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?
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If you study miniature breeding on HMF, you’ll find many crosses in both directions (large X mini and mini X large) successfully generating minis. I often use mini pollen on larger roses as it’s easier for me. Larger types more often generate more seeds, larger seeds, which are easier to handle and plant. Larger, longer stems are easier to tag with the date and pollen parent than a dwarf plant’s flowers are. I use species pollen on minis because there are usually more flowers, over a longer period, to use in hopes of success. Too often, the species will fail with no further flowers to use that season.
As for selecting the “true mini”, look for the shortest internodal spaces, the length between the growth buds. That’s the main difference between minis, bushes and “climbers”…how long the lengths between the growth buds are.
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Very helpful information, thanks!
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You’re welcome! I hope it helps!
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