There is a lady I know that is looking for a thornless rose that produces decorative hips. She wants to use them in floral arrangements. Any suggestions? I thought about Altissimo, but mine is still small and don’t really know how well it grows. I have Kathleen Harrop but it can be sort of a diseased mess in my climate. The hips are sort of bland as well.
I would like one of those only adding disease resistance, fragrant, glossy leaves, a bloom factory, colorful canes, petals that drop cleanly, fertile both ways… the perfect rose!!!
Basye’s Legacy; Basye’s Blueberry; Basye’s Thornless Wichurana; Indian Love Call; Gina’s Rose; My Stars…
Thanks Kim.
You’re welcome. I no longer have the Wich., Blueberry or My Stars, but know where cuttings of My Stars can be obtained. I have the others.
Jeff…
A friend of mine who used to be a florist took some blooms off of Kim’s ‘Lynnie’ growing in my garden for an arrangement. She said the blooms lasted quite well and in my garden ‘Lynnie’ is thornless.
Smiles,
Lyn
Some canes of my two plants of Lynnie are without prickles, but some aren’t, which is why I hadn’t included her in the list. In my Newhall garden, someone actually took the top half of Legacy one Thanksgiving morning, obviously for the “decorative value” of the bare, colorful canes loaded with hips. I can’t express how grateful I am now that only vermin can access any of my plants.
Hi Jeff
I used to grow Altissimo at my last house and it grew fantastically. However, it was quite thorny.
I have attached a picture that shows some flower stems and a hip with the thorns along the stems.
[attachment 1972 Altissimo1.jpg]
There is a floribunda called Princess (more mini-flora sized in our climate) that has thornless stems. It sets hips although not with dark colour. It also passes on it’s near thornless nature to it’s children. The main bush will have thorns but the flower stems are without. The other roses I can think of in my garden with a low thorn count don’t seem to be successful as seed parents. My success with princess is more confined to pollen usage also.
So many of Bayses Legacy’s offspring fill both the thornless and the many decorative hips description. Every flower produced seems to set hips, regardless of the weather. And so many with a few thorns have most of their thorns at the branch base. A drawback might be that so many of the Basyes’ set yellow to deep orange hips, rather than red.
In the first post of this thread I mentioned tongue in cheek about the perfect rose. Well after talking with this lady that’s exactly what she wants. I really don’t think some people have any idea what it takes to grow a rose much less produce one. I was rudely told she will keep looking. So I told her if she finds it to let me know.
On the up side of this thread, you guys have given me so ideas of what real world roses to find and grow.
Thanks!
Your post reminds me of the gentleman who ranted at Ralph Moore about WHY breeders can’t create a great yellow rose. Ralph listened patiently until he finished the rant then responded that IF he understood what it had taken to create ANY yellow roses, he would be grateful for what there was.