My neighborhood Lowes has “Coral Drift” and “Peach Drift” on clearance. I notice the first is listed as diploid, and a seedling of the Fairy, and both have a fair deal of Wichurana in them.
Coral is also “self cleaning” which leads me to wonder if she is sterile.
Has anyone worked with these? And how do they compare in health against The Fairy?
Thanks
I have Pink Drift and Peach Drift and their health, vigor and bloom has been impeccable. I tried crossing them to tetraploids a bit and although I got some resulting seedlings, I did not have the time ,know how and interest then to utilize them. They are both in less than ideal locations and do very well, so I assume there is a built in toughness. Another plant along similar lines is “Good 'n Plenty”; tough, good repeater, showy, blooms almost yr 'round, and I have never seen a spec of disease on it. One big improvement on these three over The Fairy, is they are much more compact with less evil thorns.
Coral Drift kept aborting for me. Red Drift didnt even want to try to produce hips. White Drift, which looks like a dwarf Rosa wichurana, sets OP hips. I never tried to use it because the blooms are so tiny, and the whole plant is like 8" tall. Pink Drift set some OP hips, but I opted to continue using Carefree Marvel and Red Fairy, instead.
On the same line of thought, Sunrise Vigorosa, another dwarf wichurana type, set some OP hips last year. The female parent is a once-blooming, light pink horizontal type. I am guessing Grouse or Partridge is somehow involved.The male parent is upright, full-flowered, and dark yellow. I am guessing the latter is a floribunda.
I do get a lot of hips on all three I mentioned. I have Cedar Waxwings that visit and pretty much clean out hips not pruned off by late Jan. I have grown the White drift, but it was not as free blooming as most of the other Drifts and was very slow to establish.
I bought Peach Drift this spring but haven’t had a chance to use it yet. I think it does have some buds so I may use it soon. Do not know if it will set hips. I may use it with Sugarbooger (Heritage X Honey Perfume) to add some fragrance.
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I’ve obtained OP hips from Pink Drift but no germination so far.
Peach Drift has been very healthy in the 1 1/2 year I’ve had it. A few small idiopathic brown blemishes, but no blackspot or pm. The flowers have a nice color change from yellow with peach trim to white with pink trim. It doesn’t accept every pollen, but roughly 30-40% of pollinations do form hips and since it flowers abundantly you end up with a good number of hips. I can’t comment on germination or seedlings yet. I think Peach Drift and Rouletii would be good ones to work with if interested in minis.
Joan, if you could intensify the yellow of your rose “Sugarbooger (Heritage X Honey Perfume)” what might it be with ?. I a sucker for yellow roses.
“SugarBooger”? Well, it’s catchy anyway… 
Strangely, I cannot find that one on Helpmefind…
So, I was weak, and bought 'em both. Peach Drift has the bonus of a little fragrance, though I detect absolutely none on Coral. A compact healthy wich.-derivative might be fun to use with some of the teas and chinas in my collection, and peach drift might work with some of the pernetiana color types. The Fairy just doesn’t have enough color potential in it as is, so I think these Drifters could be a good addition.
THanks for the enabling.