My efficient approach to getting 400 seedlings a year including a few with commercial potential

[mnemko]

1. Heavily cross my key female Oso Easy Italian Ice with my key male: Rainbow’s End. That cross yields a wide range of offspring so I don’t worry about redundancy.
2. I do very little labeling. I enable that by having four plants of Oso Easy Italian Ice and allocate each to a particular male.In addition to Rainbow’s End, I use the following, which are fine cultivars in their own right and are consistent with my breeding goal: compact, healthy, HT-form, and which produce pollen near constantly, so I always have a fresh supply: Sunrosa (Red), my seedling #196 and an unnamed PorLaMar pot red. This year, I’m also trying Dragonfruit Sunblaze as female and male, Chuckles as female, and Gaye Hammond as female.

2a. If I don’t have enough of a cultivar’s pollen for a given plant, I use a 2nd choice. I pick something different in color (e.g., a yellow rather than red), so when the seedlings emerge, I can make a decent guess as to which of the two pollens was the daddy. That allows me to not label even in that circumstance.

I leave unnamed the seedlings I graduate to a larger pot –e.g., just retaining its number, e.g., 2417, which lets me know it’s the 17th seedling I graduated in 2024. On average, the first seedlings to graduate are early to bloom, have HT bloom of at least a dozen petals, little or no disease (under no-spray conditions), and good vigor.

If, as I walk the seedlings, an appropriate name for a cultivar pops to mind, I write that on the large plastic stake/label mentioned below in pencil, which doesn’t fade. As of today. May 31, I graduated 41 and have since culled 28 of those. I’ve re-graduated three to one-gallons. I’ve named a few. Hot is yellow and orange, Blush is, yes, blushing white, *Kiss Me You Fool" is hot pink, “Fill Me Up, Buttercup” is yellow, and Stunning Redhead is, of course, a beautiful red.

All have HT form–I toss almost all with nondescript form–I believe that if a cultivar doesn’t have HT form, it has no important advantage over the easy-to-care-for geranium. I have a few excellent geraniums to remind me of that benchmark.

3. Each year, I start with about 2,000 seeds, planted in deep flats. My germination rate averages 18%, so I scatter the seeds (they’re mainly miniatures) about every 3/4 inch but don’t bother placing them individually. I just slowly drop a handful so they’re around 3/4 inch apart and then use a pencil to nudge over those that are too close to another seed. If decent-growing seedlings grow too close to each other, I lift one with my fingers or a teaspoon and replant it in a bare space or a 4" pot.

4. Because I live in Oakland CA, which gets little blackspot, I try to induce blackspot by rubbing blackspotted leaves on my better seedings and spraying them with water that has blackspotted leaves in it. I do that in early evening so the leaves stay wet for the needed 7 hours. I keep the seedlings very close together to increase humidity.

5. I cull ruthlessly, not because I don’t have space but because if a seedling isn’t close to disease-free, at least 12 petals with hybrid tea form and good vigor right away, it’s statistically not worth my time and effort. By the end of the first bloom cycle, I’m down to about a dozen seedlings. Any that look quite good, get transplanted into a 4 or 5" deep plastic pot and get a 3|" wide white plastic stake that I’ve snipped off (with my pruning shears) the top 2" of the stake. I stick it in the soil and make occasional notes on it in pencil as I walk my seedlings. If one is looking really good, I put a gold toothpick in the soil next to the stake. If a seedling is looking like it’s likely a goner but not definitely, I put a gray toothpick next to it.

As mentioned, as of May 31, 2024, I’m down to 13 seedlings and have re-graduated three to one-gallons.

6. By mid-November, I usually have 2 or 3 that I believe are worthy of testing by the rose companies that are testing my previous years’ roses. I send them pix, an honest report on its pros and cons, and ask if they’d like me to send wood. I’m a writer so I give each a working name such as those I mentioned above. I also want to use “I Love You.”

Here are some pix of my 2024s

[MidAtlas]

Thank you for sharing your detailed methods in such careful detail! I admire your commitment to ruthless selection in pursuit of a clear end product. Some of us may be more experimentally inclined, while others attempt to directly raise roses that are ready for the mass market; in the end, even the most experimental of efforts might lead to important advances that improve commercially available roses with valuable new traits, so I think that it is good for most rose breeders to give some thought to all facets of rose breeding and culture.

I realize that your post focuses on breeding approaches, but one topic you’ve introduced that I am particularly curious about is that of making contact with rose companies for testing, if you might be willing to indulge a few questions on subject. There’s no pressure to answer, but I think that it might be helpful for some folks here to read more about lived experience from the breeder’s perspective when it comes to rose commercialization (knowing that not everyone is interested in commercializing their roses, so this may or may not interest them).

So, if you don’t mind, here are a few questions (for you or anyone else who has embarked on the commercialization journey):

How did you go about that the first time you had roses that you felt worthy of trial? Did you learn anything during that process that might be important for other novices to consider? Were nurseries very receptive to your initial outreach efforts, or did you have to do a “hard sell” to convince them to trial any of your selections at first? What kind of agreements did you make regarding trial and potential naming/introduction, and did you find them agreeable? Finally, have any of them gotten very far in trials outside of your region and climate? What kind of information or feedback did you receive along the way?

[mnemko]

I agree that basic research may ultimately yield more benefit than my short(er) term direct-to-commercialization approach. I’d think particularly fruitful would be identifying gene editing for BS, RRD, and mildew. Also, a better approach to tissue culture for building stock. I’d also like to see research on interspecies breeding–imagine if, for example, a rose could be crossed with a geranium. After all apricots have successfully been crossed with plums to make the delcious aprium.

