This past summer I did some propagation experiments with a seedling of Carefree Beauty x Austrian Copper. I have written about it before, in the newsletter. It is once-blooming, with very fertile pollen. In coloring it matches Austrian Copper, but it has about 20 petals instead of 5. Flower longevity is like A.C. Blackspot resistance is better, though not so good as C.B. Armature and general plant architecture is like A.C. Hardy to -10F with no damage this winter, better than C.B., New Dawn, Dr. Huey, Silver Moon
I was successful in propagation from very soft cuttings grown under lights. I did this for multiple rounds, kind of like bulking up a mini. The root systems are excellent and now I’m getting above 80 % take with IBA as the rooting stimulant and a plastic bag over top to hold humidity. Once I got it going it was as easy as C.B. to root.
So I have more than 20 rooted cuttings of various sizes, some up to 6 months old. I can ship a potted up plant priority mail to anywhere in the U.S. for under $10. If you are interested, e-mail me your shipping address. After it arrives, send me the cost of postage please. It takes 2-4 days generally to get there once I get it in the mail.
Sorry for you folks in other lands but I don’t know how we’d do it legally. If you can figure out let me know. Decades ago I send rooted cuttings of antique roses to many countries in the Western Hemisphere. But rules have gotten harder.
I have no idea how many years it will take to bloom, as I have only one parent plant, which first bloomed around 20 years ago when I didn’t keep detailed notes on whether it was in just its 2nd year or not. These new ones are most likely too small to bloom, even if they’d been vernalized. I expect they will need to reach a couple ft tall to bloom. But I expect some of these cuttings will reach that in one good summer. Under lights some sent canes a ft in a month from basal breaks. Then I cut them to pieces for rooting the next round.
In case you have trouble with the auto e-mail mine is lindalarry3419 at sbcglobal dot net
I should add an important observation. Normally, Austrian Copper is one of those roses that usually we’re told to not fertilize heavily or prune a lot. But I found that these cuttings, once rooted, really take off when watered with half strength Hoagland’s solution. I’m sure you could use another soluble fertilizer in its place, but preferably one with nitrate as the N source, not ammonia or urea, if you can find one. Keep it dilute like the recommendation for regular watering levels, around a teaspoon of solids per gallon of water. I guess this hybrid gets some of its traits from Carefree Beauty, even if not its general appearance.
I’ve shipped out the requested plants. Still have a half dozen ready to go. Non-forum newsletter readers may want some too, but there are more small ones coming along. Average shipping cost was $7.50. Let meknow if you’re interested.
So far quite a few hips (~1/3)are hanging on in a cross of C.C., with Rainbow Knockout as pollen donor. Some other parents seem to work too, but were only tested on a few flowers. But this gives hope it can be a reasonably effective seed parent. Two hips that were about to drop each have a good sized seed in them, which I saved.
The pollen I used around here is getting better than 2/3 hips hanging on. Hope yours worked too.
Flower Carpet Amber accepted all but one hip with Carefree Copper as the parent. Theyre swelling nicely despite our awful weather here.
I am assuming that Flower Carpet Amber is a fertile triploid but it could be a tetraploid since Flower Carpet Pink is a triploid. I am unsure of how the combo of FCA x CC would work out but I imagine that with a pollen parent such as this, it would require one more generation for a plant of more practical garden usage. I imagine a cross like this would be useful for mauves, too CC would seem useful for mauves in general since it is a very direct line to Rosa foetida bicolor.
I used CC pollen on Goldbusch and Folksinger. I wanted to try it with a yellow or amber. I’m hoping that I’ll either get a more solid yellow, a bicolor or both. It’s probably still too early to tell but they haven’t aborted yet, so I’m optimistic.
CC would seem useful for mauves in general since it is a very direct line to Rosa foetida bicolor.