A Rose Lover's Home

Visit the private home of Dr. Tommy Cairns, a collector of miniature roses for more than 30 years.

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Filed under: Roses, Houseplants, Container Gardening

Companion planting, which pairs plants of different colors, highlights the color of each plant.

Gardener Tommy Cairns, president of the American Rose Society, has been raising miniature roses for more than 30 years. He considers roses one of the most adaptable flowers for the home environment, both inside and out. He prefers leaving his rose plants in large plastic containers because they are easy to move around for decorating, their size is limited, and it suits their petite nature.

A basket adds interesting architecture to this stunning indoor display of miniature roses.

The plants grown indoors are watered every other day with a spray bottle. Once a bloom withers, it is immediately pruned to stimulate new blooms in that location. The plants will bloom indoors for three to four weeks. When their blooming is finished, they are moved back outside to promote root growth.

The simplest arrangement uses a miniature rose plant in a white teacup.

A good potting soil is crucial for growth. Cairns uses a layer of redwood mulch on the bottom of the pot to preserve moisture and finishes the soil on top after the rose is planted with more redwood mulch, which discourages weeds and is beneficial to the plant since it forms humus as it decays.