It’s a little late in the year to talk about spreading pollen around, but I couldn’t help myself.
I had a bunch of Thornless Wichs that decided they wanted to throw some flowers. So this morning I put its pollen on Julia Child, Queen Elizabeth and Pinocchio. Tomorrow I’ll probably hit a few other with Thornless Wich. I’ve got Cal Poly, Spartan and Purpurea and even a couple late season blooms of R. roxburghii waiting in the wings.
I have a long growing season here so if I can get the hips to survive until the middle of November I just may get something from these crosses. If I do get some seeds great, and if I don’t…well it didn’t cost anything.
The late foraging rabbits, squirrels and rats thank you, Jeff! LOL!
Nothing that a pellet gun can’t take care of. 
I’ve gotten pretty good at picking squirrels off of fence posts.
I totally feel you on this one Jeff. I’ve only been breeding roses for a few years but because of the climate, cross pollinations take place virtually year round. It kind of works out because my results are staggered and easier to manage. I remember of January this year I harvested ripe hips, planted already stratified seed and make some crosses with ‘The Fairy’ all in the same day lol!
Andrew: The Fairy would be nice without all of those fish hook thorns. Maybe I should throw some Thornless Wich on The Fairy. Hey, why not?
I probably should have taken some pics before I plucked the the flowers off the rose. I only saw one in HMF and it’s nothing more than a mound of green canes. Maybe in the next few days.
Jeff, I’m a HUGE fan of thornless roses as well. I’ll tell you a secret I stumbled upon by chance. If you are looking to reliably pass on thornlessness then I recommend Thomas Affleck. Personally, I put it on my list of the 5 most underrated roses for breeding. I think it is not used much because of either the informal blooms or because people haven’t heard of it. I’ll tell you why it’s the bomb.com though, it is just as fertile (as a pollen and seed parent) and disease resistant as its famous mother ‘Carefree Beauty’ yet has the improvement of being completely thornless, a trait it inherited from it’s other famous ancestor ‘Basye’s Thornless’. I could be wrong but I heard there were different types of thornlessness, a recessive type and a dominant type. Well, TA certainly has the dominant type because when crossed with regular thorned roses it frequently throws out thornless seedlings. I highly recommend!
Andrew, the thornless character in Thomas Affleck came out of Basye’s Blueberry. Watch that one. It is very likely to produce very sharp, needle-like prickles as well as a high tendency to create rusty foliage. I raised many seedlings from Blueberry years ago and discarded all but Joyberry. Even it had rust issues as a young, immature plant. Fortunately, it out grew them for both Paul Barden and me. I have dabbled using its pollen on a few things and have yet to see the results. Legacy stands a much better potential for first generation thornlessness as well as less rusty foliage.
Kim, Joyberry looks amazing! I like your comment about Dr. Basye in the description. I’m definitly a big fan of his work.