A friend of mine is very interested in trying out our wonderful hobby of rose hybridizing. He has asked me for advice on which roses would make good parents for his area. I have to admit that his request is a bit beyond my level of expertise. He wants to hybridize roses at his new home he is building on his ranch some 45 miles east of Laredo in northeastern Webb County, Texas
Start with what works. I live in zone 9 of CA. Good fragrance and germination can be found in ‘Stainless Steel’. ‘Lynn Anderson’ is a great hip setter and germinator even though it lacks fragrance, but you can put fragrant pollen on it. It is important to have success early.
Jim
Well, I’ll take a wild shot at this. It is kind of wierd to be thinking about drought tollerance – my breeding program is currently focused on producing roses which will survive in my nearly continually water-logged soil.
It seems like Saint Patrick (A yellow, slightly green tinged hybrid tea) is supposed to be exceptionally heat resistant, and I think the hulthemia/rose hybrids are suppsed to be very heat tollerant – which is certainly an interesting place to start. Other than that, I don’t know. Good luck!
Joseph.
Thanks for the help!
'Front ‘N Center’, a new red mini by Nor’East scheduled to come out in a May supplement catalog, is supposed to be a good performer with less than optimal water. Even though the Morden roses were bred for the Canadian prairies, maybe some of them will do well in this area too and be worth exploring. They get their drought tolerance from R. arkansana. The prairies can also get very hot and dry in the summer too.
Sincerely,
David