Ive been lurking here in the shadows for a few months finally getting back to my love of roses and breeding. A little bit about me, I started growing when i was 16 i had joined a local rose society and was a member but short few years , i left because all they ever did and talked about was showing… that was the furthest from my interests. I had joined the ARS and enjoyed that for many years. at my peak i had over 500 varieties of Ht,Gr and minis and a small handful of floribundsa’s. I bred alot then ( i call it breeding because i wasn’t trying to make a new hybrid) i had several “babies” that were mine and only mine. I had to give that all up 15 years ago and move into an apt. I grew roses on my patio as annuals. Breeding was difficult as i didn’t have much to work with. Now i’ve been growing my rose sin pots for 15 years, i no longer have to treat them as annuals as i bring them in and place them into an indoor grow room with lights and this has worked well for 5 years now. I live in Iowa and i am 2nd floor so my micro climate is really bad lol.
So that brings me to my thoughts on the present. I agree with anyone who says rose growing starts with education. I prefer Hybrid Teas because they are beautiful !! nothing against Knockout but is would be the last thing for me, It saddens me to think or see the demise of the Hybrid Tea because they are too much work, they are tender etc etc. My issues with the roses i have on my 2nd floor patio is not disease but pests. most times its mites and an occasional beetle. I breed with mini floras and Ht i have one floribunda ( Fire N Ice ) on my little patio i have 5 mini flora varieties and 5 HT and the Fire n Ice… Ive had a bounty of seed to play with and i have one 3 yr old seedling from a Fire n Ice cross that is much like its momma but only hot pink with cream reverse. I will continue to breed with my hybrid teas because they please me, any rose can be grown anywhere with the right care. I learned 35 years ago to plant Bud unions 2" below the surface and never had a rose die form winter, any that perished were weak to begin with. so if i had a greenhouse id have grown tea’s as well. In all my years of breeding and tinkering ive given away allot of my babies and with that went some education, alot of those roses are still around because of this.
To those of you who are hybridizing for resistance and hardiness Kudos to you !!! i applaud your efforts. for me… im content with haphazard breeding because what becomes of that will be mine…I do enjoy everything i read here and soak it up like a sponge. I just wanted to take a bit of your time and say hello tell you a bit about myself and ambitions and to thank you all for all that you are doing.
Howdy Carl, the best advice I can give you is , do what your heart tells you. When I first started breeding I was ridiculed about the crosses I made , a few tried to influence me into breeding High centred HT’s , but that is not I am really about. If you like HT’s then stick with it, they do not have to be show material but if they bloom well and do not have problems , then thats what its all about.
Welcome Carl. It is good to see another Iowan on the forum (I live in Des Moines by the airport).
I started with all HTs, FL, and Minis and did not deviate from that formula until a few years ago when Kim sent me cuttings of a few shrubs and, most importantly, two Bucks - Prairie Lass and Earth Song. Those cuttings have convinced me to reconsider shrubs, especially the Bucks, and to use them to improve all those HTs and Fls I still grow. Like you, I love the HTs too much to get rid of them. I go through a little bit of pain to make sure they get through the winter, but it is never too much work to make me stop growing them. So my aim is to try to create some HTs with the health and hardiness of the shrubs and species available to me. Like Warren says, do what makes you happy, that’s what I do. I’ve made a few crosses here and grow many varieties that most people would tell me to dump. But I’m a “what if” person so I make the cross and grow the variety anyway. I also grow out a lot of OP seedlings every year to see what is in there and also because it gives me more seedlings to play with. This is a fun hobby for me, one that I never quite know where it is taking me.
Since we are so close to each other, let me know if you would like to use any of my pollen next year for your breeding. I have a good number of varieties and I would enjoy sharing with you.
Thank you for the warm welcomes !!! And Thank you Andre for the offer. One day i may take you up on that !! My first job was @ Earl May that used to be on fleur i was 16 and had sold some roses to Miles Mills. He hired me and my buddy to create a rose bed at his house. His Wife Clare was the nicest woman , she had given me all her old ARS magazines which was about 5 or 6 years worth. Nice people !!!
Hello Carl, Welcome to the forum and man can I relate. I live in an apartment on the first floor which allows me patio space. I tinker with mostly micro, miniature, and floribundas. In zone 6b all but 7, I wait till temps reach what I call danger freeze. Then my loves I fear for move to the basement under cozy 44 sunblaze sun systems. I am but an infant in hybridizing, as I mature I hope to reach for micros that look and perform as well as african violets under lights. Additionally, I desire micros for hanging baskets. So nodding flower buds have their purpose when viewed from below. Plus, I have had my first success with rose cuttings in a 60 cell EZclone. I am looking forward to my next batch of seedlings coming out of stratification about new years eve. Then setting up the EZ clone for second trials of rose cuttings. I may even begin observing which seedlings perform better in the EZclone than others? So at times I may not be just a roseaholic, but a mad scientist as well!
