How many of the forum participants are actually actively involved in rose hybridizing? I get the impression lately that there are quite a few forum participants who aren’t actually doing breeding work in the genus. I’m just curious.
I’m actively involved, but on a very small scale compared to some here.
Which side of the fence are you sitting these days, Paul 
Hope you have a great Christmas, Paul (and everyone else here), and I hold out eternal hope that you will keep dabbling in rose breeding and maybe one day return to the dark side.
As this thread is early, I thought I might get in early with my thoughts. As a new member here, I sponge(my word) information, if I need something and I do nor know I will ask for “help”. If in return for that information I can help in some way I will. I guess I maybe to layed back. My garden is in slow time, today or tomorrow it will happen. Through(spelling) Kim I have received seeds, some shot, some haven’t, some died. Life goes on.
My quest "IF " I get to breed will be yellow as mentioned in the past, I have one focus and it is yellow.
Maybe with some of of your knowledge/expertise Paul you might help me achieve my quest.
I am so grateful to many that I have corresponded with. You all are teaches and I may be one day a pupil .
Hi Paul,
In the interests of stimulating some “conversation” here, I will put my hand up and say, yes, I am hybridising…although I would not claim to be doing it with the level of expertise that you and others possess.
In some circles my breeding would be described as pollen dabbing, as I cannot claim to have a focused “programme”. My focus is Patio / miniflora, trying to raise show worthy specimens, with a bit of an inclination towards stripes.
As an aside, the main challenge down here is that I have to work with older cultivars, as virtually nothing has come into the country for the better part of a decade (someone may be able to correct me here). So we can’t work with the newer cultivars that I see being intoduced in the States…
So, am I hybridising or dabbing???
Regards,
Duncan
Tauranga
New Zealand.
“the main challenge down here is that I have to work with older cultivars, as virtually nothing has come into the country for the better part of a decade (someone may be able to correct me here). So we can’t work with the newer cultivars that I see being intoduced in the States…”
Duncan that is why we breed roses, using older cultivars is not all that bad if you do your homework first and what you end up with is something which is unique. Just because a lot of people use certain new cultivars a lot , it does n’t mean they will produce something unique.
“So, am I hybridising or dabbing???” we all started like this, untill we learnt to do it well, you must have a programme.
I am. My possibilites are incubating in the fridge.
I quit planning ahead early because the past 2 year’s weather has been making predicting which parents I can pick quite impossible.
I participate in rose breeding but I’m no genus.
Ferias felices.
Hi Paul,
I live in Northern California near Eureka and I am an active hybridizer. I am still amazed to see those babies pop up in the early spring. I also enter some of my seedlings in our local rose show each year in order to get unbiased feed back. To be honest some of those babies are so, how should I say, ugly, only a mother could love. That reminds me of something my mother once told me when I was a teenage, she said “honey you don’t have a big nose, you just have a small face.” I am greatful and very appreciative for this RHA site and learn alot of information from all of you. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this year.
Well, hybridizing, yes. Producing marketable material- possibly. Hoping to learn something useful, definitely. Already have about 1000 seedlings from 2012 crop. Really scary situation to have them pop so soon. Now I have to decide if I should be totally ruthless and cold-hearted and discard everything that doesn’t bloom in the next two months. That might get rid of 950 before the equinox.
Looks like a snowy holiday season with enough cold to help select out a bunch of the stuff outside.
I’m actively making crosses and raising seedlings, although on a limited scale with my limited resources. I have lights in the basement to raise seedlings and limited space outside to plant. My plants are pretty crowded. I love to learn and do experiments (chromosome doubling/haploidization, black spot resistance, reproductive biology, etc.), so the breeding I do is often to develop populations for that work (some are of course just for fun and to see what happens too). I have a little land at the university where I have some Rosa setigera and R. pomifera populations as well as Earth-Kind rose trials.
There are four amateur hybridizers near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are myself, Paul Olsen, Johannes Pinchbeck and Terry Roszko.
Best wishes to everyone.
