New explorer roses

General Discussion
1

I saw the latest Plant varieties journal (published by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and saw two new Explorer roses described. One is ‘Felix Leclerc’ (pink climber cross of L25 x D25) and ‘Abraham Martin’ (large white rugosa cross of ‘Jens Munk’ x ‘Martin Frobisher’). They were both bred by Svejda in the 1970’s and re-selected for release by Mrs. Claude Richer. This journal reports plant performance relative to a similar check cultivar and the data is used for plant variety protection. Has anyone heard of these or have seen them publicized yet?

David

2

David,

These two cultivars apparently are the first two of the new Canadian Artists series. Felix Leclerc was a French Canadian (Quebecois) musician/composer. I don’t know who Abraham Martin was. ‘Felix Leclerc’ is a sister seedling of ‘Captain Samuel Holland’.

I’m disappointed that the initial Canadian Artist cultivars are Explorer and Parkland roses repackaged with a new name. People will think the Canadian Artists roses are a new type of rose, when in fact they are not. It’s all about fast tracking new roses for the Canadian nursery industry (who are footing much of the bill for the breeding program) that they think can sell better under a new name. I’m not impressed.

Paul

3

Paul,

Heck, thats nothing that J&P doesn’t do. Can you say Cesar E. Chavez?

4

Oh yeah-- it also goes by the names Beloved, and Merveille de Gien.

Meilland has a way to give a rose 2 or 3 different names too. French and English…

5

The Canadian Rose Annual for 2005 states that the two new Artist series roses are ‘Felix Leclerc’ and ‘Emily Carr’. Though it doesn’t state the parentage, ‘Emily Carr’ looks like a red floribunda type shrub like ‘Champlain’.

I would be interested in finding out more about ‘Abraham Martin’. David, where did you find this info? How can I get a copy of the Plant Varieties Journal?

6

Hi Mark, I saw this journal because my Masters advisor passes it around the dept. It’s also at our campus library. Maybe a nearby college with an ag focus would carry it. There is a website listed in this journal http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pbrpov/croproe.pdf

and Abraham Martin and other roses are listed with some brief information. I didn’t search around too much, but maybe the full description of each variety is on-line as it appears in the journal.

Sincerely,

David