Anyone use these miniatures as parents?

Looking for feedback on these miniatures as parents and their health:

Lemon Zest

Caramel Kisses

Feisty

Baby Bloomer

Thanks in advance.

Rob

Baby Bloomer is the only one fromt hat group with general health. Caramel Kisses has neat blooms on a disasterous plant. The only nice yellow mini I have seen JP ever produce is Sun Sprinkles, but First Impression, one of Jim’s creations, seems to supercede its place.

If you want a broader mini selection than JP is offering, you can get some of the Nor’East minis off of Ebay. I got Harm Saville fairly quickly. You may have to tell them to ship later if its cold. Ebay has had some nice selections this year, no doubt due to the massive decline of mail-order sources. I usually would not recommend Ebay sources either, but I have been wonderfully surprised at the source quality. Also, you can get the OSO Easy types on there, which are all mini-shrublets bred from minis. I bought Honey Bun, which is some hybrid of Shine On, a popular UK mini. It looks like it might have slight wichurana influence based on the leaves. Anyways, I would not recommend any of those on your list, personally, but Baby Bloomer might be okay, if not boring.

Oh, I guess Honey Bun is bred from one of the Flower Carpets, presumably Pink Flower Carpet. Anyways…yeah, lots of new options that are likely less disease-ridden and cold-tender. I was happy to get a hold of Harm Saville. Its a very plain miniflora, but really healthy, dark red, hardy and vigorous here. Often, minifloras are awful here. Minis usually blackspot, but, odldy enough, most minifloras have huge mildew issues. Floibundas bred from minis, in turn, usually blackspot here. There are a few exceptions, like Easy Does It.

I am currently curious as to how miniflora x Buck-type shrubs would work out. It’d be nice to have a small cut-rose that isnt a pain to keep around. I think that has been the universal appeal of Iceberg and Cecile Brunner for eons, despite any of their flaws. If the form of Iceberg didnt look like “tea buds” then I doubt it would be one of the world’s top sellers to date. Anyways … :slight_smile:

Thanks for the input Micheal. I came across offerings for these minis from Park Seed catalog and they ‘looked good’ on the page. A couple did list hardiness only to zone 7 and HMF did list disease issues with a few of them. I will check out ebay as you suggested to see what’s being offered. Thanks again.

Rob

Hi Rob,

If you do look through Ebay then keep in mind that its still February, which means that the lists rotate heavily and more will be added as the growing season begins. You also have the option to contact any of the top sellers and ask/request if they do not have something that is related to their current products. For example, I probably could have asked to be sold another Nor’East creation, like Harm Saville, and their would have been the possibility exists that they could offer more later.

Thanks for the ebay tips Michael. Maybe I’ll wait a bit longer as we get closer to spring before checking it out.