It seems that my Crested Sweetheart will make hips despite what I’ve heard. It even set two open pollinated hips. I’ve used the pollen of R. kordesii, Heidi, Queen Elizabeth, Geranium Red, and an Abraham Darby seedling sucessfully last year. I see hips, but there are no seeds. Is there a reason? It kind of burns me to think of the tedious time to remove the petals of one flower… Well, despite the lack of fertility, this is one rose that I will keep. It is so beautiful in every single way.
Some of my OGRs will produce hips with no seeds under normal conditions, but when I apply pollen, they do produce hips with seeds. I see this particularly with some gallicas like Belle de Crecy & the damask Madame Hardy. I can’t provide a scientific explanation, but hips & no seeds is not unusual with OGRs & their hybrids. With multipetaled blooms that aren’t likely to self pollinate I usually wait until the flower is completely open & only pull out the petals in the center leaving the rest intact. I only apply pollen when the center is sticky. I’m not saying it would work with Crested Sweetheart, but it might save you the agony of destroying the entire flower.
As we have indicated before, Crested Sweetheart is sterile, although as you have discovered, it will make false hips with no seeds inside. Believe, me, you will get much better results if you work with Crested Jewel instead; it is willing and quite capable of producing good offspring. Ralph Moore himself said to me recently that he believed Crested Jewel is the best link into crested hybrids and he wishes he had worked with it more. It would be in your best interest to forget Crested Sweetheart and adopt Crested Jewel instead.
See the link here.
Regards,
Paul
I am working with Crested Jewel too, but I am determined to get something out of Crewted Sweetheart because I do like the challenge. If it weren’t for the challenges a hybridizer takes, there wouldn’t be so much of the roses we have already. But at least people now know that CS will set hips…
Paul, that is very lovely. And congrats on your new roses on uncommonrose.com-- I think the pale yellow color of Hettie is very charming for a English type of rose. Also, congrats to Joan for her Lady Angela rose.
Enrique