I’m considering purchasing this to try and work with it, I finally have a tiny bit of money to spend and I need to make a good choice on what to spend my money on, as you may have seen in other threads, I have other prospective interests and I don’t want to buy a dud that won’t contribute towards a breeding program. I’ve done that before without proper research and I’d like to nip that from happening. It seems good for a tea. Anybody work with it before? Seems like if crossed with the right thing it could help produce a good shrub.
Is it worth working with? How is disease on the East Coast? I realize it’s Earthkind and that makes it better than most but I often, being in Maryland take Earthkind designation with a grain of salt if I want to grow something no-spray.
Thanks!
Max
DdB is a pretty good pollen parent when crossed with diploids, but hasn’t been a very good seed parent for me. It is healthy here on the West Coast. I don’t know what it’s like back east. DdB was the pollen parent of my first registered seedling, Duquesa:
Link: www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.39409
I’ve had good luck with DdB as seed parent. It could be location or clonal differences are at play.
DdB has problems with Powdery Mildew. Offspring can be clean depending on what DdB is paired with.
Hi max,
A mass planting of very established DdB bushes were affected very badly with PM during my last growing season. They looked very awful when the attack was at its peak. I understand you are not asking about my climate zone, but I thought it might be interesting to note, especially for readers here from New South Wales.
I used to really love this rose, until I saw the PM look on it.
In my climate DdB sets only a few orange/red colored hips here and there.
Here in Maryland Blackspot is more of a problem than powdery mildew, which some plants get, others do not. I have noticed it’s more multiflora and multiflora hybrids that tend to get it, otherwise my only problem is blackspot.
I’d love to hear if anybody in the Mid-Atlantic has grown it, it would give a slightly better perspective, but I certainly appreciate the input, no doubt this could be valuable to anyone!
I suggest you consider Hume’s Blush. It has a cleaner center than D de B & accepted just about any diploid pollen I put on it. It also produced hips with Williams Double Yellow, a trip. It accepts wide crosses. D de B was not productive for me. Hume’s Blush blooms in clusters & the flowers are small, but the hips produced are large. One problem I’ve discovered is that some of the stems on the hips have dried out. One hip produced 25 large seeds. It doesn’t require a lot of pollen, so I guess I overdid it. There’s been a lot of blackspot in my garden this year & mildew on susceptible roses, but this one has stayed clean. Mine is a second year plant that overwintered in the garage, so in a cool climate it would probably be happy in a pot.
Comtesse de Labarthe (aka DdB), has been a good seed parent here and doesn’t get mildew for me. I’ve only used diploid pollen on it so far but it has taken all of it. Of particular interest to me was the CdL x bractaeata and the CdL x Scabrosa I have. No… wait… I tell a lie… I also put Ab. Darby on it which took as well (and vice versa). Try it as a pollen parent too (when you emasculate it keep the anthers and use them) because it produces masses of pollen and a lot of things seem to accept it. CdL hips take a long time to ripen fully here so I’m actually going to start working with it in the next few weeks really early to give it longer to mature. It’s more cold tolerant down here in Tasmania than most the other Teas (which still grow, albeit slowly). Grows easily and well from cuttings so if you can get some cuttings from somewhere you can grow it own root. I just don’t like the anatomy of the flower. It’s a pain to work with becuase to get all the pollen you really need to dig it out of the flower. There’s a deep channel around the stigma from which the anthers emerge. Because you need to get in early to avoid selfing with CdL you have to dig all the anthers out… just a fiddly pain in the butt really.
“It’s a pain to work with becuase to get all the pollen you really need to dig it out of the flower. There’s a deep channel around the stigma from which the anthers emerge.”
This is true, also the stigma are sometimes not well formed.
I pick and chose blossoms to work with. I had plenty so it was easy to do.
Is CdL a confirmed diploid???
Yes, CdL / Duchesse de Brabant is a confirmed diploid. I got a plant from Chamblee’s Rose Nursery and counted it.
