Congragtulations on introducing one of your seedlings! Can you tell us which one it will be?
Nope. It’s a surprise. 
Hi Judith:
That’s great that you will have one of your roses introduced for the 2006 Convention. Congratulations!
Do you know any of the growers in AZ that might be able to graft your rose for you? Ideally, you would want to get them grafted this summer. Otherwise, you could consider producing own-root plants.
Jim
Thanks Jim. No I don’t know anyone here that could do it. Which growers are in Arizona? I wasn’t aware of any. Actually, they don’t need to be in Arizona. I just don’t know anyone who could do it for me anywhere! I wish I were more connected…
That is fantastic Jude!! Congratulations! How exciting for you! Have you thought of perhaps trying budding. Maybe you could contact Steve at WI Roses and see if he might be able to help you out in some way?
Thank you, Michelle! The idea of WI Roses is good, except I think they only bud onto multiflora, which isn’t a good rootstock for the southwest. Maybe I should contact him anyway, huh? Other ideas are much appreciated!
Judith:
I would still consider doing own-root as you would be in better control of the product, although caring for all of the plants would be a major undertaking! Otherwise, Michelle’s idea sounds good.
Jim
Here is a photo of another brand new seedling. It and the one that I posted above is from the same cross that gave me the seedling that I am naming ‘Heather Sproul’ (after my wife!) This cross has been very good for me - showing good disease resistance and form, with a broad color range.
Jim
It sure has been a good cross, Jim. Oh, that center is to die for! And the color is so nice! Tangerine?
Ok Jim, looks like own-root is the way to go. I do have a few nurseries that will do it for me, so I won’t have to worry about caring for them. Now, how to get 50 plants from a 4" tall seedling…
Wow, Jim!! That is an orange to stop you in your tracks! Stunning! Looks like there is some yellow in there lightly blended in as well. Incredible center and form! Really beautiful! Hmmmm…I seem to be getting in line for a number of your roses these days! (already have This is the Day and Sam Trivitt, with successful hips developing at the moment involving This Is The Day).
I used Baby Love a bit five years ago, but didn’t get anything great (But I only tried 100 seeds), and abandoned it feeling that Baby Love had too many liabilities: single, not that floriferous, and a plant that is too leggy for its type. However, its progeny Rabble Rouser, is double, unfading, on a more compact, good foliaged plant, and I think it’s setting seed.
I’m new to the forum and pleased that people are sharing parentage. Here’s what I have to share.
I’ve restarted my breeding program after a hiatus. Here is the new program in a nutshell: My breeding goal is healthy pot roses(the kind you buy in supermarkets in 3" pots.) So, I’m using females that are healthy small elite small shrubs such as Rabble Rouser, Pretty Lady, Morning Has Broken, Knock Out (I know it’s not small) Fire Meidiland, Flower Carpet, and crossing it with elite red pot roses such as Charming Parade and Violet Hit and with Happy Trails, Little Bo Peep (Natchez) and Red Flower Carpet. I’m also using Violet Hit as a female–it sets. Deviating from my goal, I’ve also made a few Black Magic x Happy Trails crosses.
I just saw Red Flower Carpet this year in someone else’s garden (I’m slow on the uptake) and am impressed. I’ve stolen a little pollen from the neighbor’s plant and used it a bit. Has anyone used it as a female or male?
Any reactions to my program? Any parents among those I’m trying that you’ve worked with? Any other suggestions for parents to try given my goal?
Red Carpet Rose is likely to be very difficult. I’ve never seen an OP hip on it here at the house or at the garden center where I shop sometimes (it has a very large plant of Red Carpet Rose). I won’t call it infertile (since I don’t know that it is), but I can’t praise its fertility either.
I should have said Red Flower Carpet.
I have used Red Flower Carpet this year, and it is fertile both ways. Although it is strange sometimes. Some branches have no hips, the flowers drop cleanly, and others will have tons of hips.
I’ve used the pollen on Queen Elizabeth and a seedling of Queen Elizabeth (the seedling has Dr. Basyes’s 77-361 as the pollen parent). It did take…
As the hip parent, I’ve used Propspero and Cardinal Hume.
My plant of Red Flower Carpet has never set op hips in five years, while the old pink Flower Carpet sets occasional op hips. I do concede that some roses set op hips better when it’s dry. Also the roses in its immediate vicinity are diploids. Maybe its only self-infertile. As a pollen parent it does fine. I’ve had germinations from Red FC on Belle de Crecy, which has never set op hips for me. Naturally I was hoping for the productivity & health of RFC. The seedlings bloomed for the first time this year.
Perhaps too much fertilizer and water? My RFC always sets hips… not for every flower, but it does make a few OP seeds… Sometimes you just got to force a flower to wanna make hips.
Cut down on the feeding… maybe helpful if you want to work with this…
As for it being a diploid… most like it is a tetraploid. Immensee (diploid) crossed with Amanda (tetraploid) most likely creates triploid. Triploid seedling crossed with seedling of Irish Wonder and Paprika (tetraploid) would mostly beget a tetraploid.
I don’t fertilize. I plant in compost & that’s it. Don’t water either. It gets enough from rain. I’m not saying its a diploid. I’m saying that the roses around it in my garden are mostly diploids, chinas, rugosas & such. Consequently the bees bring around mostly diploid pollen which doesn’t appear to work on RFC. In your circumstances the bees are probably bringing tetraploid pollen from the neighbouring roses, or pollen that RFC accepts. The other point is that you are in a dry climate & I’m just surmising that some roses might set hips better when it’s dry. I got several op hips on Topaz Jewel in a summer when we had drought. A couple of those seeds eventually germinated. I’m aware that descriptions of RFC by the hybridizer say that it sets small brown hips. For me it hasn’t yet. That’s why I’m surmising it’s self-infertile because the pollen works fine on other roses.