I would gladly donate to or otherwise graciously sponsor, a talented chromosome doubler who could double MERMAID for me.
As a mostly sterile F1, of distantly related diploids, a “tetra” Mermaid should be quite fecund, and would most likely spawn a whole family of Bracteata/Tea influenced offspring! Think about it! It’s a great idea! I would do it myself, except that I have entirely too many children playing around my plants (and I am aware of my own shortcomings
Hi Richard, there’s no need to double the chromosomes of ‘Mermaid’. Other breeders have already incorporated bracteata genes into modern roses, including those of ‘Mermaid’. It would be a better idea to create an amphidiploid of bracteata. There are those working on that so just hang on or go with the already proven fertile alternatives, not a bad thought though. Thanks, Robert
Richard,
I would strongly suggest that instead of pursuing ‘Mermaid’ that you get ‘Out of Yesteryear’ to work with as a parent. I have been using it for two years now, and it shows great promise as a parent, especially when crossed with other shrubs. It gives excellent foliage and great vigor to its offspring. ‘Out of Yesteryear’ is a Ralph Moore rose from ‘Sequoia Gold’ X ‘Muriel’ (R. bracteata X ‘Guinee’). It is highly fertile as a pollen parent, and will sometimes set seed also. This is a much easier rose to work with than any of the Hybrid Bracteatas created so far. Trust me, you NEED to explore this rose as a parent!
Regards,
Paul
I’ve heard that David Austin has a chromosome doubled Mermaid that he is breeding with. It will be interesting to see what he gets from it.
Paul’s right. ‘Out of Yesteryear’ is a great choice for pollen and has proven fairly hardy for a friend of mine in upstate New York. Mine has set hips but I’ve had no seedlings from it so far. The new Moore bracteatas using ‘Out of Yesteryear’ set OP hips as well, so there’s alot of material to work with. ‘Tangerine Jewel’ seems to be the favorite to use so far as it’s semidouble and seems to set hips easier than the other two released so far. It’s parentage is ‘Joycie’ x ‘Out of Yesteryear’. Thanks, Robert
What about ‘Pearl Drift’? I’ve heard it is fertile. I’m wondering what exactly is it, a diploid or tetraploid. I’m thinking that is a diploid because the cross between ‘Mermaid’, a diploid, and ‘New Dawn’, a fertile triploid, would result most likely a diploid. Although I think I heard somebody said that ‘New Dawn’ most likely pollinated a flower of ‘Mermaid’ whose chromosome count was unreduced-- thus a tetraploid. I’ve heard so much good things about this rose. Too bad I have very little room to spare. Maybe somebody ought to try ‘Pearl Drift’ x ‘The Pearl’ and see what hybrids may result from the influence of Bracteata, Banksiae, and Wichuraiana. I think that’s a kicking idea.
I think that ‘Pearl Drift’ could be tetraploid, or a fertile triploid.
I think this as I’ve been using its offspring ‘Many Happy Returns’ and it has no trouble producing hips with many pollens. I can’t think of any pollen that didn’t take - even ‘Martin Frobisher’ pollen produced a hip ( only tried one hip ), but the three sprouts I got didn’t make it past sprouting.
Even the self I’ve kept from ‘Many Happy Returns’ - like a smallish version of the parent - is very happy to set hips.
Rod
I havent been able to locate a U.S. source for “Many Happy Returns”. Anybody know where I can acquire one?
JonC