Here is another brand new (2004 germination) ‘Baby Love’ shrub-sized seedling. It is from another favorite cross of mine: ‘Marmalade Skies’ X ‘Baby Love’. Last year I had several nice seedlings from that cross, so I repeated the cross extensively and came up with 845 seeds to plant this past Spring.
This rose is the best of the lot. What I like about it is its floriferousness and very clean foliage. I have found that ‘Marmalade Skies’ will give about 10% seedlings with an excellent amount of bloom, but you have to cross it with something clean, otherwise you will have lots of problems with powdery mildew.
My favorite seedling from that same cross last year seems even better at producing floriferous seedlings than ‘Marmalade Skies’. I think that there is a lot of potential in both parents. If you haven’t tried them and like clean floriferous seedlings, you should put them on your list for next year!
Looks nice Jim. Didn’t you post something last year that was a pink color that was extremely floriferous? Like it hadn’t been out of bloom for you yet? How did that one do?
Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6b
Whose ‘Baby Love’ wasn’t big enough this year, and was planted late enough that no useful crosses were done.
Wow, that looks like quite a bloom machine!! I am not particularly familair with Baby Love, but it sounds and looks as though I should make an effort to correct that going forward! The foliage looks fantastic as well! I am a complete foliage addict, and this one certainly appears like it would more than make the cut for me. Beautiful!
I started using Little Tommy Tucker this year for similar floriferous reasons. It blooms like you would not believe here in PA. What I found even more astounding was how hardy it proved to be. We had an extremely rough winter and most roses had to be severely pruned going into spring. However, LTT barely needed to be touched…just a little light trimming in fact. Needless to say that was enough to convince me to give it a try in my program this year. The foliage is extremely clean in my garden as well…however, I do spray…I have heard from others that it can be slightly susceptible to blackspot…so we’ll see with the seedlings. Think I will make it a point to look for Baby Love next year now as well.
Yes, I did post about a mini seedling that bloomed like crazy. It still does. This year, I have noted that it is starting to set hips (it didn’t last year), so that may slow down the blooming some. I sent it to a grower for testing and so far they seem to like it.
As for your ‘Baby Love’ plant being a small size, all you need is a couple of blooms. I have stopped using it as a seed parent. It produces abundant pollen, so that one bloom could easily pollinate 10 to 15 others.
Michelle:
I think that the floriferousness is coming from ‘Marmalade Skies’. ‘Baby Love’ is giving it the cleanliness. I do not spray in the greenhouse for any fungal diseases - just for insects and spider mites.
