How can I stop the Garbage Collector from removing a UTexture2D?

Development Asset Creation
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I have a C++ class not extending anything, it acts as a wrapper around a library, for use in Unreal Engine 4.

Initially I had the UTexture defined like this:

private:
     UTexture2D *Texture;

However, after creating the texture using CreateTransient, I noticed it got destroyed after 50-60 seconds. ■■■■… the garbage collector is at it.

I ended up fixing this by making it a UProperty, and after initializing the texture, calling AddToRoot.

But I was wondering, is this the only way? How come my initial way doesn’t count as “keeping a reference” even though the wrapper never “dies”?