Having suffered through heat-wave after heat-dome after “just keep em watered, they’ll make it”, which coincided all too regularly with flushes of bloom, the only seed from MY pollination was Karl Herbst onto Quadra quite late in the season, with the hope & faith that the hardy-parent would mature seed in time, which it did! They haven’t shown signs of life yet, but…
One seedling of OP ‘Golden Wings’. I had a nice-enough single yellow from OP seed last year, but culled it because it wasn’t prettier than its parent.
The first of dozens of OP ‘Bonica’. I have a love/hate relationship w the ubiquitous and ridiculously-pink ‘Bonica’, but it does what a rose is supposed to do, THAT IS CERTAIN! I like many of its offspring, and I’d like a breeder from it in a colour I can stand.
And one from OP ‘Laura Ford’, which I adore for its unceasing show of little roses like miniature ‘Peace’es. Also a fair to good history of fertility and some very attractive descendants.
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I don’t grow Bonica myself, because it’s
everywhere around me. It does well here, shaking off blackspot and blooming continuously under very trying conditions along boulevards and foundations without spraying. So I avail myself of free OP hips here and there during the summer and fall, and hope for something in a colour I can stand.
Y’all were NOT kidding about the size of seeds from ‘Dainty Bess’! But I have one germination from op seed so far. It lives beside ‘Mrs Oakley Fisher’ and ‘Mutabilis’ (singles are very likely), but ‘Graham Thomas’, ‘Iceberg’, & ‘Julia Child’ are also nearby. Bess is amazing here on Vancouver Island, making a sturdy LARGE shrub if allowed.
And for bragging rights: I have two seedlings from OP ‘Golden Wings’ so far, and that’s a 100% increase over last years’ germinations!! Lol
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The row of ‘Bonica’ OP seedlings was SO THICK…
(Crowd) “How thick was it?”
…that I took a kitchen fork, dug out large clumps of the seedlings through the entire row, potted up a flat of 32 individually, tossed maybe a dozen, and then tried to spread out the ones remaining in the seed-box. They’re still germinating!
I’d guess I have a hundred seedlings?
Now just ONE OF THEM needs to be not-pink. And fertile!
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Paul once observed that it was extremely difficult to get anything that wasn’t either pale pink or white out of Bonica, but there is the occasional breakthroughs. I am rather liking Beales’ Bonica baby, “Ivor’s Rose”. Not just a richer shade of magenta-pink, but surprisingly fragrant.
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Paler, blush to white OR deeper, veering toward “red” would be most excellent. It’s the Pepto Bismol/Bonica shade of pink that I find objectionable and unnecessary. lol
The ubiquitousness of Bonica around here is hard to take nonviolently. Same reaction to ‘Pink Princess’ Escallonia, if I’m being totally honest.
Awful.
Perhaps unsurprisingly,
not a single loss from my “I’m going in with a kitchen fork” mass transplanting, both the individual pots AND the respaced row they came from in the box.
They’ll all be bleh-pink to spite me.
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The remainder of the OP Bonica seedlings on the right, after removing forkfuls then tucking them back into a row. They all seem unperturbed.
To their immediate left is a row of OP Outta the Blue, which I LOVE because it grows and flowers so beautifully here. I’m excited to see what comes from these seeds, and have a short-list of pollens I want to hit it with this season!
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Germinations so far:
Box#1,
Trier - 5
Laura Ford - 31
R rugosa ‘Alba’ - 73
Dbl White Rugosa - 3
Democracie/aka Blaze, Improved - 1
New Dawn - 3
Etoille de Hollande - 0
Don Juan - 0
Box#2
Abraham Darby - 1
Bowen Park yellowDA - 0
Bowen Park DKO - 0
Bowen Park lil hips - 0
Rugelda - 1, with two others eaten by slugs. Grrr.
Westerland - 0
Moonlight in Paris - 0
Lavender Crystal - 0
Loving Touch - 0
Work of Art - 3, w two others eaten by slugs.
Roller Coaster - 0
Laura Ford - 22
Nymphenburg - 0
Box#3
Golden Wings - 2
Graham Thomas - 1
Knock Out - 0
Prairie Princess - 1
Love - 0
J P Connell - 0
“Moonstone”/prob ‘Souvenir de Baden-Baden’ - 0
Bolero - 0
Bull’s Eye - 0
QuadraOP - 0
Quadra x Karl Herbst - 0
Lambert Closse - 7
Tiffany - 0
Mrs Oakley Fisher - 0
Iceberg - 1
Outta the Blue - 12
Bonica - 48, +flat of 32
Box#4
“Orange Alley Barbier” XLseed - 0
“Orange Alley Barbier” lilseed - 0
François Juranville XLseed - 11
François Juranville lilseed - 5
Night Owl - 0
Trier - 5
Topaz Jewel - 0 (one seed found)
Martin Frobisher - 0 (six seeds planted)
Dainty Bess - 5
Unknown - 1
“White Mediland-types” - 9, + one albino seedling.
Mutabilis - 14
Lotta disappointment this season, with few-to-no seedlings from some known parents. Last season was a freaking gong-show, weather wise, with EXCELLENT germination from Rugelda, then they were all killed by a late frost. Same with the majority of germinations from Alchymist, which got a hard prune last summer and no seed was sown this season.
As things look this season, I may have to shuffle some of the pollen to other targets if I want the seedlings to show for my work. I’m sad not one of the (Quadra x Karl Herbst) seedlings has shown itself. I’ll try again this year, as I think the cross has some merit.
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ONE WEEK LATER:
Ch-ch-ch-changes. Turn and face the strange.
Box#1
Laura Ford, +7 new germinations
R. rugosa ‘Alba’, +14
New Dawn, +2
Box#2
Bowen Park DKO, +1
Work of Art, -3 no surviving seedlings
Laura Ford, -3 roots eaten off!?
Box#3
No changes
Box#4
“Orange Alley Barbier” XLseeds, +1
François Juranville XLseeds, +1
François Juranville smseeds, -2
White “Meidiland-types”, +2
Obviously, the OP rugosa ‘Alba’ wins. Nature help me.
And just like that: KaBLOOM!! First bud on an outside germination of OP ‘Mutabilis’ spotted May 6. Finally got a germination from ‘George Burns’ too.
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I was forced to break down one of my seedling boxes early. I kept finding seedlings of ‘Laura Ford’ eaten off at soil-level. Strangely, only those seedlings were affected; the lone ‘Abe Darby’ and two of ‘Rugelda’ on the other side of the box weren’t touched. (That’s nice, because they were the only seedlings to appear from those parents.)
I dumped it out directly after potting up the remaining seedlings (shown here), and saw nothing obvious, but I’ll give it a few turns with a trowel before I plant a dahlia in the tub.
C’est la effing vie, non?
