Fourth of July

Does FOJ set OP hips in any of your respective climates?

How does FOJ fare as a female parent, in deliberate pollinations?

Fourth of July sets lots and lots of open pollinated hips here, and I’ve had quite a few of them germinate.

Hi Kathy!

Oh that’s great to know, thanks.

I have only ever crossed my FOJ with Euphrates pollen this season, and of course got garbage results, very early on every hip aborted out of about 15 of them in total (didn’t really surprise me).

Also, can you give me any sort of idea on the achene / hip ratio you have noticed in the average OP hip of your FOJ?

Hi George,

FOJ is great both ways. It sets hips well with 10-15 seeds per hip and germination rate is 25-35%. I used it in crosses with Hulthemias this year. So far none of the striped Hulthemias has been very impressive, but I keep trying.

Jim Sproul

Hi Jim,

Thank you for your input as well, that its very helpful to know!

Even though Euphrates gave me trouble this season, I just can’t give up on the hulthemias…so I am thinking to get a new plant of Euphrates next year, and try with it again, (as pollen parent).

Knowning now that FOJ can be a quite good seed parent, I’ll go out this afternoon and pollinate its flowers.

An interesting thread. We have had a FOJ for quite a few years, and have never seen a hip! We had heard that it was not fertile at all, but could be used as a pollen parent which I have not tried.

George,

I have seen OP hips on mine(Virginia). I have seen pictures several OP seedlings on various rose forums over the years and I was most impressed. They were all single and striped; the blends and proportions of color seemed to be the difference. Some had more red in them though I believe the blossom is phototropic (mine died out about 3 years ago. Fortunately I made a cutting and it now is large enough to give me a few blooms during the season.)

Jim

Hi John,

Your FOJ case sure sounds very very interesting and thanks for your observation…maybe mine will behave like yours, I hope not!!

Hi Jim P,

Thanks for the additional information you give, FOJ sounds great to use.

LOL I had to look up Wikipedia to see where Virginia state actually is… I see, east coast USA…it sure must be cold there ATM…nice for X-Mas!

Unfortunately, FOJ does get pretty bad BS here, currently in our summer, my specimen (budded) is about 30% defoliated…The other striper readily avaiable for purchase here is ā€˜Scentimental’, but something swayed me to purchase FOJ instead. Actually, I can’t recall what actually swayed me towards FOJ…I think I sorta ā€œtossed a coinā€ on it, mentally a 50/50 even bet!!

I will definitely be using FOJ for deliberate crosses this season…I just threw some pollen onto it a few hours ago, it was pretty close to sunset, I hope I hit the right parts, it was nearly totaly dark (it was the only time I got since 8am this morning!!!) rofl!!

HeHeHe,

George, you’ll know if you hit the wrong parts in the dark if you get snagged by a great big thorn! (I apologize,

I just couldn’t resist). Yes, mine had a decent amount of blackspot too. What bothered me the most were those thorns; just hate them. Will try some OPs of it when I get resettled in NY.

Will put up my alleged Queen Elizabeth seeds this afternoon and wil take out a few to practice removing the achenes and plant them separately. That is my ā€œplay timeā€ for Christmas Day. I use Wikpedia a lot for that also.

Jim

FOJ blooms a LOT more than Scentimental, but doesn’t have the form nor fragrance. Scentimental is pretty much what I’d expect from a 21st Century Ferdinand Pichard, disease and all. Kim

Can Scentimental also set seed in deliberate crosses??

Yep I also hate those roses that are ā€œwell armedā€ with thorns… I got jabbed deeply by Jude The Obscure thorns yesterday, and it still hurts LOL!! I was in the process of chopping it right down because it had overgrown the (small) space alotted to it, and I’m gonna have to relocate it.

Must get that long overdue tetanus booster, but OUCH it hurts worse than rose thorns!!!

I often wonder if the constant exposure we rose gardeners experience renders tetanus boosters unnecessary?

Some veterinarians think they are unnecessary anyway. The immune response seems to be pretty long lasting.

My vet always gives me a booster.

My personal advice is that you can all have a laugh at me for getting jabbed by the rose, and now jabbed again becasue of that, with the tetanus booster!!

Honestly guys, if you are undecided or uninformed about the topic, the best idea is to talk to your local physicians about it, as they should have the knowledge as well as all the details/history of your own health, to advise you correctly on such matters.

'nuf said!

:0)

I’m more concerned about Sporotrichosis.

Breeding for smoothness works for me.

Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporotrichosis

Does anyone know the ploidy of Fourth of July? It’s not listed on HMF nor in any of the articles I’ve checked (so far).

It’s almost certainly tetraploid, looking at its ancestry. I like both its parents, but I never found it particularly appealing, though I do have and use its seed-parent ā€˜Roller Coaster’. Even it has its flaws (BS-prone), but with better resistance in more modern roses, I think it still has merit for striped offspring.



Alsoplus, more petals to inherit! ā€˜Altissimo’ is famous for throwing single flowers.

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Thank you for this insight. It seems that all three (FOJ, Roller Coaster, and Altissimo) have lots of offspring that have become popular in their own right.

If I were on beautiful Vancouver Island I’d probably be using other parents, but Fourth of July performs well for me in the extremes of NE Illinois. It’s the most vigorous and prolific rose in my young garden.

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