Have any of you had hips and germination from Carefree Celebration? Someone was kind enough to share some pollen with me, a variety to try for some time. However, due to recent weather, nothing else appears to be ready at the moment. I can freeze the pollen (it has already been frozen once before transit), but would like to use it as quickly as possible.
Thanks,
Tom
Carefree Celebration can set a fair number of OP hips and I’ve had plenty of seeds that I have attempted to germinate over the last 5 years. Germination is very poor (100 seeds might result in 3 or 4 germinations) and I’ve never had a cross take using CC as a female. The pollen is weakly effective and you won’t get a lot of take. That’s the bad news. The good news is that almost every seedling that has resulted from crosses (when used as a male) tends to be rather outstanding (at least to me) and the influence of CC is very evident—I can almost always pick out of a tray which ones are CC progeny. I have one seedling that I’ve been watching for a few years that resembles CC in many ways. The OP seeds from this seedling germinate much more readily than those from CC and most the seedlings tend to show the influence of CC. So, take that pollen and put it to use. You should get a few seedlings and once that happens, the fertility might increase in another generation.
Thank you! That gives me some information with which to make an educated decision.
Carefree Celebration is the father of Rainbow Knock Out and was introduced after its offspring. I counted its chromosomes and it is triploid. Thanks Julie for the encouragement to try to use it as a parent. I haven’t tried it as I thought of its low fertility. It sure is beautiful!!! I love the maroon colored new growth in contrast to the gorgeous coral/orange flower color.