I made a road trip to northern Norway and Lofoten archipelago last week (a rather popular destination for those Nordic holiday makers who don’t care about the sun and beaches). Tromso (69°40′58″N) botanic garden was a fantastic place with it’s stunning meconopsis collection blooming, and thousands of candelabra primulas. The rose collection there had typical species roses and a few hybrids commonly grown in Scandinavia. However, in the public and backyard plantations I came across a very large rose that was totally unknown to me. I considered R. roxburghii and someone suggested a Rosa davidii hybrid called ‘Syvdal’ by Axel Olsen. The puzzle was (most likely) solved a few days later, when we visited an excellent garden center in Narvik (68°26′ 21″N) close to the border to Swedish Lapland. There, I found a selection of suprising, cutting grown roses for sale. I think the rose I saw in Tromso was Rosa holodonta ‘Tromso’. They also had a selection of Rosa moyesii for sale. Arctic Norway is probably the last place where I would have expected to find these species!
From Wikipedia:
“…a Swedish company (Gällivarre Aktiebolag) built a railway to Narvik, as the port there is ice-free thanks to the warm Gulf Stream…”.
Yes, the winters are relatively mild on the Atlantic coast due to the Gulf Stream. Otherwise it would be tundra, as it is at the same latitude just 20-30 kilometers inland, towards east. What is lacking even in Helsinki (at the same latitude as Anchorage) is summer heat, and all the more in northern Norway. I would have though that moyesii relatives require summer heat but apparently not, at least not all clones.
Jukka
Helsinki, Finland
I can send you moyesii seeds.
What might the moyesii-related species have to offer as for breeding, particularly in cold climates? XXL-sized landscaping roses? Disease resistance? Your expert views are very welcome. Both the holodonta Tromso and moyesii clone I bough in Norway had a few flowers left so I was able to collect pollen.
Jukka
Helsinki, Finland
I can only say that some, but not all, moyesii f1’s do ok here in zone 5a and that, in a cold climate, XXL size tends to be diminished to L or M. My moyesii sp. is only shoulder-height and arm-wide. It is cane hardy, though.
As a mother it is refractory to hybridization - the ploidy differential is too much to overcome, apparently, although it sets hips so is self fertile. As a pollen parent it is quite fertile though finicky about partners.
My most interesting moyesii hybrid is F2, actually, being Eddies Jewel x Persian Sunset iirc. I think I posted this before.
I have hybrids with Joycie, Incantation, a couple others. The canes and growth habit tend toward leggy papa, the flowers tend toward mama but are bigger. My particular moyesii is completely thornless but the hybrids have light prickles.