First germinations of 2026!

Welcome to the party!

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I’ll share one I’m quite excited for.

Grande Dame x Cardinal Hume

The growing bud started out red, then grew darker to a blood red. Even darker than pictured here.

When it reached the below stage of opening, it had an intense, intoxicating old rose fragrance. I couldn’t stay away.

As you may know, red is hard to capture. The bloom is actually a darker red and has blotches of dark red, almost black on the petals.

Then finally it opened fully. 50+ petals. 1.5” flower. Transitioning to a rich magenta. The scent at this point is still strong except slightly less. But now (@roseseek you may be interested to hear) the scent is the Cardinal Hume, Red Hots scent. So much stronger than my Cardinal Hume.

The leaflets are pleasant as well. The underside is red as it develops and fades away over time

I, unexpectedly, am pleased with the result of this cross. Now, just need to see it mature and test fertility to determine where I can improve it.

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I literally gasped at the first photo.

The rest did NOT disappoint!

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Sweet!

It will be cool to see how the flower form and color change as the plant matures (or gets sunlight. I assume it is under artificial light now.)
Now if it just shows a modicum of disease resistance…

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Glad you could appreciate it as well :grin:

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Another thing to test is fragrance strength. As long as that stays I’d be happy. BS is likely, given the cross anyways so.. but we’ll see. It will just be another zone of improvement

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A lovely rose without scent is always a disappointment. I feel bad for saying it; it’s not the roses fault.

But still. :+1:

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I can fully agree with you. The fragrance is an important detail what makes the rose so exceptional and charming.

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The first one bloomed. Quite pleased with it. Very excited to see how the colors age over the next few days. I was surprised to see it already pushing new growth, as most seedlings usually stall out while the first bloom forms. Has a nice fragrance too.

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Not had Albino seedlings before, I imagine they will die but kind of intrigued to see if they green up

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This season, I got a record number (55) of seeds from a single hip (Candy Apple x Maria Callus). Of those, I have 30 germinations so far. None of them are knocking my socks off yet, but the range of colors and forms I’m getting is pretty remarkable. I’ve had white, light pink, electric pink, yellow, dark red, and several shades of apricot. Single to very double. No fragrance to very fragrant. Here is a group of them all blooming together today, about 5-6 weeks after germination.

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Scattered germinations from some of my own crosses, including a handful already of

‘Karl Herbst’ x ‘Elina’ (vigour & health, to use for flower size and form in later shrubs)

…but I’m proudest of this one in the picture! It’s seed parent ‘François Juranville’ gave me some lovely little shrubs and I used my own seedling’s pollen on it. An OP seedling from ‘Mutabilis’ and bee-carried pollen from ‘Trier’ should give a slightly higher percentage of rebloom and larger clusters of flowers. I’m hoping warm-blends predominate and I get some fragrance. Health should be good, as all the parentals are quite disease-resistant in my climate.

Or they could veer tea, multiflora, wichurana,…

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Bright gold!! lol

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Keep us posted on if it greens up. Sadly my albinos seedlings never got there chlorophyll. Isn’t trier the start of the hybrid musks?

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Yup. And that’s why I had to have a plant of ‘Trier’! It sets lots of hips, and the seed germinates easily. Finding anything of worth from its OP seed has eluded me, but bees have taken its pollen to other OP flowers and given me LOVELY offspring, so maybe it’s pollen is easier to use?

‘High Country Banshee’ x ‘John Davis’. I had a seedling from this cross last year that didn’t flower but overwintered fine in the bed I stuck it in. I remain optimistic about the potential for this seed parent. This one seems to have more vigor than the previous year’s seedling. Hoping my crosses with ‘Above and Beyond’ will pop.

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OP setigeras, maximowiczianas, and gymnocarpas. For the former I’m hoping to try something like a rambler with ‘Snowball’ pollen when they flower. For the latter, I am not sure. I got way too many species seedlings to manage this year, including some Virginiana I collected in the woods. The setigeras seem to be outgrowing an initial chlorosis.

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