Does anyone know John Jason Mekdeci, who hybridized John’s Rose and Joanne, or Dr. Anthony Casimir Mekdeci, who hybridized Butterflies? Are they related?
Butterflies bloomed two days ago, and it’s radiant rose flushed with yellow. I love it! Parentage is Dornroschen x Golden Wings. Dornroschen carries mDNA from r. acicularis.
John’s Rose came from a seedling crossed with Golden Wings. It’s a lovely peachy coral here, similar to the color of Touch of Class.
Joanne is a hybrid spinosissima, but hasn’t had a chance to bloom properly because of all the rain we’ve had. I’d love to know the parentage on this rose and whether or not it sets hips.
Regarding Golden Wings, can someone tell me why it’s a repeat blooming rose? (or if it really ia a repeat blooming rose?) The pollen parent listed as a seedling should be once blooming with no repeat blooming genes. I must be missing something.
Cathy
Cathy,
Dr. Mekdeci is a very good friend of mine, although I haven’t seen him for 10 years. However, we communicate by letter two or three times a year. I also know the rest of the family. John is his son. I’m preparing to write an article in the near future on his rose breeding work for the National Roses Canada newsletter. Rosarians and rose breeders should be more familiar with the roses he has developed. He has done some very good work in that respect.
He was a very good friend (although they never met) of Percy Wright, and they maintained a regular correspondence for many years. I have much of this correspondence in my posession.
In my opinion his best rose is ‘Apricot Beauty’ (‘Dornroschen’ x ‘Maigold’). ‘Dornroschen’ was a favourite pistillate parent that he liked to use. I’m encouraging him to use ‘Armada’ as a pistillate parent, and arranged for him to obtain this cultivar this spring.
Paul
Thank you, Paul. I’d love to read the article when you’re done. Do you have any pictures of Apricot Beauty or other Mekdeci roses you can post?
Can you possibly get the Mekdecis to join RHA and post to the forum? Or can you put me in touch with them? My email is cathybeyer@comcast.net.
Cathy
Cathy, I have shared your thoughts about ‘Golden Wings.’ Both it and its seedlings are fully and truly recurrent, but its parentage does not suggest this. The published parentage, taken form HelpMeFind.com is:
[Soeur Th
You’re right about the mistaken parentage, Roger. Graham Stuart Thomas (GHT) lists Ormiston Roy in The Rose Book as a cross of Allard x r. pimpinellifolia. Allard is listed in Help Me Find as a cross of r. xanthia hybrid x r. xanthia hybrid, both of unknown parentage. GST says Ormiston Roy is from an F2 generation and often produces flowers in late summer. Mystery solved!
Will you add the info to HMF, or should I?
Cathy in MA z5
“Allard” is listed in the GST Rose Book right across from Ormiston Roy. Thomas questions the xanthia heritage, suggesting that Allard is most likely decended from Harrison’s Yellow.
Since Ormiston Roy has some repeat, Roger, you must be correct about Allard having a hybrid tea as one of the parents.
Sam McGredy mentioned years ago during an online chat that he recommended working with Harrison’s Yellow, which he would do if he were starting over in his hybridizing career. If Golden Wings is the outcome of Harrison’s Yellow parentage as GST suggests, it demonstrates the potential for beautiful HY decendants.
Cathy
Jude the Obscure is it’s most recent descendant. I put Purple Heart on it this year (I couldnt figure out anything else to put Purple Heart on =/ ). Ive tried Golden Wings x Baby Love several times. The hips hold til August and then they just drop boggle. However, the self hips ripen fully to large, orange crabapple-like hips.
I’ve heard germination is poor using Golden Wings as seed parent. It might be worth sowing OP seed to see if one could get a more fertile proprietary seed parent. I’ve some hips set using it for pollen this Spring.
I’ve also had luck with xanthina and alabukensis including hips on one of my banks hybrids. It’s way too early to tell if anything will come of it.
Good to know! Hmm, I think Belle Epoque x Rosa primula may have took. That’s the only thing other than my Jude the Obscure crosses that are close to this thread that I have going on this year.
…maybe Wind Rush or Wildflower would be better seed parents than Golden Wings? 
Theyre not as pretty but they have better behaved plants with the same foliage as Golden Wings.
What do you think of Belle Epoque, Jadae? Is it the Fryer rose that I mentioned in the “bicolor” thread? Have you compared it to About Face? Have you grown other seedlings from Belle Epoque, or is this the first year you used it?
Cathy
I like Belle Epoque but it won’t set hips here. It needs a few more petals in my opinion.
Wildflower at least has once recorded descendant. It might be a direction to head in.
Yes, Belle Epoque would benefit from more petals to be an exhibition style bloom. But I have a weakness for roses that are attractive in the fully open stage . . . Playboy, Doorenbos Selection, r. virginiana, Rainbow Sorbet, Summer Wine, etc. I also grow exhibition HT’s, but love to see a bold boss of stamens in the sunlight.
Cathy
Belle Epoque works fine. I got a lot of blends when using it. I do not mind that it’s petal count is one layer low. It blooms a lot, never has disease, has beautiful colors and sets hips extremely easily here. The reason I use it is because it is almost always the first large-flowered to bloom each year and the plant is extremely nice in terms of garden qualities.
I do not have About Face. I didnt see the point in buying a plant that is similar when space is premium. Between the two in gardens, I prefer Belle Epoque. It looks more graceful and blends well into the lndscape. About Face can look rather gawky sticking up so high with rather small blooms in contrast to it’s plant size.
Quite by chance, in my kitchen,I discovered a neglected bag of seeds of Apricot Beauty x Prairie Dawn dated Oct 2006. They must have been out there 2 months after spending more than a year in the fridge. There were two long sprouts already leafed out,about 5" long and three smaller sprouts. The seeds are large & the shell is very thick.Previous germinations of op seeds occurred in the normal timespan for recurrent roses. A previous op seedling bloomed in the usual 6 week period & had normal repeat bloom. I’m hoping it survives the winter.
It’s a very pleasant surprise. Apricot Beauty produces copious pollen & tends to self pollinate. It roots easily from softwood cuttings with no particular care. It has the same odd scent as Maigold. It’s not cane hardy in the usual Southern Ontario winter. For me it’s a small shrub, but was sold locally as a climber.
Does anyone know where I can buy “John’s Rose” online or otherwise. I live in CA.
Does anyone know where I can buy “John’s Rose” online or otherwise. I live in CA.
‘John’s Rose’
Click on the, “buy from” tab in the upper right hand corner.
Link: www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=3525