Took me 2 hours to figure out why my roses were wilting and it was something stupid simple

I had a batch of roses that looked perfect in the cooler but wilted within an hour of sitting out. Checked water temp, checked the pH, even swapped the buckets. After a full 2 hours of messing around I realized I forgot to strip the lower leaves and they were sitting in the water rotting. Felt like an idiot. Has anyone else had a time where the fix was way too basic for how long it took you to find it?

3 comments

3 Comments

wright.cole24d ago

had a buddy who spent a whole day trying to figure out why his succulents kept dying. turns out he was watering them like normal plants instead of letting the soil dry out completely. felt real dumb when i showed him a youtube video about it.

mason28324d ago

Roses are finicky little things. I had a similar issue with lilies once, they kept drooping no matter what I did. Changed the water three times, checked the stems, even put them in a different room. After way too long I noticed the vase was too narrow and the stems were getting crushed at the bottom. Swapped to a wider vase and they perked right up in half an hour. Sometimes the answer is so simple you just skip right past it. Lower leaves rotting is a classic one though, easy to forget when you are rushing. At least now you know and wont make that mistake again.

quinn_nguyen24d ago

Stripping leaves is one of those things that's so obvious you don't even think about it, until you've wasted a whole afternoon feeling like a plant detective. Classic case of "the answer was staring you in the face, literally in your bucket of murky water.