I am planning on making a trip to Great Lakes Roses and they have all four of these roses. Are there any differences for use in breeding between Westerland or Autumn Sunset? How about Livin’ Easy or Easy Going? If you had to choose one or two of the four, which would they be?
Thanks,
Mike
It has often been suggested that color sports of roses probably do not have breeding properties differing from the variety they sported from. There will only be changes in its breeding characteristics if the mutation is also in the layer of tissue that governs the reproductive parts of the plant. There may be no advantage to choosing a sport over the original.
Regards,
Paul
I have seen that to some degree, Paul. However, I have noticed that some descendants of Easy Goin are more prickly than those of Livin Easy. If you see them both, you will note Easy Goin has a rather unusual spiny-ness to it. I imagine that a minor % of color sports have other transferable traits.
I like Autumn Sunsets appearance over that of Westerland. When it comes to Autumn Sunset offsping, I see a very strong ‘Westerland’ like influence. More of the orangeish tones. That what I have seen from 2 hybrids anyhow. 1 of mine and 1 from Mike Lowe. Mine is Autumn Sunset x Applejack. It produces gobs of little single pink and organge blend flowers. The Mike Lowe hybrid, Irenes Delight is Autumn Sunset x William Baffin and has very similar flowers to my Autumn Sunset x Applejack. The flowers are larger on the WB cross and have a deeper color.
Link to Irenes Delight on HMF