I tested Golden Gate’s germination with a more extensive sample (100 OP seeds) and it hasn’t been as good as I was hoping, 10% at best. I’ll let you know if the seedlings bloom and what they look like. I currently have 7 Golden Gate x OP and 1 Golden Gate x (unknown mini x OP) growing. Since it sets hips quite easily and they have on average ~15 seeds each, I guess it could be possible using it as a seed parent if its seedlings prove to be goods
I’ve had no germinations at all from Lupo this year, even though I’m sure I got several seedlings last year. The sample was 50 OP seeds.
I have one germination from See You in pink. There were only 5 seeds, that were picked in July last year (i.e., probably no more than 60 days after the hip set) in a nursery. The seeds were left to try until stratification. I guess germination would be at least decent, but the sample is too small to be sure. I planted it and I’ll try and see if it accepts foreign pollen.
I also bought Madame Anisette, Märchenzauber and Fräulein Maria von Jever. I think the last two are available elsewhere, but with different/easier names. I’ll report on these, too.
Is decent. Big hips, bunch of seed, ok germination. Seedlings from it often similar health (which has carried through to second generation). It’s a viable parent, just a lot of messy/informal flower form seedlings from it.
OP rate isn’t high, it often doesn’t open enough for pollinators (assume that’s the issue), but if you go around manually, at least 2/3rds set (if not more…there’s always a some failures).
Thank you, Plazbo!
I had seen your post on hmf where you said it didn’t set many hips, has it improved with age? I see it has also been used as pollen parent, so that is an option, too
Do you have any pics of the seedlings, by any chance?
It’s either a plant age/maturity thing, pollen choices, technique improvement (pollination or pollen storage) or environmental (has been rainy years rather than drought years) …just better hip set on manual pollinations across a lot of roses the last two seasons. Whatever the cause, MA has been setting well now.
No pictures, but I know one of them is in bud at the moment (sepals just separating showing part of the petals, so should be a few days to week for a bloom depending if we have cool or warm days…there’s no consistency with weather here) so will get a photo ASAP.
Have had a couple of seedlings I’ve kept from Dark Desire as seed parent (crossed with High Voltage)…seem to have good disease resistance so far. Momma plant not thriving though.
This one about to flower (rains are coming so may be the best photo for awhile) is technically an OP of an OP (random mixed pollen dabbing) of MA ((MA x Mixed) x OP)
the mother plant is similar plant wise but flower is less pink/cream tones and forms hips really easily (it was forming op hips from it’s second or third flower, where the seedling pictured above hasn’t set hips).
you can see the general MA type foliage carried down though.
The myrrh scent carries through too…not that I’m the best at detecting myrrh (it’s just a light chemical, vaguely licorice scent, never an over powering scent to me, never something I’d class as strong…I don’t think I’m a good judge for that particular scent)
Good to know its foliage, fragrance and health pass on.
I was wondering whether they may be some species in Madame Anisette’s background, given its peculiar foliage, color and health. It would be interesting to know
Golden Gate still kind of puzzles me. I discarded all of its OP seedlings as nothing seemed worth keepind, and I don’t have space to grow out big climbers (what I expect to get self set seeds from it) if they are less than ideal.
I have a GG × mini cross I’m testing for further breeding. I have to admit I’m not acting very rationally with this: the pollen parent is a mini I don’t actually like that has been growing in my grandparents’ garden for at least a couple decades. It is very susceptible to blackspot and smells less than plastic. I took it as a personal challenge to mine something nice out of it.
Golden Gate was able to partially increase disease resistance; the seedling still gets blackspot, and lots of it (never been sprayed), but its leaves last a couple weeks longer than its pollen parent. It may not seem a huge improvement, but it actually means that this seedling has the time to put out new leaves to substitute the old ones: the pollen parent looks bare from june onwards, this seedling keeps going and blooming.
One thing that GG gave for sure is excellent vigor. Lots of thorns too though.
Bloomwise, it looks more like its seed parent. It is very double and orange to salmon in color (pollen parent was dark red); note that it started blooming in july, so it may end up being very different in its spring flush. I expect a bloom in about a week.
The only See You in Pink seedling ended up not havinv a blotch, but had an interesting marbling to the petals. We’ll see how it does now.
Madame Anisette actually set a good amount of OP hips for me, I would say thar about 50% of its flowers resulted in a hip. I did try sowing the seeds, but I was forced to pick them at about 75 days after hip set, so no germination cpuld be explained by immature seeds. Same for SYiP
I worked a bit more with Novalis/Poseidon last year and this time I did have some luck.
In my experience, it does produce rather infertile pollen, but it’s plentiful, so it may worth keep trying. When I got hips from its pollen, I observed reduced but decent germination rates from good seed parents. Also, I did not notice specific compatibility issues (like sometimes when a pollen parent gives you 100% takes on a seed parent and none or few on others); rather, roughly 1/3 of the hips took on pollen parents with good fertility. So it may be worth one more try if a specific cross did not take.
Its seedlings tend to have good flower quality and high petal count in my (limited)
experience, so even fewer seedlings may lead to something worth keeping.
