Well, remember “Mongol’s Hat”? After quite a while, it finally flowered, and I have to say, it’s a remarkably floriferous little thing! Small flowers that are purplish-pink (might change next year) and a really nice fragrance to boot. Unfortunately the last two weeks have been utterly miserably–abnormally humid and very hot, with lots of hail. But at last, slowly, some undamaged flowers came along.
They don’t look at all like Mom!
In the photo below, I have a similarly heat-stressed Nightmoss (upper, and two “Mongol’s Hats” (on the left. I was immediately struck by the difference in mossing first (where MH has moss it has -way- more than its mom does!). But there was also something familiar about the petal texture, the color, the way the color is distributed on the petals, the way the flower opens, from a ball, as seen here – and there, right across the walk, was Veilchenblau! They even have a very similar fragrance! So, I’m wondering… hmmm…
I’m going to try to cross Mongol’s Hat with Veilchenblau both ways and see what happens. I wish there were a true “paternity test” for these open-pollinated roses!
I’m also going to see if I can propagate “Mongol’s Hat” because it has an awful lot going for it!
What do you think?