I have been “playing” with open pollinated hips just to learn how to grow roses from seeds. This past fall, collected hips from my climber, Florentina. When opened, the hips had such a fresh sweet fragrance like pumpkins! I have over 60 seedlings! Has anyone used Florentina in their breeding program? Will the new seedlings be climbers as well? Thanks for your insight!
Here,in zone 4,“Florentina” bears few fruit.I sowed a few seeds,afew sprouts sprouted easily.Polination is free.The following year,2024,one bloomed in outdoor condition.I dont know if it will be a climber.The flower is similar to “Florentina” itself .There was a drought, fertilized with asches,not sprayed.
Thank you for your response - I will keep you posted as to how my seedlings proceed!
i grabbed a couple hips this fall off of a large, healthy Florentina at a local garden this fall. not many seeds inside, but one has germinated (the first in a tray of hundreds. don’t know if that means anything regarding vigor). so i will be following along in this thread as well.
I collected some OP hips from Florentina last winter and sowed like other rose OPs and crosses here in southern England. Germination started in early January before any other varieties and before any appreciable stratification temperatures (mild weather to then). I was reaching about 35-40 % germination before I gave up, because I had enough seedlings (only OPs, probably mainly selfs as the flowers are quite enclosed). I grew them through the year and maybe 70% were trailing and spreading and very prickly so I pruned in the summer to keep as potential rootstock. Some weaker plants flowered of which some had exactly Florentina flowers with that interesting shade of pure red and a couple with similar flowers but darker red. These weaker plants I can use to cross with something else to aim at that unique flower colour. However Florentina itself is far too vigorous for an ordinary garden growing 8-10ft per season on multiple branches. It also has a fault for the milder English climate in that it has near evergreen tendencies, so the leaves cling to the stems in a milder winter and carry diseases into the next year on their leaves