micro minis and Petit Pink

Recently in a thread Petit Pink came up. Looking at HMF there is a picture from proud Papa David that show another very similar if much smaller companion.

David: is it a micro mini sib?


All miniatures I grew over the years proved too desease succeptible for me to spread pollen. Bees do not bother. The better US rated ones usually are not available in Europa.

I am interested in micros as if over the years accidently I got a few; recently aiming at low polyanthas I got a lot: may be over fifty and very varied from single to full. White to red. Genetically quite varied mostly involving species hybrids bracteata, wichuraina, banksiae, maximovixiana, multiflora, Chinas, The Fairy, Weepy, Monica Z…derived.

A surprise was that many are very healthy and a few as fertile as one can hope.

To all that grew/breed/bred micros let us know your experiences, speculations and thoughts.

Hi Pierre!!

I love minis too and struggle with their health. I love that you are bringing in such great and diverse genetics to try to improve their health.

The blooms on the branches that are smaller on Petit Pink are Petit Pink itself and branches that are more in the shade. The larger flowers are also closer to the camera and may make it look a bit like an optical illusion for them being larger in proportion too.

Do you like to use the Drift roses? I think they sure are pretty and are gathering momentum here. I think of them as a nice combination of the blooming habit of polyanthas, color and slightly larger flowers of some minis, and a wonderful compact slightly spreading habit of the best groundcover roses. I should try to use them more in controlled crosses. Some are diploid and some are triploid, but so far it doesn’t seem like any are excessively fertile setting hips.

Petit Pink came out of a desire to tame some of the larger hardy shrub roses. I called Sequoia Nursery and ordered 5 or 6 roses they suggested that were good seed setters and crossed and then recrossed them with various hardier and healthier shrubs. I should try to do some more work with mini hybrids.

What do you think of the Warner hybrids? We have a few hybrids that filtered to the US, but it sounds like most haven’t.

Take Care,
Love,
David

Hi David

You confirm my soupçon about the smaller flowers.
This Petit Pink has a really fine flower and flower power.

My environment is quite trying and few roses are able to cope with climate, dense not selected seedling plantings and low care that favor desease.

Many Warner climbing minis are low fertile probable triploids.
To date all I tried are not enough desease resistant for me.

Drifts have a better plant architecture but little better health than Noaks Ground Covers.
Those I grow are not healthy enough for me.

Only Kordes has some roses that are close to immune.
Their minis are not ATM.

What I like more and more in some diploid polyanthas minis and micros of mine is their hability to build so snell a dense very ramified plant that being close to the soil are a good desease test. Earlier and harder nature selected.

A starting point is Weepy a sturdy not very decorative nor fertile shrubby Lens miniature.

Another thing I am exploring are dwarfing genes.
My point is that all smaller foliaged species have dwarfing genes or alleles that eventually may be combinable.

As over the years I learned that more suitable genetical diversity allows more desired transgression. More plasticity.

All this is quite exciting!

Only Kordes has some roses that are close to immune

Which ones?

A comment specifically about Pink Drift. In my GA garden it is extremely black spot resistant. I’ve also planted several in my brother’s garden in southeastern PA with similar results.