Aprikola, Carefree Celebration

General Discussion
1

For those of you in cooler zones, which one of these roses has the better cane hardiness? Or more likely to pass on cane hardiness?

2

That is a great question. I have both and love them in zone 4 here. Aprikola routinely seems more damaged by the cold and takes longer to recover. Carefree Celebration is damaged too, but rebounds like gangbusters. I have seen op seeds on Aprikola and have a friend who routinely uses it as a female. I confirmed Carefree Celebration as a triploid and it does not tend to set op hips. It has been successfully used as a male parent though by Bill Radler to produce his ‘Radsweet’ which is the male parent of the relatively hardier ‘White Out’ and ‘Sunny Knock Out’ roses.

Sincerely,

David

3

Carefree Celebration defoliates here. I was a bit surprised. White Out does similar. Sunny Knock Out seems about average. Rainbow Knock Out, which also descends from Carefree Celebration, mildews here.

I imagine CC may be slightly more cane hardy but Aprikola seems to be a wichurana descendant, which may make rooting easier. I have no idea on its relative health but the other Vigorosa series seem pretty decent.

4

Thanks guys. Both are new for me & so far both look terrific in their own way. It takes us a lot longer to get American roses. Good to know about the newer KOs before they hit our shores. Interesting that CC is triploid. Might work well on diploids. I put pollen on it. We’ll see how that goes. I have a recurrent descendent of Belle de Crecy that is healthy & cane hardy here, but needs some oomph. I wanted to use something that wouldn’t compromise it’s hardiness. RKO is perfectly healthy here, but the pressure here is from blackspot & rust.

5

I was actually surprised by the mildew on RKO. It seems to happen when dense, warm and moist air gets trapped in areas where there is less air circulation. At any rate, I did try its pollen on Princess Alice but no seeds yielded from that cross.

6

I put RKO on a rugosa, but a surviving seedling seems all rugosa. Seeing that RKO is parent of CC gives me new ideas on how to use it. I’be been ignoring it so far this year.