Anyone wanting some CC pollen, send a private message. I’ve pollinated about 50 of them, with Rainbow KO, just discarding the pollen. I could collect, dry and ship if you are interested. A few of its once-blooming offspring are in bloom now too. Some very like it, others with yellowish, or incandescent red petals. Some flowers larger, with more, or less petals. The yellow central eye comes through from Austrian Copper pretty well into the 2nd generation, in crosses with a yellow-bearing parent.
I’d like to try it again, but it is really early here.
What can I say except- chill out. I presume that if I ship it dry you can store it frozen, or at least cool and dry. I let it sit round for a couple weeks at least at RT and still get good results. Have not pursued freezing with it, but I believe someone has done that with CC pollen. We are at least 3-4 weeks ahead this year. What kind of summer will we have??? Already harvesting lettuce outside.
Im all for chilling out, lol.
Larry,
How many years does it take for Carefree Copper to bloom? I have the plant you sent me, and it it about two years old (three feet high)?
Andy
Well, I don’t recall for the original plant, it was developed in the 80s. But from the cuttings I took all through the winter of 2009/ 2010 and planted out for the summer in 1 qt containers, the majority bloomed last spring (2011) while less than 1 ft high. As did a band of Soliel d’Or from CA. Now with canes of 1-3 ft they are in full bloom. Offspring of C.C. with Carefree Sunshine, Carefree Beauty and others took about 3 years to seriously bloom though some had a couple flowers in year 2. (I mean the ones that were once-bloomers). A decent fraction of the C.C. crosses with repeat-bloomers produce flowers at 6 weeks.
Hi Larry,
Is CC female fertile or is it best to use it for pollen? I know there have been plenty of posts about CC but I never paid much attention as I didn’t have the plant. However, someone shared a rooted cutting with me last year and it grew very rapidly. I kept it in the root cellar over the winter and I’m hoping to get blooms this year as it is easily 3 feet tall–even after a bit of pruning. Do you know how hardy it is in Zone 3B?
Julie
Hardiness would presumably be about halfway between Carefree Beauty and Austrian Copper if the usual rules hold. Perhaps a bit more toward AC based on apparent growth habit. Never have lost any part at short excursions to -10 F over the decades. Now we’ve not seen that cold for several years so I can’t say more precisely. I know that AC handles winters round Denver just fine and C.B. gets by with considerable damage up in northern MN.
I’ve not used CC as a female parent much. It is completely self-incompatible. With Carefree Sunshine and Rainbow KO I get about 1 seed per pollination (1/3-1/4 pollinations take with a couple-3 seeds in the hip.) In 2010 I got 160 seeds from 73 hips that took with RKO. Last year I didn’t have a chance to pollinate it more than 5 days of the flowering season.
I tear off the petals with thumb and forefinger of one hand while holding the receptacle with the other. Then take the stamens off into a plastic petri dish to dry for use on other plants. Then put pollen of choice on what’s left. If I stick with one pollen per plant I don’t even need to tag them individually.
Germination of CC seeds is not all that great, maybe 30 % with CS pollen. From 2010 I got 88/160 with RKO pollen. But as a pollen parent is doesn’t prevent germ either. Some crosses give >50 %
On a lot of cv’s just the stem gets tagged and as the rest of the flowers get ready the same pollen is used, saves time. Neil
Larry,
The numbers are helpful. Thanks for answering all my questions.
I think that I will try it on Yellow Brick Road now that I know YBR is such a heavy germinator that can bring on compact architecture. Blackspot, on the other hand, is not not an issue with YBR, but I doubt it has any specific genetic defenses to it, either. However, it seems like a good bridge.
YBR is definitely one I would be using if I could find it. But I got lost in the double negative. How does YBR handle BS in your area?
BTW, CC pollen sticks on most everything I’ve tried it on. Just seeing blooms of the once-blooming progeny with Carefree Beauty and Carefree Sunshine. They are not free of BS but are reasonable. Most are colors like AC or CC, some paler, more gold. I’ve recreated the Pernetiana color range along with its disease resistance.
I also have hopes for CC x RKO. First bloom this week, scarlet on yellow. Like CC but short internodes. More babies yet to show their colors.
YBR doesnt get BS in my area whatsoever. I was only implying that it itself may not specifically aid in defying the proneness of Rosa foetda genetics.
I had to get YBR locally, and it was a pain in the (beep) to track down. After giving once, I just used the sales agents at Bailey to track it down for me. I bought two and sent one to a friend, in which I washed all of the soil off, cut the branches into a sphere, and water-proof wrapped it, in order to be shipped far away.
rosefire.com has 1 gal own root yellow brick road in stock for $13.
Shipping can be pricey depending on how far from ohio you are.