Don’t disparage “pollen dabbing”. Some of the “iconic” early “rose breeders” were actually little more than seed gatherers. All it takes is that one seed to create something really worthwhile. If a bee has that potential, how much more might YOU have?
I guess you need to define “active.” If active means to the extent that you, Ralph Moore, Jim Sproul, Kim, Don, Warren and a few others are involved there probably are not many. I have been an RHA member for about two years and had a heck of a time when in Oregon getting anything going. Between the deer eating my roses all summer and the relative lack of sun due to the Douglas Firs around the house it was pretty much a failure. I’m back in California and trying to get roses together, build deer fence, prep growing areas and fight with doctors over my little heart issue. I have my wish list and told my wife that I would like a good selection of roses for Christmas. They should arrive in the Spring.
With that said, I have about 2000 OP seeds in the fridge. After New Year’s Day I will build a couple of seed beds and go from there. So for a new guy to this hobby I feel like I’m moving along. Will I ever be “semi-professional?” Nope! Would it be nice to see one of my roses in commerce some day? Sure. But I don’t ever see myself with a five acre trial plot.
I look through HMF and see tons of roses I would love to have. Most of them are not from the major breeders and are probably from hobbists. I’m working on some goals, but not with hundreds of roses. So to some I may be a hobbist and dabbler. But I do enjoy this hobby and will keeping going with it whether “active” or not.
I am a pollen dabbler who has just this past season grown one (out of two thousand) totally resistant seedling (so far—.it has leaves that look like they are carved from wax) after four years of dabbling attempts. This past yr I also have grown about 250 seedlings that were discarded because of rust, about 500 that were discarded because of black spot (among other things) and another 200 or so that had hard core mildew, and about 500 were discarded for being wimpy, so I hope that I am learning something. I am hampered by in ground space but that has not deterred me from growing roses where no roses have gone before. Rose health and low to no prickles are both at the top of my important to develop list. I may have bitten off more than I can swallow this year with almost 5000 seeds-but I was cleaning the house for holiday company and found three hips with tags on that had rolled into a corner behind a box, and instead of dust binning them, I put them into a glass of water so that I might extract the seeds. I hope others get as much enjoyment and entertainment as I do out of doing this.
I would say I am a pollen dabbler. Not because of lack of ambition, but space is a premium for me. Every year I learn a little bit more and hopefully I can do more with less. This year so far I am getting better germination than I have ever seen. By the time I am done I should have about 1500 to 2500 seedlings. Most of these will be weeded out before they get to the test beds. Hopefully this leaves 50 or so. Half of these won’t survive the winter. Which is a good thing, because typically half of my crosses are non repeat blooming.
“the main challenge down here is that I have to work with older cultivars, as virtually nothing has come into the country for the better part of a decade (someone may be able to correct me here). So we can’t work with the newer cultivars that I see being intoduced in the States…”
This would explain your crosses Warren. Sometimes I wondered why most of the varieties you used have been around forever. You are still getting good results even with older varieties.
LOL… you can’t get much older varieties than species
Nope not me, I just purchase and grow the product of your labours and love - still tough to find the old prairie roses unless you connect … and in 2012 I got extremely lucky … Merry Christmas benefactor.
Did try OP hips of Therese, Red Dawn and Ariana - toss the trays two days ago - fungi mess. I was hoping Arian which sets hips and profusely, would germinate to see what comes out … great flower form and if I could get it’s hardiness up a notch or two from the soft Norwegian winters to Alberta’s I would succeed - back at it next year.
I have done a bit over the years trying to get some lovely seedlings that Mitchie had. She was the ‘Hybridizer’ I was the gopher, but always kept my hand in making a few, so my writings would have some ‘first hand’ credence! I didn’t do much this year with her passing, but I did make a few crosses, and have some OP hips from some of her roses. I probably have a hundred or so seeds in stratification that I will plant in late January, hoping from some super special seedlings that all of us ‘amateurs’ seek. I have been working to propagate and grow some stock plants of some of her roses that Heirloom has asked for. Hopefully I will make more than just a few crosses next season.
I dont plan on ever not hybridizing, because its one of the few things thats so unique in life. It simply makes me happy lol.