The woodsii x spice seedlings are much bigger now and im trying to determine if only two of them are true crosses or if its possible all 5 seedlings are true crosses. I tried to be so careful when pollinating for these. I ripped the petals and sepals off before the flower was able to open to try and avoid self pollination. 2 of the seedlings are growing slower and have maintained 3 leaflets on all of their leaves. The other 3 have been more vigorous and have 5-7 leaflets and look much more similar to the woodsii parent. One of the 3 also started to sucker. How easily is suckering passed on from a species parent? Are leaflets a good way to determine if the cross took? Honestly I wish i could just genotype them for repeat blooming.
I’m so hoping these are true crosses. Spice is an incredible tea rose.
The two runty looking spice x R. Woodsii seedlings transplanted to Colorado. They are incredibly slow growing but survivors. I thought they would die after transplanting because they were so small and twiggy. The other 3 have yet to be transplanted.
R. woodsii was actually the very first rose species to be observed showing signs of RRD back in the 60s. Although these days it’s probably best to assume that all the North American species have some degree of resistance, but not immunity, to RRD. Even r. setigera has tested positive for the virus as testing technology has improved.
