I have been reading everything i can find about growing roses and have found this forum to have the most useful information. It’s like a giant encyclopedia. I love it.
this is my first post on this site although I have been reading and learning here for several weeks.
I only have six roses in my yard and all are different from each other. I moved one of my roses to the back yard and it seems to be stressed since I transplanted it. I water it for about ten minutes once a week. maybe it will come out of it when the weather cools down some. maybe it’s the wrong time of year to transplant. I want to move some of my other roses to the back yard but am afraid to move them till I see what the first one is going do.
I took a cutting off of one to see if I could get it to sprout roots and so far I haven’t killed it. that was a week ago. I want to get some cuttings from my friends and see if I can start some new ones if my first one doesn’t die. I am looking forward to getting some different ones. I don’t know what kind of roses I have because they where here when I bought the house. one has a tag which reads hardy to 10 below and nothing else. I assume they all came from a greenhouse nearby or maybe Lowe’s ect. I haven’t done anything special to my roses except keep the dead canes cut out of them. I want to change that and see if I can get my plants to look as good as some of the ones I have seen posted on this forum.
I just think it is so interesting to try to cross roses and see what you come up with. I collected some pollen from one but none of the others look like they will bloom soon so I am wandering how long the pollen will keep.
I am in southern Ohio zone six. normal winter temperatures drop to about 10 below zero here.
Hi Bill:
It sounds like you really should join RHA and take advantage of their very fine newsletter along with the two books CD on hybridizing that the organization offers.
All the information you need is here on the website and you can even join through Pay Pal if you would like to use that means of joining.
Contact Larry Peterson regarding Pay Pal enrollment.
You asked about keeping pollen…be sure that it is very dry and it can be frozen in small containers to use when the roses you want to use the pollen on are blooming.
Hope that helps.
Meg
Bil,
Good to see another Buckeye on the forum.
This October, you are welcome to have seeds from our crosses. Keep them in frig until January when they start sprouting. Then put sprouted seeds into small pots and grow under fluorescent light in your basement. The small plants bloom in February, which is the most fun part of hybridizing.
Next spring, you can try your hand at crosshybridizing your mature plants.
dave wolfe, marysville ohio
Welcome to the club, Bill. When you start crossing roses it gets worse. I look at all of my seedling roses at least once a day and usually twice. Every day I pinch hips of flowers that I’ve pollinated to see if they’ve taken. I feel sick when I worry about viruses. I check this forum three times a day. I lay in bed at night fantasizing about new crosses.
It’s not pretty, Bill. Just warning you.
By the way, it’s best to transplant roses in the spring before they leaf out. You can cut them way back and there is very little stress to the plant at that time. You can even shake the dirt off the roots if you are careful to immediately replant them before the roots begin to dry.
Hi Bill,
Yes, welcome to the group! I agree that the resources mentioned by Meg would be very helpful to you.
It sounds like your obsession is only beginning - beware! This is a great hobby. I have found no other that is more enjoyable, but obsessing is part of the hobby!
Roses don’t like being moved in hot weather unless you are planting a rose from an established pot. Digging them up is very stressful, but as Joe mentioned, they do well when they are still dormant in early Spring.
Jim Sproul
thanks everyone for the quick responses. I already feel like I am part of the group from reading the forum so much.
I have hips that may be making seeds from the first blooms of this year. they are getting fat. I saw on the forum to cover them with foil to keep the squirrels from eating them. so that is what I did only my problem is the deer. I have four that live on my property. two still have spots and one is a one year old that we bottle fed last year. any way when the weather gets really dry they eat anything that gets watered here. I will have to declare war if they do that again this year.
I have one rose that may be a Don Wan. one is almost burgundy it is so red. one has petals that are yellow at the base with the rest light pink. one is cream colored which gets tall, six feet or so and another tall one that is dark red. and one has white and pink stripes.
I’m looking forward to sharing my trials and errors with everyone. thanks for having me.
Welcome Bill to the forum. I do hope that you do join the RHA and receive an excellent quarterly newsletter. You can learn a lot by reading and contributing to the varied threads posted here by fellow hybridizers. Hybridizing is a constant learning process, and we DO learn from each other. There is no such thing as a dumb question - any question accepted gladly here on the forum. We do have members in a number of countries, so you might get help from anywhere. That is what makes this so enjoyable. As you learn, please help others so that they too can feel proud of having had their hand in creating the most beautiful of flowers - the Rose, our national flower.
I do wish you success in your hybridizing efforts. Keep us posted.
John Moe
General Director, RHA
thank you dave for the offer of some seeds this fall I will gladly take them. I don’t have very many roses to collect seeds from to offer you and right now they are not in the greatest condition that they could be but I would swap what I have. this year is the first time I am trying to collect seeds so I hope I get some to plant.
Bill…Welcome to the world of hybridizing roses…Even if you don’t get that one special rose…there is always “the Thrill Of the hunt”. Make it something you enjoy … and it’s never considered as work…LARRY G. POPWELL Sr.
thanks larry and everyone who has responded to my post.
I was in Lexington Ky this week and the public library on Fieldstone Way had a number of books on roses. I spent most of a day reading there. They even had a book on old roses. I wish I could have checked them out and brought them home for further study. The rose I have that I thought was a Don Juan looks more like a Mister LIncoln from the pictures I saw in the books.
I also found out that I misspelled Don Juan in an earlier post above. Sorry about that.
I’m looking forward to getting a few more roses.
Thanks for the encouragement everyone.
Hello Bill.
I too, am insanely obsessed with roses. For many years now I have studied many great names in hybridizing. Even so far as to purchase the books of those who have been published. Some hybrdizers names to research as a foundation. Ralph Moore, William Lammerts, Herb Swim. The four of J&P, Nichols, Boerner, Warriner, and Zary. Across the pond there is sam mcgredy, kordes, and the deruiter house. You may even consider the world federations encyclopedia project. The encyclpedia of roses 3 volume set gets your scientific lobes into fireworks! 
A great resource american rose societies past annual volumes! This is a plethora of information. Last, make a marriage of pristine X angel face. If I were to teach rose hybridizing 101 this would be the one that teaches. Enjoy your path!
thanks wade
seems like I can’t get enough information quick enough!
my cutting that I planted still looks great and seems to be doing fine. I planted it in a six inch plastic pot which I first lined with wet newspaper and the mix is one part sand, one part potting soil and one part peat moss to which I added an eight ounce glass of water and a forked stick and covered it with two zip lock bags and a rubber band. I marked the bag with the rose parent and jotted into a log every thing I did so I can change what doesn’t work and keep doing what does. If this one takes root I’ll take more cuttings before they go dormant in the fall. It is so pleasing working with dirt and plants.
I am wondering if it is best to have a garden just for roses or add them to the landscape with other plants.
RHA has a broken link,so this link may be useful. See Parents for beginning hybridizers.Suggested Pod and Pollen Parents for Beginning Hybridizers
Link: www.carolinadistrict.org/WCFRS/CostalRoseVol1Issue6.htm
thanks Neil
that is a very helpful link.
I will try to do some crosses with the six roses I have until I get some more.
I am happy to say that the rose I transplanted last month in the heat of the summer has made it over the hump. A week after moving it I added some homemade compost to all my roses. {my compost consists mostly of white oak leaves and grass clippings}.they have started getting some new growth which is very pretty and their overall health is showing some improvement. Yesterday I added more compost/leaf mulch to them. I have a three foot circle about four inches thick around each plant. the plants look like they are loving it.