Are there any Miniature roses that are winter hardy in zone 4? How about disease resistance?
I do have a number of species roses here, that would be a much longer road to get results. I do also have a number of hardy roses that could be used in crosses.
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Good luck on your search. I never pursued finding them for my zone 4A (CDN) as they hurt my knees to examine. Though Finn mother somehow manage to over winter and grow them (grocery specials) in Northern Ontario - snuggled up to west wall base.
However l have stumbled on number of hardy hybrids that arenāt strictly classified as miniatures, some that repeat, but most once bloomers that for some reasons have stayed within 12-18ā or less high in my short season.
Your note gets me thinking about revising next seasons targets.
Go for it, if still around, lāll elbow my way to the front of the customer queue if you succeed ā¦ wont be worrying about āno soup todayā ā¦ retorts.
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Quite a few miniatures can be grown in zone 4 with winter protection just like any other tender modern roses. The ones that seemed a bit tougher for me in MN (still benefiting from protection but not being killed quite to the ground) tended straddle the line between miniature and polyantha, like āGreen Iceā and Sweet Chariot (āMORchariā). āGreen Iceā had excellent disease resistance, and Sweet Chariot had reasonably good disease resistance (although it doesnāt seem to perform well against blackspot in my current, hotter climate). Both are diploids with some fertility, but Sweet Chariot has significantly more named descendants.
Stefan
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I found that SC is very fertile as seed parent, but what about āGreen Iceā? According to photos they seems like green centered.
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The centers of āGreen Iceā arenāt always entirely vegetative, but it will probably not produce many seeds per hip even when you do find a flower with some functional pistils. There is a seedling on HMF, and that appears to have inherited the same tendency. I didnāt try digging for anthers, but I would expect those to be very low in number.
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More than any other mini (with the possible exception of āSweet Fairyā), the outstanding feature of āSweet Chariotā is that FRAGRANCE. Rich. Deep. Damask.
Oh, itās also quite purple, sometimes.
Iāve had SF for decades, and have handed it around to several friends over the years. It smells exactly like the wild roses of northern BC/AB area called the āPeace Countryā, where I was born and raised. So I forgive it itās pinkness.
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David Zlesakās Petit Pink comes to mind. While it is more difficult to use as a female, you still can get some hips. The pollen is good and I have produced quite a few mini/hardy-rose hybrids using it. But if you are serious about finding some reliably hardy miniatures for your zone I highly recommend crossing miniature roses you like with full-sized hardy varieties. A significant portion of the offspring produced will be miniature or mini-flora in size. I have done this for myself and, depending on the hardiness of the miniature, you can end up with your own miniature hybrids adapted to your area. The mother of Cherry Frost was a cross between a miniature rose and a full-sized hardy hybrid rose of mine. The resulting rose was miniflora in size. That mini-flora was crossed to another hardy rose to produce Cherry Frost. So I guess you could say that Cherry Frost would never existed had I not done a cross between a miniature and a hardy rose. I highly recommend giving it a try.
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I havenāt tried any planned crosses with her, Julie, but here in Central Texas, Davidās āOso Easy Petit Pinkā sets a good number of OP hips.
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Where did you obtain blushing love from?
I imported under CFIA license from Knudās Pedersonās (spelling?) RosenPosten ānurseryā in Denmark.
He had a site by same name but it was in Danish, (not Dutch) and other languages Finnish, Swedish and German (no English back then).
He is the only European nursery l have tried for all my imports. Either as a solo order or communal order.
Managed to stumble through rose categories and figure whatās what. Pictures and English names helped.
I sent an email directly to him with Roses l wanted to order. He has good passable English and was very helpful.
As mentioned he may not yet be showing Blushing Love on the site (havenāt checked), l just knew he had it because it was on a list as part of a communal order l was doing - thought what a good idea.
The other person has disappeared of late but might contact.
PostScript:
This nursery makes me believe it has āthousandsā of roses of all classes and age. He puts the ones your interested under pimpinefollia. Exclamation marker I believe means out of stock.
Blushing Love and Butterball not on site today as far as I searched. Pers.Comm. probably needed.
I found Peter Boyd, Mon Amie Claire, Paula Valpelle on the site as before, and an unusual one I imported to my garden "Anja - Ćwald Scholle, Tyskland, but intro by Kordes.
He also has on site a pretty complete collection of Cdn heritage roses under pimpinefolia category (obtained a lot of mine from him) and Cornhill Nursery.
There was a chap called Leonard? Heller? in Washington state that had a large collection but I believe he retired and opened his garden to anyone with a shovel. I read one contributor on this site got shovel, donāt remember tag line.
Post Script 2
Good news. Notice CHR has gone up to 13 CDN/ and 1 US (Lillian G)+ other US heritage roses since I looked ~ 13 days ago. No Butterball.
But a good news story anyways for me, and perhaps only. Heard through grapevine I am only Canadian who buys them for years. Hopefully Prairie Peace shows up.
I exclude Mordens and Explores from count, but include carmenetta.
Hopefully Red Dawn x Suzanne will show up, and Isabellle Skinner that I am sure was being baked up in the back Lab a few years back.
Again acreage option, and definitely HD lopers and luxury of HD chipper/shredder highly recommended for 10-15 years down the road for small yards like mine.
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