Apologies for a very newbie question; I’ve never tried breeding or hybridizing any manner of plant & have no amateur nor professional background in any relevant field. Did not even know what a rose hip was beyond maybe an ingredient in some kind of niche food/cosmetic product until last month.
Just wanted to see if anyone more knowledgeable than I (so, literally anyone who would be on this forum) could set me straight if I am, say, doing the plant version of pasturing two geldings together & wondering why I’m not getting any foals. I was also going to see if any hips form ‘naturally’ on a Dick Clark & a Wollerton Old Hall, just out of curiosity & to hopefully at least get some seeds from something so I can test out the additional novel-for-me processes of stratification & germination. If these are known to be sterile or something, a course correcting note would again be most appreciated.
I am sorry this is such a one-way ask as I have nothing to contribute; please do not feel obligated to offer any pointers unless doing so humors you. Thanks either way!
I agree with plazbo, use the search bar to search for the earth angel thread we have going, it will get you up to date on the progress with it. I was able to germinate one seedling that has survived from an OP hip (its been years of trying). Others have either aborted or never germinated. Earth angel is tricky.
Welcome to the hobby, which will probably become a mild obsession soon enough! As is already established, you may be slightly disappointed if you were hoping for a very seed-fertile Earth Angel. Luckily, there are plenty of roses out there that do reliably produce easily germinated seeds. Knowing approximately where you are in the world would probably help us to make more useful suggestions. Dick Clark has been recorded as a pollen parent; I haven’t grown it and couldn’t comment on it beyond that.
Ah, sad, but thank you, Stefan. For the first round I was using EA for pollen; maybe it is not good in this role either? Unlike everywhere else I’ve ever lived, I’m now enjoying Oregon’s easy-mode climate, on the border of 7A/7B zones. Thanks for the note on DC for pollen, I’ll be sure to give that one a shot
Mm, gotcha. I’ll look for some known to be easy (that I at least kinda like) so my sketchy 1.0 techniques stand a lesser chance of killing everybody. Thank you for the info!
Thank you, I hadn’t found this forum prior to choosing round one & just picked some of my personal favorites w/ different strengths. I’ll check if some other plants I have/like enough to bother with come up in searches. Years of trying? Whoa, good for you! I hope it turns out something neat for your persistence.
If the seedling ends up being worthwhile, i can probably send you a propagated cutting eventually. The seedling is showing great disease resistance and vigor so far. I just dont know who the pollen parent is, but i may be able to make educated guesses once i see the flower and hip.
Usually someone pipes up with an invitation to join helpmefind [HMF], the roses section. As a resource for finding suitable parents there is no contest. Enter any rose to find out who its ancestors are and the number of generations of offspring including all their names. Each rose links back to a page with details of characteristics plus member images. I also found the comments sections very informative. (As a newbie myself I can vouch for the usefulness of membership of this site).
I am not many years into crossing roses. One rose you see in some David Austin roses’ pedigrees is Aloha, which is easy to cross and gives a wide range of progeny in terms of colour and style of flower as well as imparting health and vigour. It certainly gave me a lift .
Well, thank you for being the one to do it in this instance I did notice that site linked in the Earth Angel thread suggested & thought about checking it out, but now I certainly will
Thank you for the suggestion! Being both a pink-hater & no big fan of climbers, that is definitely one I don’t have at the moment, though if you say its progeny have proven potential for other colors/forms, I’ll give it a shot. Has it been more successful for you as seed or pollen parent?
Going to have to set up a site in some distant back pasture to grow the ones I hate looking at but need for reproductive materials
Aloha works as seed or pollen parent, and gives vigour to progeny without necessarily any climber characters. It has mixed parentage and will give surprises and is definitely not a generic pink. Lack of vigour in any crosses in the UK variable climate is a definite problem.
I did notice that site linked in the Earth Angel thread suggested & thought about checking it out, but now I certainly will 