Basye wrote that he’d used all but one of the “Bulls” to create black spot resistance. He said, were he to do it again, he would have included Wichurana in the mix, then raised selfs to fix the thornless character and work forward from there for repeat. I wonder how including his Thornless Wichurana would work into this? I just haven’t done it, too many “balls in the air”.
I forgot about “Softlegs”, the Softee X Legacy cross which was a neat, healthy, bushy, continuous flowering plant in Santa Clarita. Perhaps Robert Rippetoe still has it as I culled it due to rust once I moved the roses from Santa Clarita to Encino. I couldn’t keep it clean and I don’t spray for any reason. I know it was fertile and he raised some seedlings from it. I didn’t.
What you choose to cross Legacy with makes a world of difference. I’ve liked the results of it with minis best of all. They’ve tended to be more dwarf, bushy, incessantly flowering plants. Using Ralph’s minis has helped keep the thornless character best as his are great for thornlessness. Much of that came through Little Darling and his selection seemed rather skewed toward that trait.
I’d chosen Torch of Liberty because it contained a diluted form of Wichurana; contained Orangeade which produces larger flowers with very saturated pigments; and was marvelously healthy in Santa Clarita. Lynnie came through exactly as I’d expected (hoped!) and is the most “engineered” seedling I’ve been fortunate to raise. I wanted to make sure the result would root easily, grow well own root, and Paul Zimmerman told me years ago that not only did she have remarkable health and cold hardiness, even in New Hampshire and where she’s been grown in Europe, the plant flowers at a very young, small size.
The only disease I’ve encountered on either Lynnie or Indian Love Call is slight rust on foliage from the previous year which hadn’t been shed because the winter was too mild to force them to shed the leaves (both are fairly deciduous, which seems to maintain their health). Otherwise, no black spot, which agrees with the many reports Paul Zimmerman received from around the country about her black spot resistance; absolutely no mildew anywhere and no rust except for the few instances found on pervious year’s foliage. Downy isn’t generally an issue here, to the best of my knowledge, so I’m not sure how resistant she would be to that.
If Legacy flowers this year, which seems a big “if” due to the severe eating it suffered last year from the rodents, I hope to cross it with minis healthier in this climate, most notably, Pink Petticoat. If Torch of Liberty, with its issues in a more humid climate, can produce something as decent as Lynnie, what might something even healthier here produce?
