I’m a beginner and only got interested in roses last year. Reading the home page of the Rose Hybridizers Association and forum really got me hooked. Very interesting stuff. Last year I got myself a garden. I live in Germany in Dresden. I don’t know what zone that is but it is as north as one can get in Germany and still commertially grow wine (only white wines, red requires a warmer climat).
When I got my garden in March 2009 one of the first things was to order 2 old roses, a friend told my to buy theese 2 lovely roses
Mdm Hardy
Gloire de Dijon
Later in spring a bought a few more:
Teasing Georgia
Gertud Jekyll
Graham Thomas
The Generous Gardener
Winchester Cathedral
Amber Queen.
There were already a few roses in the garden which I don’t know the name of, but most of them have almost no sent, and some suffered very bad from blackspot, to the point that they lost all leaves. I’ll probably remove most of them. All of the new ones were perfectly healthy, though the old Glory had a few leaves with spots. The sommer 2009 was warm but unsusually moist. Even my tomatoes suffered from something simular, browm leaves and the tomatoes dropping before getting ripe.
I did some propagation with cuttings on the Gloire de Dijon. From 10 cuttings I have 6 plants that grew to 1 meter (3 feet). The mother plant grew more than 3 meters (12 feet)the first summer. I planted the cuttings directly outdoors under glass in the half-shadow of my big peach tree. I also did some other cuttings but they failed. Are climbers easier to propabate by cuttings than other roses?
Reading your forum I got so interested that I would like to try some hybridization this year. I will get delivery of a few more Austin roses in a few weeks:
William Shakespere 2000
St Swithum
Golden Celibration
Claire Austin
Falstaff
Gentle Hermione
Brother Cadfael
So this is the starting material.
I think I would like to get a climber…with a strong sent…rather big flowers… with the excellent rosette flower shape of Teasing Georgia. Color is not that important. Perhaps a bit optimistic, If I get anything I should be happy, I understand that hybridization is like lottery, the odds of getting something really nice is very low, and you need patience.
I’m planing to do 5 - 10 different crossings as a first try. Where should I start? Can I use
Gloire * Teasing Georgia?
The Generous G * Teasing Georgia?
Falstaff * Gloire?
Gentle Hermione * Gloire?
Or something else, using the material above? Gratefull for some tips!
By the way, I’ll buy the handbook to get the procedures correct.
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