Carefree Sunshine

General Discussion
1

On one of the garden. forums there was a thread as to which yellow rose was the most blackspot resistant. Several people answered Carefree Sunshine. I asked which of the above roses set hips? An answer came that Carefree Sunshine set many hips.

Today I went to a nursery to see what was left. They had a bunch of Carefree Sunshines for half price. None had hips but the salesperson said that they deadhead their roses. I purchased one. They are still blooming. I plan on collecting pollen and freezing it for next springs early bloomers. I will also probably try some of the pollen on Illusion as it still has new flower buds forming.

Unfortunately, the parentage of Carefree Sunshine is only given as (seedling X seedling).

2

I don’t have the RHA newsletters right here at the office, but I believe while I was editor Bill Radler sent me the full pedigree of Carefree Sunshine and I included it.

I found it to be a very blackspot resistant rose as well. It just has had rust for me. It sets hips very well. Unfortuantely, almost all of the seedlings I have raised from it from crosses with Explorers and other shrubs have fallen apart to blackspot. A breeder in Texas told me that a similar thing occurs with Knock Out- it is holding up, but basically all of its seedlings fall apart. Perhaps the extreme resistance of these roses is due to the interaction of more than one gene and at meiosis favorable interactions are broken up and it is difficult for progeny to obtain the same favorable combination of genes-alleles.

Anyway, Carefree Sunshine is a beautiful, blackspot resistant rose that sets hips easily and hopefully in combination with the right parent can produce some very worthwhile seedlings. It is also a confirmed tetraploid.

Sincerely,

David

3

Thanks Dave, I looked it up and it was given in the summer 2001 issue, page 6. It is quite complex with many unnamed seedlings.

Carefree Beauty is 3 generations in.

4 generations in are Gold Badge, Rise n Shine, Gold Badge again, Gold Badge again, Spotless Gold (HRug), and Gold badge again.

5 generations in are Playboy, Dornroschen, Fairy Moss, First Prise, Playboy again, Playboy again, and Dornroschen again.

6 generations in are Tampico, Applejack, Golden Jubilee, Applejack again, Faberge, Eddie’s Crimson, Tampico again, Applejack again, Tampico again, Applejack again, Faberge again, Eddie’s Crimson again, Golden Jubilee, Applejack.

Faberge again, and Eddie’s Crimson again.

In the trees, once he got to a registered rose; he did not list any more parents in that branch.

There are two approaches that I recommend trying when what you describe is happening with Carefree Sunshine’s offspring:

  1. if the initial crosses to the Canadians did not give anything good, cross the F1s back with Carefree Sunshine.

  2. an “all or nothing” bet is to cross Carefree Sunshine with a lot of diploids. Possibility, this will allow the important genes to stay together in at least a few of the triploids formed.

4

I’m not understanding. Will anybody write out the parentage exactly how it is? Thanks…

5

Hi Henry,

Carefree Sunshine forms many hips which germinate well. I had horrible damping off which killed every seedling, so I cannot tell you the color, form, etc of the seedlings. It is difficult to cross-pollinate because the pollen drops very early and even when I remove the pollen in time, it does not seem to accept foreign pollen very well. I does produce a lot of viable pollen, however, so it may work well as a pollen parent.

Shane