In several books and articles, miniaturism in roses is regarded as controlled by a single dominant gene, “dwarf” and “giant” seedlings can be clearly distinguished in a relatively early stage. I have several seedling populations from “Miniature x Normal sized” crosses, now the first bud appears. Certainly there are large and small individuals in the population, but the size seems continuous rather than what showed in articles. What’s more, in seedling populations without miniature parents, “Larger” and “smaller” seedlings still appear. So how to select the TRUE miniature seedlings?
Another question, in many pedigrees of miniature roses, the miniature trait seems passed via miniature pollen parents, despite one founder of this type, ‘Tom Thumb’ get this trait from its seed parent, ‘Rouletii’. So does it means miniaturism is much easier to pass by pollen rather than ovary, or just for other reasons?