I don’t see where this has been discussed, but I sold it at the beach when it was still just listed as its cross, The Gift X Sweet Chariot. It was totally clean two blocks from the water and never showed any traces of anything in Santa Clarita. It also flowered continuously in both places. The HMF page says it has been tested in Zone 4 and found cane hardy to the tips. Coming from Mike Lowe, it was bred and selected in New Hampshire, so it should be pretty good as far as arctic hardiness goes. I didn’t hang on to it because it has those awful Ballerina type prickles and I HATE digging them out of my flesh! If that isn’t an issue, it probably should be given a look for those of you who need an arctic rose. Kim
Kim,
I have had ‘Abigail Adams’ for about four years. It was given to my son as a “gift” by one of our Rose Society’s CR’s to encourage him to grow roses. The rose possesses a lot of negative (in my opinion) attributes. The flowers are quite small, and fade almost as quickly as they open. The flowers have no form, and bloom in flushes in my yard, not continually. It’s color is rose pink fading to an almost white. When the rose is blooming, the entire bush is in bloom, and there is a long pause between bloom cycles. However, it is one of only a few roses which show very little (if any) disease symptoms. I haven’t sprayed her in two years. It is extremely hardy here in zone 5, even spending one winter in a container completely unprotected and exposed to the elements. It is about five feet high and seven feet wide. I have largely ignored it because it is registered as an old garden rose (which it really isn’t) that looks and behaves like a big polyantha or shrub.
This past fall, I looked up the parentage again and found that it has a lot of miniature genes infused within it. I picked a half a dozen or so hips and just planted about 50-60 seeds. When I took the seeds out of the refrigerator, they were all germinating and had 1/4" roots already protruding from them. I’ll let you know what becomes of them.
Andy
Very cool, Andy! Good luck on neat things coming from the seeds. I’m glad someone is doing something with it. It does fade quickly, but then so do all the British apricot colored roses and everything not insipid red of the Knock Out line. The lighter colored Flower Carpets fade as quickly here as these others. Our sun is intense and relentless enough to bleach out nearly everything.
I hate the Chihuahua teeth prickles, but the PLANT is so vigorous, healthy and (in this climate) perpetually flowering, it must lead to something decent. Being that artic hardy with repeat flowering is a gift! Kim
Kim,
Over the last seven days, twenty-five o.p. ‘Abigail Adams’ seeds germinated without even really trying. I think I’m going to have enough plants to get a good idea what she made of and how the seedlings act. Since the seeds germinated so easily, she’s probably going to get her fair share of pollen dabbed on her next year. Any suggestions on some good minis to use? She’s going to need a lot of help breeding out that pink and getting some form on the flowers?
Andy
Congratulations, Andy! I’m not sure where you live nor what is clean and “hardy” enough where you are, but polling for black spot resistant minis from Paul and Burling, I added these to my “stable” this week in hopes of producing better resistance than what I traditionally used give. In the old climate, it was never an issue. Here, it is.
Cliff has some very interesting sounding larger roses, too. Pink Dancer is half Southampton and half Dortmund and looks very impressive. Rosenwunder von Schloss Hexenagger looks rather interesting to me, though I know nothing of it and Cliff really isn’t where it should have any real issues with disease. Jim Delahanty suggested to me that Paul Delepine is absolutely wonderful in a bit damper, cooler area near me. He says it is healthy, vigorous and flowers incessantly. He also suggested Happy and Bashful as the two better Seven Dwarfs for potential because of their earlier and heavier flowering than the others. I’m pouring over Cliff’s garden list to see if he has these and others of interest in the pipeline. NOW is the time! Kim
Quantity Variety
2 Apricot Twist
Kim,
Five of the ‘Abigail Adams’ o.p. seedlings already have buds on them. One has already bloomed (excellent fragrance). Three seedlings have more than one bud on them (sprays). I think she might have some potential for creating some minis, if I can get her offspring to not be so large and sprawling?
Just curious if anyone know the ploidy of ‘Abigail Adams?’ Logic would indicate diploid? Would there be any difference in the offspring when putting tetraploid pollen on a diploid vs diploid pollen on a tetraploid?
Andy
https://picasaweb.google.com/registered.in.ri/MySeedlings#5605959317272808338
Pretty, Andy. Hopefully, one or more of these will actually be selfs and might be more dwarf. I’m sorry, I can’t answer your question. I haven’t been able to determine an answer for that from Ralph Moore’s work. He just used what set the best seed, the easiest. Kim
Kim,
Seedlings from ‘Abigail Adams’ have been blooming non-stop since May. About 50% of the seedlings are fully-remontant. The other 50% all appear to be climbers. There is a pattern emerging that ALL of the seedlings that have bloomed so far have been white or very, very, very light pink. They have been blooming in sprays up to about six. Petal count varies from five to very double. The blooms are very small (about the size of a mini rose and smaller). Some of the seedings have grown to about 2’ high with roots already emerging from the bottom of the containers they are in. Growth pattern varies from seedling to seedling. Many have that horrible criss-cross growth pattern that can be hard to deal with when growing roses. Many are quite fragrant. A couple have already bloomed three times already. Not necessarily what I was expecting, but interesting.
Andy
They look really interesting Andy! There is a LOT of multiflora in them and they look it. Kim