2007 crosses and parent observatiions

I decided to keep better records this year so that I do not fall into the habit of repeating crosses that do not work. Overall I made 630 crosses and 305 have resulted in harvestable hips. (I’m assuming that if they have made it this far they will make it to maturity.) My overall success rate was just under 50%. It definitely varied depending upon the seed parent used. It should go up, once I have figured out whch roses make good seed parents.

The better seed parents were:

Morden Sunrise 70% success

Gemini 66%

Loving Touch 70%

Fairhope 78%

Earthsong 100%

Prairie Harvest 100%

Folksinger 77%

Golden Unicorn 81%

Outta the Blue 75%

Ebb Tide 83%

Soroptimist International 100%

The seed parents that were a big disapointment were:

Alex MacKenzie (worked well for me several years ago)

Aunt Honey

Hawkeye Belle

Music Maker

Moostone

The McCartney Rose

Tournament of Roses

My Cal Poly plants were sufferrng this year having to compete with some rather large hostas. I’m moving them and they should be happier next year.

About Face was probably the pollen parent that was the most fussy. The first batch of pollen from AF resulted in aborted hips. Subsequent batches seemed to work OK. Ebb Tide was another one that gave me problems as a pollen parent. Most of the hips involving it as the pollen parent were aborted.

Here are the individual crosses that were made, which resulted in harvestable hips. Number of hips are in ().

07-01 Loving Touch x Baby Love (8)

07-02 Loving Touch x Home Run (5)

07-03 Loving Touch x JP Connell (1)

07-04 Loving Touch x John Cabot (7)

07-05 Loving Touch x William Baffin (9)

07-06 Loving Touch x Everest Double Fragrance (2)

07-07 Loving Touch x Julia Child (2)

07-08 Loving Touch x Blue Moon (2)

07-09 Loving Touch x A. MacKenzie (1)

07-10 Cal Poly x Home Run (2)

07-11 Cal Poly x John Cabot (5)

07-12 Cal Poly x Henry Kelsey (4)

07-13 Cal Poly x 06-27-2 (Morden Sunrise x Home Run) (2)

07-14 Cal Poly x Prairie Sunrise (1)

07-15 Cal Poly x Julia Child (2)

07-16 Cal Poly x A. MacKenzie (2)

07-17 Cal Poly x probably explorers (tags were eaten) (11)

07-18 Morden Sunrise x Ebb Tide (3)

07-19 Morden Sunrise x Roller Coaster (14)

07-20 Morden Sunrise x About Face (10)

07-21 Morden Sunrise x Distant Drums (6)

07-22 Morden Sunrise x Everest Double Fragrance (4)

07-23 Morden Sunrise x Caf

It’s amazing we think so much alike Liz. It’s wonderful you’re sharing this information. I used Loving Touch for several tough crosses this season and had good hip set.

After I harvested I cut the plant to the ground and discarded it. I don’t want to be tempted to use it again. It worked great but we have to move on.

I find I have to force myself to move ahead. For me that means removing temptation.

Oh, mixing Baby Love with Buck roses is a nice idea. I bet Buck himself would have used Baby Love had he the chance. I noticed he used Sunsprite a lot, and I know it’s a real PAIN to work with.

I’ve noticed that a lot of hybridizers from the states uses Baby Love. Why is that?

It is good all around here in my climate, and it is a heavy pollen donor. Also, good yellows are hard to come by. It has a near perfect yellow color in my opinion. It isnt that bright day gly yellow that ruins the landscape with it’s harshness, yet it isnt that uber fading yellow either. It is mellow yet constant.

Yeah, I know that Loving Touch is not great in terms of traits, but it is soooo easy to work with. The 2 Loving Touch x Home Run seedlings that made it to the outdoors, did not make the cut and are now in the compost bin. This is ‘probably’ the last season that I will use it extensively. However, I’m not quite sure if I’ll get rid of it, yet. I’m quite encouraged by several of the Buck roses as seed parents - Earthsong, Golden Unicorn, and Prairie Harvest have huge hips on them.

I have started discarding roses however, JP Connell is gone. Sexy Rexy, Glowng Amber, Hawkeye Belle, and Memorial Day are history as soon as I have the time to dig them out.

I agree with Jadae about the pleasantness of Baby Love’s yellow color and the ease of getting tons of pollen. It is also disease free in my climate and I am primarly using it as a donor of disease resistance. I am really curious to see the crosses with Golden Unicorn. I opted to not use it on Prairie Harvest and used Home Run instead because I’m trying to create crosses that will give me an assortment of colors. However, I suspect that Prairie Harvest x Baby Love would give you some great yellows.

I think Im one of the few in my area that absolutely hates Sexy Rexy. Nice plant habit, but defoliates from bs. Then again, Im one of the few here that refuses to spray. Glowing amber also defoliates. What is wrong with Hawkeye Belle? Ive never grown it.

Prairie Harvest mildewed here last season. I agree it’s easy to work with.

Golden Unicorn blows very fast here. I got rid of it. My Hawkeye Belle is on it’s last leg. It can be gorgeous.

Vicious prickles with some of these!

Loving Touch is VERY easy to work with and produced some nice things for me. I look at it as a stepping stone to something better.

One of the problems with these hardy crosses is the tendency toward very lack luster blossom form. I feel Loving Touch can contribute nice form, good repeat and excellent fertility. If it can help me get to the next step I’m all for it.

Liz, looks like a nice combination of crosses!

We are almost finished harvesting here, but will continue for another couple of weeks picking the stragglers…

‘Baby Love’, besides having good BS resistance (though some locales seem to have a strain the affects it), it does very well at producing powdery mildew resistant seedlings. Just like with ‘Loving Touch’ for Robert though, I have moved on and not used ‘Baby Love’ for the last two years. You have to move away from it to get more interesting possibilities of form (though I do like the singles also).

Jim Sproul

Oh, I replaced Sexy Rexy with Pink Abundance if youre needing a replacement idea. Similar, but very healthy here. Dunno it it sets seed yet.

One more Buck rose to add to the others…

Quietness-it sets hips very nicely. Nice big ones. I got the rose from the aboretum so I am not sure how well the seeds will be. Hope they are good.