Here is what these two gigantea seeds (pericarps removed) look like this morning (~24 hrs later), after being taken out of the baggy in preparation for direct sowing into germination media:
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The two seeds pictured above here (pericarps removed) germinated a few days back in the warm weather without trouble.
Here is what they look like this morning:
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Update:
I threw out the last remaining embryo, splitting hairs if it was alive or dead…obviously the idea of putting the embryos in the fridge in wet paper towel and zip-lok baggy was useless (not surprised).
The remaining seeds (pericarps removed) however mostly all seem to be ok…no new germinations beyond the first two pictured further up.
LOL a slug decimated one of the two seedlings pictured (the smaller one), dang!!!
Final result:
All the remaining seeds (pericarps removed) were easily squashable and pasty (= all dead).
Using unripend hips (green, mid-summer derived hips) resulted in 100% failure to germinate by all means.
All the embryo culture attempts failed (including the embryos from fully colored/ripened mid-winter hips).
The only success was 2/6 seeds which germinated at about the 4 week mark after their pericarps were removed and the seed was then placed in a 5-6 celsius fridge in wet paper and plastic zip-lock baggy (those seeds came from fully colored hips harvested during mid-winter in France).
Here is what the remaining R.gigantea seedling looks like today (the other one which had germinated was killed by slugs):
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This germination is from the French seed supplier, and the seed parent was derscribed by him to be one of his “Chinese-type R.gigantea”…whatever that means!!
…
Here it is today, 11 days older.
It was repotted yesterday, soaking in the full sun all day, and also minus aphids (thanks jbergeson for the imidacloprid recommendation, yes it works like a charm alright!!).
It already shows some gigantea resemblance, I love it…wonder how long till blooming time for this one?!
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Congratulations, Dad!
LOL~
Please try not to laugh (too hard)…
:O)
The love affair I had with this gigantea seedling went out the window when it started to get that Christmas tree + snow flakes appearance (PM). As a result, it has been culled.
My gigantea fascination is already over.
George as your facination with ‘Gigantea’ is over have you any seeds left ?
All seed was used up on these trials here, there’s none left.
Hmmmm…ya should have jumped and asked for it when when Don said he couldn’t accept it, I would have given ya half of it.
Never mind.
If you really still want seed try:
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Asking other Ozzies here (it would not surprise me if some have gigantic gigantea pet roses in their back yards).