Hi All:
Well, I am trying to wind down and finish my crosses this year, but am having difficulty stopping! Does anyone else feel that way at the end of hybridizing season?
When I am about to finish, I’ll look at a particular variety that sets hips well that will be reblooming soon and then say, “I will stop after that variety is finished with the next bloom cycle”…
Then, when I finally think that I am through, I will notice that a new seedling is setting hips and I will wonder what kind of seedlings I could get by putting that pollen on it…
Okay, so I am resolved, tomorrow, I will stop!
Jim
No…you won’t. You’ll stop when nature tells you it’s hopeless!
Ain’t nature great?
‘Addicted’ is such a harsh word. I prefer ‘obsessed’.
Boy does that thought process ever sound familair!!! I told myself I was done a couple of weeks ago and then about a day or so later I was at it again! As you said, something just starts to come into bloom again and all of the sudden you think well I didn’t get try that with this other one the first round…so I’ll just squeeze in a few more…then that turns into a dozen, then a couple dozen and before you know it a few weeks pass and the crossing is still alive and well in the garden! LOL Once the 4th of July passes I think I will be less likely to continue the trickling pollinations as at that point I know most hips would be in danger of hitting our “frost window” before being able to fully mature. Quite honestly I think that is the only thing that will truly put an end to my efforst here. Obsessed, addicted, pollination fever…whatever you want to call it, I’ve got it! LOL
I have some roses that almost never set hips with the first round of flowers (Illusion is one) but which do with the second round. I am pretty sure that I had read something about that in the literature.
Not really. There is so much to do. Deadheading especially now that a lot of my large shrubs are completely mature…I still think HT’s are the easiest to maintain. The lawn…watering in the heat…spraying neem oil lol…WEEDING 
And all that jazz…so little time lol.
Of course if you are using rugosa parents, they mature hips much faster. So you don’t have to stop so soon. Dornrosen is another rose that matures their hips fast.
Joan
How much faster do Rugosas typically develope? Do they need at least two months as opposed to 3? or more like 2 1/2 months?
I’d have to say in the neighborhood of 2 to 2 1/2 months. I never kept track of dates to say for sure. Probably depends on the weather too. I’ve got OP hips on some rugosas that started blooming early to mid May and some hips are completely colored
Like you Jim, hate to quit as I always see soething else that would be fun to try. Still have a few more to go! The ones I have yet to do will be on potted plants so I can move them into the greenhouse when there is a danger of frost.
Sounds like we are a bunch of “obsessed” folk!
I have to admit that I snuck in about 10 more pollinations today. They were of:
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(‘Gemini’ X ‘Baby Love’) X (‘Stainless Steel’ X ‘Baby Love’)
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(‘Marmalade Skies’ X ‘Baby Love’) X ‘Geisha’
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(‘Tigris’ X ‘Tigris’) X [(‘Stainless Steel’ X ‘Purple Tiger’) X ‘Baby Love’]
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‘Salute’ X [(‘Stainless Steel’ X ‘Purple Tiger’) X ‘Baby Love’]
…Okay, this is the last day that I am going to do any crosses. Right??!
Jim
Nah.
Here in Tucson there’s no problem. This year it got hot so fast, I only had a 2 week window after the rose shows to do crosses before it got too hot. There’ll be another chance in Late September/early October though. However, since I currently have about 1,060 hips successfully maturing, I’m not sure how much I’ll take advantage of that opportunity. 
Gee, how does one go on vacation in this “business???”
Joan, that is interesting and good to know. Believe it or not I have over 200 roses and just now added my first rugosa…Roserie de L’Haye…and that was a gift from a rose friend! LOL I think I will be adding a few more since Roserie is thriving in a location I could not get any other roses to grow, and there is plenty of space around it for more. And now that I know I can squeeze later crosses in with the rugosas they are becoming even more attractive to me! LOL
Jim, I said yet again that last week was the last day I would do crosses…then some of my Chinas came into bloom again and yesterday I was out doing another 10 crosses. I’m at 300 crosses right now, which doesn’t sound like a whole lot to some folks, but considering 200 was my goal for the year AND the fact that I don’t have a greenhouse yet (I raise my seedlings in our basement on racks with grow lights), I’m starting to wonder where my sanity is right now! LOL My plan had been to wait until we move before building a greenhouse (long story on the “moving” part, won’t go into that)…but I’m thinking I might have to accelerate that plan a bit at the rate I’m going. LOL
Jude, vacation from this? What is that? LOL I know what you mean though. Since I made my first crosses last year I have been going non stop excluding that brief break between pollinating and harvesting last year. Since then it was harvesting and cleaning…and by the time the last hip was harvested and seeds prepped, the first seeds began germinating…sooooooooo, now that we are into this following a full cycle (two for you) I don’t think there is such a thing as vacation anymore! LOL
Actually more than that. Because of the weather in Tucson, I can get two cycles in a year. Oh my, and with a greenhouse I guess all the cycles would just run into each other!
Next up for me is to try to bud some of this year’s seedlings on to the multiflora rootstock I have here. I have no idea how to do it yet, but I have a video to watch and I suppose I better get my butt in gear, watch and get budding before too much more of the season passes me by. I’ve already sent out 1 seedling for testing, with 3 more going out tomorrow morning. I’d like to try and get enough before too many more years pass to give a go at the trial gardens one year as well.
Excellent! Let us know how it comes out! Isn’t it wonderful watching budding hybridizers from the start? No question in my mind that Michelle will be well known in the future of roses. NO question!
Awww Jude, you are kind to say so! However, I think you are well on your way there yourself with the release of one of your seedlings coming up as the official “2006 Pacific Southwest Convention Rose.” Now THAT is an exciting event in the forseeable and tangible future!! 
)
I have an upper limit of 5000 pollinations. Experience has shown me that 5000 pollinations translates into roughly 5000 seedlings the following year, which is about as many as I can cope with. I usually finish at the 5000 mark in the last week of June, possibly the first few days of July. By that point, I’m not interested in doing any more because I’m exhausted by then anyway!
Paul
Paul, 5,000 pollinations??? OH MY GOD!
(Judith Singer hits forehead with palm of hand and then passes out).