Since Fortuniana has a superior root system for warm weather areas, I was wondering if anyone has ever attempted to breed directly from Fortuniana instead of just using it as a rootstock?
Although a once bloomer, it does have a good looking double, fragrant, white flower to go with it’s disease and root superiority.
I dunno about there but it is sterile here-- the blooms fall off before completing blooming. Oh, and they smell really bad. It reminded me of the smell of the plastic on clean diapers. I can only remember one English rose that smelled similar but that was described as anise or something weird on the description.
I had to laugh out loud , diaper smell, at least it isn’t dirty diapers 
There are several teas and chinas that seem to do fine on their own roots, so no worries.
The rose nurseryman who grows and supplies me Fortuniana cuttings for rootstock, claims he has never noticed this specimen to have set hips (Zone 10 equivalent).
…also, he emphasised to me that this may be a climate-related phenomenon.
I cannot access the HMF facility which documents descendants of cultivars.
I would much appreciate it, if anyone can relay any information about whether or not there is documentation of Fortuniana-derived progeny.
There are none listed.
If I was going to try it, I would try it back onto banksiae type hybrids to see what happens. Robert, have you ever tried it on ‘River Banks’ or ‘Lila banks’?
Hi Simon, no, I’ve never tried fortuniana. I’ve always assumed it was a dead end.
With any luck I will try Basye’s 86-3 with some banks derivatives next season. It resembles fortuniana. My plant is new but putting on size.
I think Jim has some seedlings using it already and there is word they’ve had some success with it at Texas A&M.
I keep observing my own possible laevigata descendants and wondering what I’ve actually got. Only one exhibits any phenotypical evidence of hybridity from what I can observe.
Determining hybridity isn’t always a clean cut proposition, especially with wide and or difficult crosses.
thanks for the responses
Going back two centuries, after Michaux had described R. laevigata from inland North America and after cuttings were passed around North America as a less expensive alternative to fencing, some rose growers decided that since it rooted easily and grew well, that it could be a rose rootstock. And it was. My laevigata sets seeds readily, FWIW.
If R. x fortuniana were to set open pollinated hips, it wouldn’t be in my wet springs, but would be more likely in California where heavily petaled roses open easily in spring in an atmosphere with 16% humidity (Sacramento City Cemetery, if anyone could check there.)
wish i had read this before i pollinated like six buds … and hoped for weeks only to watch the buds shrivel and fall off .
There is often a reason why there are no listed offspring from a very old rose. Even getting results from Laevigata can be “challenging”. I’m sorry you had the disappointment of them all failing. I’d think Banksiae should make as useful a stock as Fortuniana and it seems quite a bit easier to deal with.
Proceedings of the American Society for Horticultural Science 78: 572-579. (1961)
Analysis of Nine Crosses Between Diploid Rosa Species
By WALTER H. LEWIS, Stephen F. Austin Stale College, Nacogdoches, Texas,
and ROBERT E. BASYE, A. and M. College of Texas, College Station
"Mature hybrids of R. bracteata x laevigata were not formed, yet each parent crossed with R. soulieana (Synstylae) to produce adult hybrids, suggesting that the Bracteatae and Laevigatae are more distantly related to each other than they are to R. soulieana. Even though R. soulieana x laevigata hybrids have higher percentages of irregular meioses than do those of R. soulieana x bracteata, the reverse is true for the amount of defective pollen. From a total of 14 hybrids, however, only 2 achenes were produced, so these hybrids are about equally sterile. In other words, R. soulieana representing the Synstylae has about the same affinity to the Bracteatae as it does to the Laevigatae. "
http://bulbnrose.x10.mx/Roses/breeding/LewisBasye1961/LewisBasye1961.html