Has anyone grown and used Gizmo in their work. I read it was disease resistant. I was wondering how true this was and if this was passed on to its offspring.
It’s not a bad rose. I used it and Space Odyssey on Sevilliana (Buck). I could name a bajillion worse minis to use.
Now what is passes on is another story. However, Tiddly Winks was bred from Neon Cowboy, the other single mini from Tom Carruth. They all seem equally fine to use, in my opinion.
I would use any of the 4.
It’s not a bad rose. I used it and Space Odyssey on Sevilliana (Buck). I could name a bajillion worse minis to use.
Now what is passes on is another story. However, Tiddly Winks was bred from Neon Cowboy, the other single mini from Tom Carruth. They all seem equally fine to use, in my opinion.
I would use any of the 4.
Hi Adam,
A few years ago, I received a Week’s rose marked as Midnight Blue. When the rose bloomed, it had small and single bright red blooms and was definitely not Midnight Blue. I already had Neon Cowboy in my collection, and the two roses were not the same. Given the fact that Week’s inventory of miniature roses is limited, I am pretty sure that the rose I received was Gizmo. The rose bloomed abundantly and repeated well, but disease resistance to blackspot was not good at all in my garden.
Although the rose was not the one expected, I did multiple pollinations on it with pollen from various full-sized hardy roses, primarily Canadian cultivars and some of my own seedlings (I live in northern Wisconsin). A high percentage of the crosses took and produced viable seeds which germinated well. The following spring I had about 80 Gizmo crosses in 1 gallon pots, but by the end of the summer all but a handful had been tossed due to pretty bad blackspot susceptibility.
I discarded Gizmo from my breeding program this past fall( after 3 summers), as each summer the blackspot problems the plant suffers seemed to get more severe. None of the F1 seedlings I kept had very good disease resistance, but these are the characteristics I have observed:
1)Most seedlings were single or semi-double
2)The bright red color seems well fixed and came through in a high percentage of seedlings
3)Abundant bloom and good rebloom
4)Seedling size was scaled down compared to the plants used as the pollen donors and tended to be in the 2-3 foot range–nice and compact size but not miniature
5)Winter hardiness in the seedlings appears to be good as all seedlings planted outside survived a very tough winter of minus 22-27F for one week with no snow cover. Although die-back was pronounced, they all rebounded well in the spring. Of course, I would attribute this characteristic more to the pollen donor side of the crosses.
6)Many of the seedlings have good female fertility
Given their good fertility, I did multiple crosses with three of the female fertile F1 seedlings. The blackspot resistance in the F2 seedlings that I kept is improved over the F1’s but still needs some work. The reds are still a stong influence, as is the smaller plant size.
In retrospect, if the fertility of Gizmo had not been so good, I would probably have discarded the plant from breeding almost immediately, given its blackspot susceptibility. Had I done this, I think I would have missed a good opportunity to introgress the characteristics of miniature and full size roses. My selected pollen parents improved the hardiness and the disease resistance of resulting seedlings, and Gizmo contributed better rebloom, more intense red color, and smaller plant stature. Bloom size is in keeping with the size of the plant. I believe it was a very happy accident.
I hope this helps your decision.
Sincerely,
Julie Overom
I used to visit the Birmingham (AL) Botanical Gardens regularly when I lived in the area. The rose garden there had a bed of Gizmo for a number of years. I made it a point to look the plants over every time I visited because I was considering Gizmo. The plants were very female fertile. I collected hips from them for a few years. The seedlings germinated well, but I don’t remember their characteristics, sorry. I ultimately decided against getting Gizmo because the plants at the BBG received good care but always looked a little stressed in the heat (although they still looked much better than many of the other miniatures grown there). The color of the plants ranged from a deep, glowing orange in the spring to a lighter shade of orange in the heat of the summer, darkening again in the fall when temperatures cooled off. I realized I’m in a much different climate than Julie, but if her miniature was red I don’t believe it was Gizmo. Perhaps someone else from her part of the world who’s grown Gizmo will respond.
Mark
Mark,
The bloom of this plant was a 2-inch single red with strong yellow undertones, as opposed to blue undertones–what I consider the “vivid” or orange-tinged reds (with a distinct white eye zone). There was no other rose in the Weeks catalog at the time that matched it other than Gizmo. I ruled out Neon Cowboy because I had it and they were not the same. Other people in our rose society who saw it said it resembled the Gizmo that they had received. I have read this plant described in one place as orange and another as scarlet red. I would class mine as scarlet red. Cooler weather definitely does tend to darken the color. People from warmer climates who see our perennials blooming in early summer often comment on the rich and dark intensity of our colors, which might make a difference. At least the many hips this plant formed certainly matches what you saw. I guess I may never know for sure.
Julie
Yes, “(although they still looked much better than many of the other miniatures grown there).”
Miniatures are relative compared to other roses. The majority of them will always be blackspot prone. I believe this is getting better, but it is still a major issue. However, Gizmo and it’s Carruth kin seemed --relatively-- better than the majority of minis out there. So far, I can only say that Scarlet Moss, Rose Gilardi and Baby love have been disease resistant in my area.