When you want to maximize the quantity and frequency of flushes of blooms on a rose, who are your most reliable parents? Many of the most rapid repeaters I know seem to be that way because they are relatively sterile. Some of the roses I might like to work with tend to be a tad stingy with their flushes, and I have no patience for that.
Bonica is one I’ve heard of for such in the past (if ya don’t mind insipid pink seedlings) and I think I heard Playboy (??!) recommended way back when (if you don’t object to Blackspot), neither of which sounds ideal to me…
What about Carefree Beauty? (And can other colors be easily hung on it’s offspring?) I know that is a rose I need to acquire for other reasons…
I have seen some musks that make impressive displays (‘Gartendirektor Otto Linne’ comes to mind) but don’t know how quickly they rebloom.
anything that sets seed won’t rebloom to the maximum extant its genetics allow.
any miniature with polyantha/multiflora strongly represented in its pedgree will bloom with abandon (generally)
further to point 2: many of the Lens hybrids are veritable bloom machines, whether they set seed or not. I can’t imagine many roses that outperform ‘Rosy Purple’ for example.
fewer petals and smaller bloom size = more blooms, more often.
Check out Miss Bloomsalot by Ray Ponton. It sets hips prolifically and the pollen is good also. I crossed it with Rise-n-Shine and got a seedling that had 17 bloom flushes its first year. I am putting in cuttings of Miss Bloomsalot for Kim and will gladly add a couple for you also if you would like one.
Joan, I would love to acquire some Miss Bloomsalot, if Ray doesn’t object to sharing her. I had thought she might be triploid, but if pollen is good and it Hipsalot too…
17 flushes?? Oooh… And I wonder if Kim might enjoy crossing it with his Comtesse de Cayla, or Mutabilis as Miss B. appears to have some of those colors in her pedigree as well…
I was also curious about your Alexander (Third Street) rose too.
Playboy may get some BS but can set 100 hips and the seeds germinate good with vigorous seedlings. Not just anything crosses with PB and the pollen doesn’t set with just anything. All the flowers do not set hips and I’m yet to see if the load of hips set the plant back. So far it doesn’t look too bad off. Neil
For what it is worth, I have never experienced the idea that setting hips sets a plant back. It could be very well true at some weird hormonal level that has not been explored, but I have never really noticed it yet.