I have been trying to collect info about some of the newish (last 10-15 years) Kordes from those with more experience with them. In the past years I hadn’t paid much attention to Kordes’ new introductions, since many of their varieties have some major issues for me (despite their terrific disease resistance). Specifically, many of their varieties seem to be prone to balling/rain damage in general (surprising, since their nursery is located near Hamburg, in a relatively wet part of Germany). Moreover, many of them tend to have a rather awkward growth abit. I’ve now started considering more important some good qualities that they have and that make them more suited for my climatic area:
- good to excellent blackspot resistance
- good spring freeze resistance
- good vigor
I was wondering if any of you had any experience breeding with any of the following (Kordes’ varieties I have/I plan to acquire):
Golden Gate (Climber)
I’ve had it for about three years, as an own root plant in a container. Excellent vigor and disease resistance, nice blooms; main drawbacks for me are thorniness and size (too big as a plant for my breeding goals). It sets many OP hips, accepts foreign pollen fairly well (about 60/70%) and its seeds do germinate (30% germination for me). I haven’t grown any of its seedling to see them bloom (I’m an expert in germinating seeds and letting them die); they seemed quite vigorous, though.
Lupo
First year plant, very vigorous and healthy. Floriferous, but dried petals hang on for too long. It sets a huge amounts of OP hips, but hasen’t done a good job in accepting foreign pollen (some crosses were quite distant, to be fair). its smaller bloom size makes emasculating blooms not easy, so it may be better for pollen. I’ve been told that it is diploid, but it tends to produce a huge amount of unreduced gametes. I’ve tried the following crosses:
Lupo x Olivia Rose Austin 2 blooms, 0 hips
Lupo x Tottering-by-gently 2 blooms, 1 hip
Lupo x Eyes for you 3 blooms, 0 hips
Lupo x R. canina inermis 15 blooms, 1 seed from a drying hip 2 months after pollination
Tottering-by-gently x Lupo 2 blooms, 2 hips
Herzogin Christiana (Earth Angel)
Nice plant, but it sets no hips and doesn’t have any anthers as long as I know
Novalis (Poseidon)
Excellent blackspot resistance, very floriferous, nice colour. It doesn’t seem very fertile, no hips for me and its pollen has been rejected a couple times. Anyhow, the variety is good enough to keep trying to use it for pollen.
Carmen Wurth (and its sport Konigin Marie)
I ordered both Carmen and the queen for next year, they seem to be very healthy and per Plazbo’s comment on HMF they (at least Carmen, but I don’t see why Konigin Marie shouldn’t) work as seed parent.
See you in pink
I don’t think anyone tried this one yet, but I’ve been seen it in a garden center recently and it looked so much better than other hulthemias. There were a couple of OP hips
Thanks to everyone who can leave a comment!