Has anyone used Midas Touch as a seed parent? I collected
a bunch of open pollinated hips this year just to see
what it would give me. There were only an average of
three seeds per hip, but the seeds looked fine. The problem
is I can’t get a single seed to sprout! Anyone know if this
is one of those roses that needs two years to germinate?
Hi Eric:
This year, from 310 seeds planted of ‘Midas Touch’, I have 9 germinations so far and I don’t expect many more from what has been my previous experience. I do not use MT as a seed parent because of this very poor germination rate, however, I occasionally plant ‘OP’ seeds of it in hopes of getting a more fertile offspring - which hasn’t happened yet.
MT does work very well as a pollen parent, but I have noticed that even as a pollen parent, it delays germination somewhat.
Jim
Several years ago I made the cross Secret x Midas Touch. I think I pollenated 4 or 5 blooms and harvested 1 or 2 hips. Again–based on memory not records–I seem to remember a moderate seed count. There seemed to be a number of small and misshapen seeds, but I had a very high and fairly early germination. I’ve kept two seedlings from that cross that were resistant to mildew, both medium yellow with pink edging and slightly more double than MT, but the yellow color fades. I’ve collected OP hips off of these two, and one or both (I’d combined the seeds) also produces seeds that germinates fairly early.
I’ve never very much pursued breeding with these, since my interests have changed since making that cross. If anyone is interested, I’d be willing to share cuttings of these.
Joan