I’ve been collecting all the pollen from my 0-47-19 clone in case anyone might be interested in it. I should have it all collected, dried, and ready to ship by the end of next week, and would love to reciprocate some of the generosity that has been shown to me by the rose community.
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Hello there, good morning/afternoon/evening to you! I hope all is well! If you don’t mind me asking, what would one use such a thing for, and what is your price to ship such things? (sorry if the question is quite obvious. I am unfortunately very new to roses/gardening in general!)
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No charge, I’m giving it away.
There isn’t one answer to the question of what use one might have for it. My immediate thought was that having the pollen might be nice for someone who wanted to expand their genetic pool but didn’t have the space or desire to grow the rose itself, since it is a massive, thorny, once blooming rambler.
Traditionally, the rose has mostly been used as a breeding stock seed parent to make miniature roses. There isn’t much information about it as a pollen parent, so in that regard it’s kind of fresh territory. Perhaps someone with more experience could better answer that question. I’ve been growing it for almost a year and a half now and it’s only been in the past few days that I’ve finally seen it bloom.
I’m personally going to test it on a few species roses that have been reluctant to accept foreign pollen.
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Ahh I understand! Thank you for responding back to me! I would love to take some off your hands if possible then!
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Message me your shipping info and I’ll send it out in a week or two.
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Please note: 0-47-19 is infected with (probably) Prunus Necrotic Ringspot Virus (RMV), and so using its pollen is a non-zero risk choice. While it is undoubtedly rare for transmission of the virus to happen by placing pollen from an infected plant onto an uninfected plant, there is a small chance it can happen. So if you use pollen from 0-47-19, know that this involves some risk. I use it ONLY as a seed parent, and I watch for seedlings that show signs of virus.
I know for a fact that 0-47-19 is infected because my plant shows visual symptoms on occasion. All plants of it that are currently in collections came from the same source (Sequoia Nursery) and it was infected at the source. It’s extremely rare for one of Ralph’s roses to have RMV in it (unless it was outsourced for grafting), but somehow this variety ended up infected — probably from infected pollen placed on it from another variety!
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Oh wow, I never knew about things like that, thank you for making me aware! What kind of virus is it? (is it something a person can contract, or just the plant itself?)
No risk to humans at all. The impact of rose viruses to the plants is often negligible, albeit still undesirable. They weaken plants but don’t seem to be fatal on their own, except for rose rosette virus, but that’s a whole different beast. The sad reality is that most roses sold in the US have some form of rose mosaic virus since there’s like 40 of them that we know of. Most of the big suppliers use virused Dr. Huey rootstock.
The primary cause of transmission is from grafting and infected pruners, which is why you should always sanitize your pruners between plants. What few studies they have been inconclusive or reached mixed conclusions about the spread of rose viruses via pollen. But as Paul pointed out, the chance is slim but above 0%.
I personally grow too many native pollinators to ever protect all of my roses from being visited by bees and butterflies. Not that I would want to anyways.
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Not to burst any bubbles…but chatting with Dr. Malcolm Manners over the past years, he shared that Dr. Basye likely virus infected his seedlings, also. Years ago, there was a “virus free” Fortuniana spread around which was a rather weak grower. So weak, it gave “virus free” a bad name. Dr. Basye loved budding his roses on his vigorous, infected Fortuniana. Malcolm offered to heat treat it to clean it up for him (Malcolm was a professor at Florida Southern College for decades and involved in DNA testing, virus treatments, plant breeding and many other areas. He traveled the world working with USAID teaching agriculture, soap making and many other subjects to farmers around the world to help make them more self sufficient and profitable.) Anyway, Malcolm offered to clean Dr. Basye’s infected Fortuniana and Basye refused as he feared cleaning it would result in weakening it as something had the other “virus free” plant. The Fortuniana UC Davis Foundation Plant Services sells is Malcolm’s VI Fortuniana. It reportedly has been tested for ALL plant viruses for which they have tests and found to be free from them all. So, if you are concerned about potential infection through pollen use, keep in mind Basye’s roses are also likely infected. And, also remember that virtually all of Griffith Buck’s roses were introduced by Roses of Yesterday and Today, which virus infected nearly every rose they produced. They used a contract grower in Wasco, CA who used an infected Dr. Huey for production. Thankfully, there have been many cleaned over the decades by Davis, TAMU, FSC and other sources and spread around in the trade, but there is no record of who got which nor who offers clean versions and likely never will be. AND, if you are using older American modern roses, MANY of them are also infected. We put the fruit viruses into roses then generously “shared” them around the world!
