Hi Lori,
I guess you didn’t see my post on the EMO thread. You mentioned your experience with Lafter seedlings. Could you elaborate: were they open pollinated; was it used as the seed parent or the pollen; what did you cross it with if crossed.
Elina has been mentioned in response to my questiion (thanks!). Lafter seems to be such a healthy rose in my own experience and any comment that I have ever read about it. The only thing for me that would make it better would be more petals.
Thanks,
Jim
PS-Would welcome all comments if anyone has used it as well as hypothetical comments (Jadae???- Jadae seems to mix genes like a painter mixes colors-love it. Always wondering what he is up to next- our forum magician).
Hi Jim -
Lafter is probably my favorite rose and it’s just starting to bloom today. It’s a very healthy plant, about 3 foot tall and 3 foot wide. It had never set hips before so I had never tried to use it as a seed plant. Last year I was pleasantly surprised to see it covered with hips and was even more surprised when several seeds germinated this spring.
Five have bloomed so far and they are all very different from each other. Three have strong scent. One is a pure yellow, one pink, the others a mix. All have more petals then Lafter. Three others have buds.
The roses in the same bed with Lafter are Maria Shriver, Intrique, Amber Queen, Fragrant Cloud, Sally Holmes, Clair Matin, Green Ice and New Dawn.
So now that I know it’s a good seed parent I will probably do some hybridizing this week as soon as the weather cooperates.
Do you have Lafter, have you had any luck with it?
Lori,
I DO have Lafter, in fact two plants I raised from cuttings from a friend. It has always been healthy despite being in my pot ghetto for several years now. Glad the seedlings are more fully double and so different in color. Just rechecked HelpMeFindRoses and it parentage is V for Victory(yellow)x Dr. Van Fleet(possibly DVF seedling- light pink) and the pollen parent was Pink Princess (pink).
I am at the bottom of the learning curve with seeds to seedlings LOL and so far have only used OP hips to practice on. Pink Princess was one of the Brownells that was claimed to be bs resistant. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden had a huge bed of them at one time and Steve Scanniello, then the Rosarian thought highly of it. Last time I saw my friends Lafter, it stood a good 6 feet high and 5ft around and had blooms on it (October) despite the fact that most of roses in the bed had died from bad weather conditions; it’s a trouper.
Lori, please post pics of the seedlings if you get a chance and thanks so much for responding. I think Lafter has much to offer us.
Jim
Lori:
I am always impressed when someone can say that such and such a rose might be their favorite out of all. What are some of the characteristics of lafter that you like so much – and what is your blackspot experience with it. Thanks.
Bob soon to return to New Orleans
Hi Jim - I’ve been pulling the house apart trying to find the picture card that those pictures are stored on, anyway I wouldn’t know how to post them. If I find it and figure it out I will post them. Have your plants in the pot ghetto (I like that!) produced any hips?
Thanks for refreshing my memory on Lafter’s parentage. Now I can see why the seedlings are turning out the way they are. Every flower is a surprise.
Bob - My blackspot experience is that Lafter is one of the last to submit. Slight damage, but compared to the roses around it not bad at all. I use a white stone mulch on top of landscape fabric with a soaker hose underneath to avoid as much water on the leaves as possible.
As for why it’s my favorite, first I love the name. I also am a fan of the hybridizer Brownell who lived in Little Compton RI which is close to where I grew up. The rose has a terrific scent, the color is fantastic - pink, salmon, yellow, orange - all at the same time. It is classified as a hybrid tea which is really strange giving it an oddball reputation. It’s a clean, reliable, nicely shaped shrub and is winter hardy. It’s such an attractive cheery plant, covered with bright floppy blossoms, it does make me smile to look at it. And now that it’s producing offspring, all the better. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for asking.
Lori,
I haven’t noticed hips on mine but it has been grown under less than ideal or even good conditions and yet it is surviving. As I said before, I have never heard a criticism of it on Garden Web and everyone who comments on it gives it high praise.
Bob, you might want to go on garden web (www.gardenweb.com). They have about six rose forums dealing with different aspects of rose culture other than hybridizing. Also, over 100 other garden and other forums. It is a family affair like here, but larger, less tightly knit, and occasionally things get out of hand LOL.
An interesting story: Every fall I would go up to BB’s garden to take rose cuttings. He had given a lecture on making cuttings at our local rose society. He had huge rose beds (close to five hundred varieties), many of which he propagated himself in trades although the “buying bug” had gotten into him badly. I went up this past fall to bring him some rose plants that he did not have, to add to his collection. I was shocked to see several of his rose beds completely decimated with mostly bare earth where many roses had stood…(I can’t remember what the cause was) but there like lone sentinels after a battle, two rose bushes stood out in separate beds, tall, wide, with a nice fall flush of flowers. I asked him the names…they were CAREFREE BEAUTY and LAFTER. Enough said.
Jim