Has anyone used Duchesse de Brabant as a female? I’m not getting germinations & I’m wondering if I made a mistake in cold stratifying it’s seeds.
HelpMeFind shows several descendants from crosses with this as the female, and probably many of the older ones which say only “seedling of” are also with this as female. If you’ve not given the seeds a couple of years, you may need to wait longer, or stratify longer. If the seeds have been kept for more than 2 years and you’re really careful and don’t mind risking loss of old seeds, you can try to open the seeds to see whether they’re viable.
Peter
It’s an easy seed parent but the seedlings seem more prone to damping off than some. I’ve cold stratified them with no problem.
Perhaps it was your pollen parent?
Thank you both. The seeds are from last year. They’re out of the fridge now & I’ll keep them out for a week or so before putting them back. I think I may have used Lavender Dream pollen which I think should be compatible. But I’m still wondering if warm stratification would have been better.
You might try putting them back in the fridge for a month and if you don’t see any germination bring them up to around 48 - 50 degrees F rather than room temperature. If you don’t see any germination after a month at 48 degrees put them back into hibernation and keep an eye on them.
Perhaps like Robert suggested, it may be your male. ‘Lavender Dream’ is triploid. It has been challenging for me to get even op seed of it to germinate. Perhaps it is contributing a lot of aneuploid gametes (incomplete sets of chromsomes) which can lead to many slow and weak seedlings. (there was the nice string on the forum about ‘Home Run’ as a male and the ideas developed about aneuploidy, it is also 3x) There can of course be exception and some more vigorous seedlings among the group. Duchesse de Brabant is diploid (I counted it and had it in the greenhouse this past winter for some EarthKind research). Perhaps if you use a very fertile diploid on it (or even tetraploid) you might have stronger seedlings. I wouldn’t give up using her yet.
Sincerely,
David
Despite it’s EarthKind designation, DdB is prone to Powdery Mildew infection in California.
Whatever you use as pollen parent you’ll likely have to select for Powdery Mildew resistance in subsequent generations.
Thank you all for your comments.
I get reasonable germinations from Lavender Dream, possibly because it produces so much seed. Most of the seedlings produce rangy non recurrent bloomers which produce myriads of small musk scented flowers. LD itself is not fragrant. A few are shrubby & all are healthy. One of my non recurrent seedlings is cane hardy in my garden, whereas Lavender Dream is not. This year it’s(rangy seedling)op seed gave me a very shrubby seedling which builds on itself & produces fragrant pink double flowers. Last year I got a rebloomer with single fragrant blossoms. My seedlings have to survive their first winter outside, often with long periods with no snow cover. Lavender Dream provides me with offspring that look like they belong in a much warmer climate. For me this has been a good rose. The negative is that most offspring don’t repeat. Perhaps it would be more sensible for me to use the recurrent offspring rather than LD itself. My aim is for cold tolerant roses & mildew is not a problem here with the exception of some gallicas. Anything that shows disease is yanked out immediately.
Triploids don’t faze me. I got a germination from JP Connell pollen on a Meilland or Kordes supermarket mini. It’s pale pink, not yellow. I didn’t tag the mother because I didn’t expect it to take.