Agnes

Rose Genetics Ploidy Level
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1

Hi. I was just wondering about this rose as a pollen parent. I see that Henry Kuska had tried it as a female parent to no avail. I’ve ordered it from Pickering for this spring, and had a few questions/comments.

From what I can tell (please correct me if I’m wrong);

-this rose is triploid

-it has a recessive gene for remontancy

-it has a recessive gene for deep yellow

-it is pretty hardy

Has anyone used it as a pollen parent successfully, and what were the resulting seedlings like?

If one could get a hip from it,could it be a valuable rose in obtaining that hardy yellow climber?

Also, does it have any fragrance and how is the disease resistance in different climates?

Thanks for any additional info!

Koren in Saskatoon

2

Koren,

“From what I can tell…” Yes, to all your points.

I believe that Agnes has some (not much, since it produces very little pollen that is probably not very viable ) potential as a staminate but not a pistillate parent. I may have successfully crossed it with ‘Hansa’ last year. This cultivar is quite fragrant and has good disease resistance in cold (Zone 3) climates. I was surprised to see it repeat its bloom last year when growing in a 2 gal. container. Also, some of the flowers had a light pink colour that I had never seen before when blooming on a large shrub.

3

Koren,

See 'GSHAG' Rose and the page link below for information on my GSHAG seedling (now long gone).

The parentage listed on HMF is incorrect (belongs to my DE-02 seedling rather than to GSHAG), but the “Notes” commentary is correct for GSHAG.

Despite fertility problems (few pistils and few stamens), this seedling did set seed (one hip–one seed) in its second year. Unfortunately, the seed didn’t germinate, and the plant died that winter (1983 or 1984–my memory doesn’t serve right now), probably because it had made new growth late in the season.

Go ahead and try with Agnes’s pollen, but be sure you use something that is “automatic” as a seed parent.

I think I remember that someone else (other than Henry Kuska) was talking about making crosses with Agnes this year, but I don’t remember who it was or where I saw it. Perhaps someone else will remember.

Link: www.geocities.com/kingke.geo/Roses/peter.htm

4

Thanks for responding.

Paul,

I’ve heard too that it will sometimes repeat a bit in the fall, and I’m glad to hear the rumour is true! It seems to me like Hansa will cross with everything at least once, and I will use all of my triploid pollen on it next year, seems I have several triploids in my small collection. I wonder if Snow Pavement is the same…

Peter,

Thanks for the links, I’m glad you had some luck with it as a staminate parent. It gives me some hope. I’m sure if I crossed it with all sorts of good pistillate parents for the next few years I should hopefully find something that will set a hip, and perhaps be viable.

I’m planning to work with yellows alot, as well as try and develop real cane hardiness for climbers. I really like Kilwinning, a sister seedling of Hazeldean, does anyone know how fragrant it is? At Paul’s suggestion I will also incorporate Yellow Altai into a large number of crosses. It seems I’ve got plenty of good material right at my fingertips just waiting to be discovered!

I’m really looking forward to next season!

Koren

5

According to Leus Ph. D Thesis, page 111 of the Thesis (which is different than the PDF page number), Agnes is pentaploid (35 chromosomes).

I have 4 ((Rugelda X OP) X Agnes) 2005 seedlings growing but they have not flowered yet. The folliage of at least 1 looks something like Agnes folliage, but that could be wishful thinking.

6

The only rose pentaploid work that I could find in a “quick and dirty” literature search had to do with the special case of the canina type roses (dog roses).

The following is an abstract of a potato study:

Title:

Cytological and breeding behavior of pentaploids derived from 3x x 4x crosses in potato.

Author: Carputo D

Author affiliarion: DISSPA - Department of Soil, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Universita 100, 80055 Portici, Italy. carputo@unina.it

Published in: TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik (2003), 106(5), pages 883-8.

Abstract: “Cytology and breeding behavior of Solanum commersonii - S. tuberosum hybrids derived from 3x X 4x crosses was examined. The chromosome number of hybrids ranged from hypo-pentaploid (2n=5x - 8=52), to hyper-pentaploid (2n=5x + 7=67), with the euploid pentaploid 2 n=5 x=60 class predominant. The high variability in chromosome number of the 3x X 4x hybrids was attributed to the fact that meiotic restitution during megasporogenesis of the 3x female may have involved poles with various chromosome numbers, resulting in 2n eggs with 24-48 chromosomes. Microsporogenesis analyses provided evidence that chromosome pairing between S. commersonii and S. tuberosum genomes occurred. In addition, chromosome distribution at anaphase I and anaphase II revealed an average chromosome number of 29.5 and 29.1 per pole, respectively. To further study the extent of transmission of extra genome chromosomes from pentaploids, 5x X 4x and 4x X 5x crosses were performed, and the chromosome number of resulting progeny was determined. Ploidy ranged from 2n=4 x=48 to 2n=5 x=60 following 5x X 4x crosses, and from 2n=4 x + 1=49 to 2n=5 x=60 following 4x X 5x crosses. These results provided indirect evidence that the pentaploid hybrids produced viable aneuploid gametes with a chromosome number ranging from 24 to 36. They also demonstrated that gametes with large numbers of extra chromosomes can be functional, resulting in sporophytes between the 4x and 5x ploidy level. Fertility parameters of crosses involving various (aneuploid) pentaploid genotypes were not influenced by chromosome number, suggesting a buffering effect of polyploidy on aneuploidy. The possibility of successfully using (aneuploid) pentaploid genotypes for further breeding efforts is discussed.”

I have a copy of the full paper. From page 887: “On average 5x X 4x gave a higher average number of seeds/pollination and seeds/berry than 4x X 5x crosses, suggesting that egg cells can withstand chromosome imbalence better than pollen.”

There also appears to be some work on Blueberry.

Timothy, L., Vorsa, N., J. Am. Soc. Hortic Sci, volumn 116, pages 330-335, (1991). So far I have not been able to obtain a copy of either the abstract or full paper.