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Fortunately they’ve stopped utilizing heat treatment to eradicate viruses in favor of shoot tip culturing. I assume mostly for economic reasons, but it does eliminate the risk of a treated rose losing its vigor due to heat.
It still looks like a whole process, but a sufficiently determined amateur could do it. It requires essentially the same skills and equipment as houseplant tissue cloning or mushroom growing, both of which have become much more popular since the pandemic.
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Aside from watching for symptoms is there a consumer grade RMV test or service? Something not crazy expensive or complicated that only a university lab or commercial grower would use?
There is a test using a specific prunus variety where you graft the rose bud under the bark of the prunus. If it continuously weeps and won’t heal, it’s virused. You can also use virus indexed Mme Butterfly and graft the suspected variety to it. Mme Butterfly reportedly shows symptoms of RMV very quickly. Those are the only two "easy"tests not requiring a lab I know of. So, someone with an iPhone should hurry and develop a phone app for it! LOL!
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UC Davis has two field tests using Burr’s multiflora stock and Shirofugen Cherry:
Biological Indexes
Biological indexes have been used for decades to detect rose viruses. Sensitive “indicator” plants are inoculated with buds of candidate plants, and the indicators are then monitored for disease symptoms. The development of symptoms on the indicator means that the candidate was virus infected. Indicator varieties are chosen for their ability to display relatively rapid, distinct disease symptoms when infected. Biological tests for rose viruses are very reliable, but they may require up to three years before results are obtained. Two biological tests used at FPS for rose viruses are the Shirofugen cherry index and the Rosa multiflora (Burr) field index.
Multiflora Field Index
At FPS, Rosa multiflora (Burr) understock is used as an indicator variety for the detection of rose viruses. The field procedure requires at least two growing seasons. This indexing procedure can also be performed in a single season in the greenhouse under tightly controlled conditions for light and temperature. Symptom observations require some degree of interpretation, as abnormalities in plant growth may be caused by environmental factors as well as viral pathogens. To conduct this field test, buds from a candidate variety of unknown disease status are T-budded into the growing branches or trunk of multiflora canes that were stuck in the field and rooted the previous fall. Two multiflora indicator plants are used to test each candidate rose bush. Each of the two indicator plants receives three buds from the candidate, for a total of six candidate buds. Approximately two weeks after budding, the candidate buds are inspected to determine if they are alive - virus transmission is reduced if buds die, and the inoculation may need to be repeated. The indicator plants are visually inspected for mosaic type symptoms several times during the early spring following inoculation. Symptoms may include vein clearing, ringspots, line patterns, mosaics, and leaf distortion and puckering. Symptoms are most clearly expressed in March and April, fading dramatically as seasonal daytime temperatures increase.
Shirofugen Cherry Index
Field indexing on Shirofugen cherry trees can be performed from the time the cherry trees are in full leaf until six weeks prior to leaf fall. The use healthy, vigorous trees is important. Budwood is taken from three sides of each candidate rose plant being indexed, as the virus can be unevenly distributed and accurate detection depends on a thorough sampling. Buds from the candidate rose are inoculated, using T-buds, to a branch of the Shirofugen cherry. The candidate buds are checked 10 days later, and the indexing procedure is considered valid if at least one of the three buds are still green. Thirty days after budding, the entire Shirofugen branch is removed from the tree at least six inches below the rose buds in order to eliminate any possibility of systemically infecting the Shirofugen tree. The budding rubbers are cut and the bark on either side of the rose buds is removed to expose cambial tissue of the cherry branch. A distinctive gumming and necrosis around the inoculated area indicates that virus is present in the candidate rose. Healthy Shirofugen cherry tissue at the budding site indicates a negative test and the absence of rose viruses.
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Agdia has a test kit for the most common virus responsible for RMV, PNRSV (prunus necrotic ringspot virus)
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