tree & Shrub Compost, which is £9.99 at Amazon.

Small pots and dwindling nutrients aren’t the only culprits, though.

2. High temperatures

If you’ve found that your roses are falling off the plant a lot faster lately, it might be down to the weather.

‘One of the reasons why a rose is dropping flowers so quickly is because high temperatures and intense sunshine cause the flower to open more quickly,’ says Philip Harkness, co-owner of Harkness Roses. ‘Add to that warm nighttime temperatures, and the flowers won’t close, which shortens the life of the flower. Weather conditions dictate when the flower opens or closes.’

With the recent heatwave in tow, it’s no wonder that gardeners are finding their flowers aren’t lasting as long. Watering your plants at the right time, then, is more important than ever.

‘Water first thing in the morning, before it gets too hot, or last thing in the evening when temperatures cool down,’ advises Philip.

3. The variety

Sometimes, though, your rose simply won’t hold its flowers as long as other varieties.

Philip says that roses generally last on the plant for four to 10 days, depending on the variety. It might be that the flowers drop before you can deadhead your roses, and that's just the way your plant is.

Different types of roses also have different flowering patterns.

‘Bear in mind that many roses are ‘once flowering’, which means they give a spectacular display for a short period,’ says Liz.

‘Other varieties are ‘repeat flowering’, meaning they will continue to produce flowers over a much longer period, but there will be fewer flowers at a time.’

So, maybe it's down to the variety you're growing, the weather, or even the soil around your rose. If your rose leaves are turning yellow, you might be watering it wrong...