Jackie,
I meant to tell you when you posted the pic of your two seedlings Gemini x Shockwave that they were lovely. Wanted to ask you regarding the prickles, though assume a young plant could change over time in regards to its prickles.
Had noticed a good # of crosses using Gemini as the mother had crosses with very few prickles.
Jim
Jim, One of the Gem X Shckwv seedlings is almost prickle free. The more golden one is pretty close to Gemini with both large and small close to the stem prickles. I have another Gem X About Face seedling I have kept that is surprisingly prickle free and has really nice blue foliage. What I have noticed about Gemini seedlings is that it is all over the map with both flower form and prickles, but most of its’ offspring have very attractive foliage. I did keep another one that has really dark mahogany foliage, but it also is the first rose that the rats mow down-twice this past summer, so I am unsure just how well it blooms. It is really quite easy to produce very nice flower form, esp. in pinks, but those offspring don’t quite have that quick repeat with a large flower as does Gemini. Since Gemini ‘imprints’ well, I have made several crosses with thornless cultivars (4) to see what happens to its’ thorns, flower form and vigor.
Thanks Jackie for the nice summation. I guess the thornless crosses I read about were “selected” from siblings which had prickles, leading me to believe Gemini’s progeny tended to be prickle free or prickle “lean”.
Jim
Hi Jim;
Last year I pollinated Gemini with numerous cultivars and nothing stuck. This year is a different story, have only lost two crosses with the remaining developing quite well.
Gemini was pollinated with these this year, and I am hoping something real nice will come out of them.
Bronze Masterpiece
Troika (Royal Dane)
Arjuna
Colour Buffet
Sutters Gold
Charlotte Graham Sport
Unknown Dk red HT (High centred form, has given me some good offsrping)
Warren,
I look forward to seeing the results of your crosses. I am so impressed with your seedlings. I was out among the roses the other day, thinking of you and your goal of smooth canes, and I thought, “If Warren only could wave his magic wand across the pond and cause all the prickles on my rose bushes to fall off.” I could almost hear the tinkling of the sound of prickles falling to the ground. Oh well, wishful thinking and a delightful fantasy. Looking forward to the pictures.
Jim
Hi Jim;
It would have to be an extraordinary long wand if you were on the west coast and even longer if the eastern side. I think I have said this before, using Harvey Davidson’s Smooth Buttercup seems to reduce the amount of prickles on offspring. Also Blue Moon, I use it as a pollinator and alot of the offspring have reduced to nil prickle count. Vanilla used as a pollinator, is also good in reducing prickle count. I think it is one of those things when breeding roses certain cultivar offspring will throw a high percentage of thornless or nearly thornless offsping, you could keep a hard copy record of such crossses or a mental one. In the pic is a cross of (Charles Austin X Vanilla) its prickle count is greatly reduced due to Vanilla, the residue on the leaves is from the water I use from a muddy dam.
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Hi Warren,
That’s a great looking seedling! Well done! Is it fragrant?
Thanks Jim, It has only moderate perfume , I think Vanilla had some think to do with that. Health wise it is very good though.
Warren