Metis - Some questions

I was talking with a fellow ORS member last night and we started talking about a rose that he has really liked.

The rose is called Metis. One comment that stuck me was that he could almost care less if it bloomed all that much because of its beautiful foliage and fall coloration. I looked at a few pictures of it and I have to agree, it does have wonderful foliage.

On to my questions. Has anyone worked with this rose? I am assuming that it can be fertile since it has produced offspring.

If anyone has worked with Metis, how well does it pass its great foliage qualities and fall coloration.

It looks like the leaf shape comes from Th

Mine are still young, but last year surrounded by roses from Skinner, Buck and Simonet, I had NO open pollinated hips on them. They sucker, but less than Suzanne. The fall colors are simply magnificent even as far south as Tennessee.

I look forward to seeing how they mature.

Steve,

I am not aware that cultivars have been developed from ‘Metis’. I have used it as a staminate parent with ‘Hansa’ with no success, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be successfully used as a staminate or pistillate parent. As far as I know, very little breeding work has been done with this cultivar. However, I would be more inclined to use the similar ‘Aylsham’ (‘Hansa’ x R. nitida). ‘Aylsham’ is fertile both ways and I think ‘Hansa’ is superior to ‘Therese Bugnet’ in the pedigree of a rose used for breeding.

When using Rosa nitida in a breeding program, the characteristics it imparts are shiny foliage and the beautiful fall foliage as you have noted. A good example why breeding should not concentrate on the flowers but on developing a superior shrub. This species also has the ability to produce non-fading flowers and suppress the violet tone in pink and reds of its progeny. Keep in mind that the seedlings will also have a propensity to sucker profusely.

Paul

I checked my breeder list, http://home.neo.rr.com/kuska/seedling%20numbers.htm

only # 107 is a Metis X OP seedling is being used.

At one time I had a number of seedlings. Some were not as vigorous as the others, but that was about the only difference. Several years ago I made a deliberat attempt to get rid of most of them. Every once in a while I still find one somewhere that I overlooked. To the best of my poor memory, I now have anywhere from 1 to 3 plants left. One of the reasons for treating them so harsly is the super suckering tendancy.

Link: home.neo.rr.com/kuska/seedling%20numbers.htm

Another one you may want to try is Corylus, (R. nitida X rugosa). In the past I have distributed seeds of it. Maybe someone can report on their experiences.

I am still actively using it:

http://home.neo.rr.com/kuska/hips-2003-season-sort-pollen.htm

Link: home.neo.rr.com/kuska/hips-2003-season-sort-pollen.htm

How does one usually handle the suckering problem? My intention is to chop them with a tile spade. Should I just keep plants that sucker profusely in pots?

I tried putting a black plastic “edging” around the plant in my raises beds. The roots were able to go deeper than the about 1 foot edging.

I was one of the people who received OP Corylus seed from Henry, so I can help out there. Many of the seedlings were mildew prone and most were discarded. I don’t remember much else about them. I kept two that didn’t mildew at all, even though they were growing in the shade of a mildew-y R. canina plant. Both set hips and repeat well. I haven’t tried breeding with them. I recently had a chance to see a plant of Corylus, and the pink seedling appears to be a very close duplicate to Corylus (except for repeating). The other plant is a white single/semi double. It has shiny nitida-shaped rugose-foliaged leaves that are a bright green in color. Neither seems to sucker a lot, and I’ve kept them in check by sharing plants with friends.

I think that I have kept 2 Corylus X OP seedlings. They both have semi-double white flowers. I think that at least 1 is a repeat bloomer; but the repeat bloom is nothing to write home about.

I have used them in breeding, see:

http://home.neo.rr.com/kuska/germinations-2000.htm

and use your browsers “find” comand with Corylus.

Link: home.neo.rr.com/kuska/germinations-2000.htm