I was wondering…
We have chinese hybrides Teas all over the world. In ancient times a couple chinese roses came to europe and causes a huge shifting in hybridizing. If I look to the list on HMF of Chinese breeders…their are NONE! So the flowers came from china but why isn’t their any rose-line from where they’re from? The French, Germans, English and Dutch where creating a whole new line of roses…where is the chinese line? Did it stopped with Slater’s Crimson China’, Parson’s Pink China, Hume’s Blush Tea-scented China, and Parks Yellow Tea-scented China?
Before these roses came from China, is their any knowabout if their where chinese people creating other roses? No one is listed so far. Is their a unknown rose-line which isn’t listed? Maybe weird topic, but this was where I was thinking of this morning.
Not much new in Rix’s BotMag article. It’s now a forma instead of a var. That makes perfect sense to me. It doesn’t address unsettling questions of identity raised by different ploidy results - - 2x, 3x and 4x.
I posted a series of shots of Rosa chinenis f. spontanea on HMF from Quarryhill.
Link: www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=10742&tab=10
The Chinese were, for a vast amount of time, simply not that interested in roses compared to their other venerated flowering plants. They were painted, but not written about nearly as much. I suspect the ancient cultivars we associate with them were the products of either a society that existed prior to a written record, or they were the work of some enterprising but hardly regarded breeders. For the Chinese, it was all about chrysanthemums and peonies and various other plants, but not really roses. There is still much to sort out when it comes to the what, who, when, where, and why of the breeding of repeat-blooming china and tea roses (and a few other cultivars of uncertain affinity). I, for one, won’t be even remotely satisfied with the current taxonomy until genetic studies comparing most of the Asian species and old cultivars are undertaken; morphology is all but useless in a case like this.
Modern Chinese breeders seem to be breeding modern roses and haven’t yet turned to their own ancient stock. It’s hard to say when, or if, that will ever happen, but recently there has been some interest in exploring their rich diversity of endemic, garden-worthy germplasm. Maybe roses will get a boost from that.
I am afraid they have a treasure buried in their backyard that they will not even realize is their until it is gone. With the modernization of china many plant species, cultivars and land races are disappearing forever. In the name of progress they are daming rivers, replacing old op rice for new hybrids and exctra… Sometimes people have the forsight to protect these treasures some times they don’t. I know their was concern for germplasm n china being lost forever in the early 90s is their still a huge threat today. It would be a same to lose these treasures.