New Seed Parent experience

General Discussion
1

I always try new seed parents every year, and here are the results of some unknowns since I am nearly finished with hip processing for 2007.

Rose Rhapsody: 2nd year own root. 4 bloom tries. 4 takes. 4 huge hips. 10-40 seeds each. Good size seeds. Pollen donor: Scentimental/Rennaisance. I was very pleased with this since many overly-double roses are hard to use. Also, both of it’s parents, Fragrant Cloud and Ingrid Bergman, are picky seed parents.

Escapade: I was worried about the ploidy, but I felt that this rose may have been wasted opportunity, especially since Harkness believes this to be one of the best roses he has ever created. 7 bloom tries. 5 takes. 1-2 HUGE seeds each. Pollen donor: Scentimental/Rennaisance. I chose this combination since the ladies at Rosarian’s Corner seemed to love this snifferific roses in my pics.

Purple Heart: This rose has failed to set non-OP seed for 3 years straight. And this year it set 4 out of 4 hips. I dont get it, but whatever. Pollen donors: Firefighter, Sevilliana (Buck), Livin’ Easy and Pretty Lady. (as you can tell, I love floribundas lol). The seeds were numerous, near perfect, and easy to process.

Tatton: I used this one last year as one hip try to test the waters. It was Tatton x Rosarium Utersen. It germinated one seedling which is currently on the “keeper” list. It looks like it will be a coral pink shrub. This year: 9 hip tries, 9 takes. Donors: Pretty Lady, Purple Heart, Rosarium Utersen, Sevilliana (Buck). It produced a ton of seeds on extremely orange hips. Also, I strongly believe this rose is a 1rst or 2nd generation of Amber Queen.

Tequila: This is a new “Shrub” from Meilland. It is everything a floribunda should be =P At any rate, 2 pilot tries gave 2 large hips with a lot of seeds. Pollen donor: Tatton.

Betty Harkness: I was hesitant to try this rose because it will have the same vegetative centers a lot of Silver Jubilee descendants have (Gwen Mayor, Daybreaker, Easy Goin’ but not Livin Easy). This makes it difficult to get takes. Well, this one did something unique. 4 tries made 2 hips. All of the seeds fromed on the outside, and they appear viable. Go figure, lol. Pollen donor: Ebb Tide.

Rotary Sunrise: new this year. Pilot try of 1 was 1 take. Very small hip, very few seeds. Donor: propriety seedling.

Candy Land: 8 or so tries, all takes. huge hips, a lot of seed. Pollen donors: Toprose, Tatton, propriety seedling.

Sally Holmes: I always stayed away from trying this one because people said it wasnt that great. But there was a branch of it sticking through the fence. My neighbor owned it. So I put some Night Owl on it. 3 of 4 took. I got a few huge seeds from it.

Red Abundance: 0 out of 5 takes. Pollen donor: Candy Land

Rosa virginiana: 0 out of 20 takes. I think it was too rainy then. I will do pollen only next year.

Rosa chinensis sanguiana: 0 out of 15 or so. This one likes to abort 1-2 weeks later. I’m shovel pruning it. I think it is meant for a more southern climate.

Well, that is it for new tries. Feel free to add any of your new experiences so others can avoid wasting time.

2

3 of 4 on S Holmes sounds good, but no SH seeds have ever germinated for me.

3

I fear they wont, but we will see.

4

The pictures I’ve seen on HelpMeFind of ‘Sanguinea’ look just like the ‘Bengal Fire’ that grows here, where the summers are very hot. It doesn’t seem to set seed here, either. Have you tried ever using its pollen?

5

It is the same rose. It gets traded around a lot so it’s name gets switched around by horticultural trade. I’m amazed Mutabilis doesnt have 50 names by now, lol.

I tried it’s pollen on banksia, but failed. Early to Mid May is just too dang rainy here to get thinks to set properly. I cant think of anything tetraploid to use it with so it may go, which is too bad because it has something unique I like. It starts out a light red shade, but when the sun hits it it develops a darker shade of red… And when it nears frost, the truest shade of red Ive seen develops.

6

Sanguinea or Miss Lowe is a difficult parent as pollen easily abort and the large hips never turn red and fall when turning from green to yellow. Add to this that the large seeds are difficult to germinate.

It is probably the closest cv to chinensis spontanea species that has even bigger seeds. It is allways among the very earlier roses to flower here.

No new seed parent from the trade here. Only new seedlings.

7

Doh, I lied. I found a hidden branch under the rug of White Drift that had 4 viable hips with about 20 viable seeds in them. I believe the pollen was a mix of Rosa primula, Rosa rugosa alba, Rosa chinensis sanguinea, Rosa roxiburghii and Gourmet Popcorn. This was the same pollen on Carefree Marvel.