Re trialing, I simply emailed the companies with candid assessments of candidate roses. A few have let me send wood and I signed a license to test agreement, no problem. I have two roses on the market–through Bailey for which I get a modest but decent royalty per rose sold. I recommended names for the cultivars but they didn’t use them–I feel mine were better. Oh well. I have a few better roses under test with Spring Meadow, J&P, and Monrovia–But the process takes 2-3 years before they decide whether to introduce one and then more years to build stock.
Amount of feedback varies–I’m guessing that depends less on company policy and more on the individual in charge of evaluating seedlings. A few months ago I got some negatives and too-early-to-tells from Spring Meadow and just got a positive from Monrovia. JP had crop failure on the first wood I sent them last year, so I just emailed them asking if they’re ready for more. wood. Weeks tried one and liked it (I like it too-exceptionally floriferous, cast-iron healthy, long-lasting 40 petals of decent form on a symmetical bush) except that for them, the spent blooms hang on the bush,which nixed it. They don’t normally accept amateur submissions but made that one exception and with their rejecting it, they don’t want more. That surprised me because they otherwise liked that one variety. I’m particularly bullish on one of my 2024s: beautiful red of HT form, 17-18 petals, floriferous,long-lasting, healthy.(working name: Gorgeous Redhead.) But it’s too early to recommend. By August,t it will have gone through 3 bloom cycles and varied weather. At that point, I’ll decide whether to suggest that it and perhaps one or two others be tested by the companies. If they say yes, they might have enough time to root the wood and see a bloom cycle before it gets too cold.

[Heather_Horning]

Thank you for sharing your methods!
It’s encouraging to know how to move forward.

[lee_hull]

Martin, this is great information, thank you. If we try to categorize the characteristics that are most important to the growers and distributors, it might include disease resistance, vigor, floriferousness, color, petal count, flower size, flower form, bush size, and probably more I’m not thinking of right now.

In your experience, do you have a sense of how those characteristics would rank? I want to think that they can’t all be equally important, but I’ve never tried to sell a rose, either. Thanks in advance for anything you can share.

[mnemko]

Your order is quite good. Other thoughts:

They like patio-sized roses. Minis sell poorly and large roses are harder to ship.

They also like novelty–I don’t–You usually must too heavily sacrifice other more central characteristics. And I find the most common novelty–striped–unattractive.

I care about foliage quality–dark, glossy, dense–After all, foliage persists through the growing season whereas flowers bloom in cycles.

I also value symmetry of plant–no isolated long cane, and I’m guessing companies do too–again ease of shipping, better appearance at point-of-sale.

I don’t care much about fragrance, Yes, people say they care but in practice, the percentage of time they spend smelling a rose is trivial compared with the other ways they enjoy roses.

Finally, they prefer to introduce a series rather than a one-off. I’ve named mine BeautEase and hope to have a red, pink, yellow, and white mini of hybrid-tea form, excellent health, floriferous with quick repeat, good finish (doesn’t hang on the bush) and the attractive plant as I describe. I’m probably dreaming but that’s the aspiration.

I’m guessing that the majors won’t let me introduce a whole series so at some point–If I’m still alive and motivated–I’d probably just try to sell the line to local nurseries.

[Roseus]

Just a small note for those who are generally interested. The WFRS uses the following criteria for awarding points at all their international rose trials. As an example, I have taken the complete rules and conditions of the National Rose Trial Garden of Australia INC. as these are ideally accessible on the webpage.

Rules & Conditions | National Rose Trial Garden

Plants are assessed on the following criteria:

As recommended by the WFRS new criteria. Maximum Points = 100.

General Impression – 30

• Plant, Foliage, Vigor, Flowering, Novelty

Flower – 30

• Blooms, Buds, Colour, Abundance of Flowering
• Recurrent Bloom, Post Flowering, Novelty

Disease Resistance – 30

• Fungal Diseases, Pest Tolerance

Fragrance – 10

Points allotted for the above, are in conformity with practice throughout the world rose trial gardens.

[James_D]

I wonder how harsh the marking is. For example are “rose of the year” winners on 100 or do they also fall short?

[Plazbo]

Rose of the year is just whatever got the highest that year. So say there’s a bad year and nothing entered gets more than 75 points (68 point minimum to get awards) there’s going to be a rose of the year but it may be so far below previous years winners. So it’s not a foolproof award really. Kind of like the most pest and disease resistant…of that year, not in comparison to previous winners or anything, if everything has poor disease resistance that year, someone still wins.

The funny aspect about the Australian trial (because it’s the one linked) is that it’s in a location that is a Mediterranean climate when the vast majority of the population here live in summer rainfall climates. KORbevmahe got a gold medal…meanwhile the vast majority of the population based on location, wouldn’t see it without most of it’s flowers balling because it’s so prone to it in humidity or rain.

[mnemko]

Per my previous post, I believe that fragrance and novelty are overrated, plant quality and hybrid-tea form underrated.

I also prioritize a variable I call “mean bloom coverage.”: the percentage of the plant that is covered in bloom averaged across the entire year. I don’t actually measure it but keep it in mind.

[Roseus]

Many thanks for feedback! A beautiful fragrance is very important to me personally, which is why I work among others aspects with historic roses. Unfortunately, I often miss a smell completely in new rose releases or it is only very slightly perceptible. I think a nice or interesting scent together with some other important attributes makes a rose even more unique. As far as I follow new launches, I often find that the awarded roses are looking very similar. The lovelyness of the flower shape is of course in the eye of the beholder.