Does anyone know the parentage of the Bailey yellow rose ‘High Voltage’. I Emailed the breeder Ping Lim asking about it but I didn’t get a response. Anyone have experience growing it and can tell me about its performance? Especially comparing it to the other Bailey yellow rose cultivars (‘Yellow Submarine’, etc.)
Hi Paul,
It is the most cold hardy of their yellows in my experience. The last couple years in my garden and elsewhere it has about 6-8" of live wood at the base, while the nearby ‘Yellow Submarine’ dies below the soil line.
It is very healthy and amazing!!! It sets hips too!
David
Well, we know that they used Singin in the Rain, Flower Carpet Yellow, Carefree Sunshine and Graham Thomas for sources of yellow in their other hybrids. I doubt it is directly from Singin in the Rain, which is 1/4 Whisky Mac.
It’ll be great when the patent comes out and hopefully we can learn more. Hopefully it’ll say more than seedling x seedling!
I obtained a High Voltage last year late in the hybridizing season and used it to a limited degree as a female. I didn’t get a lot of blooms on this new plant to use in hybridizing as it was still pretty small, but it crossed well with several different pollens. It produced a fair number of seeds per hip and they have germinated pretty well–especially given that over-all germination has been dismal this year (I suspect that the third coldest summer on record in our area may have had something to do with this!!!). Several of the seedlings have bloomed. The yellow is coming through but tends to be light and fades quickly. Never-the-less, it is still yellow! I was impressed with High Voltage last summer. It grew quickly and bloom increased as the summer progressed. The foliage was attractive and healthy. I got even more interested after David told me that it has shown the best winter hardiness of the Bailey roses. I intend to put it to better use this year and I think it has definite possibilities.
High Voltage has overwintered well here in Zone 3 (USA) for two winters.
Much better than Morden Sunrise and Winnipeg Parks, which to be fair were both nearly defoliated from blackspot before the end of summer, so that probably weakened them.
HV has gotten powdery mildew in a greenhouse setting for me, but we don’t have PM probs outside here in NW Minnesota.
It seems to set fat hips.
Hi Joe,
Thanks for you response and information about how well ‘High Voltage’ overwinters in your Zone 3 (USA) region. I just want to make the point that ‘Morden Sunrise’ doesn’t have to overwinter well (canes not winterkilled) in a Zone 2 or 3 (Canadian) climate to perform well. Because of its vigour, all it has to be is crown hardy in these climates, and it will grow and flower well the following summer. Indeed, this is the case, keeping in mind that (usually) a dependable amount of snowcover on the Canadian Prairies (especially in the Parkland region) is likely a contributing factor for the good crown hardiness of this cultivar.
I purchased two bareroot ‘High Voltage’ shrubs this spring and potted them up. However, growth seems to be slow and it appears they will be too late flowering to breed them this year. If all goes well, this cultivar will be crossed with ‘Suzanne’ next year.
High Voltage x Suzanne sounds like a great cross Paul!! I love HV and find it to be the most winter hardy of the great healthy yellow shrubs from Baileys (Yellow Submarine, Yellow Brick Road, and Centennial) in the Twin Cities. I made some crosses onto it today. It sets nice large hips with many seeds inside that have germinated well this past winter.
Suzanne x carefreesunshine hips have all aborted, but carefreesunshine x suzanne hips look good. It would be nice to get some healthy yellow into suzanne.
Hi Paul,
Somehow Morden Sunrise has not shown the crown vigor here, even when planted deeply. I think it has something to do with severe blackspot defoliation. It’s interesting how people’s experiences are so different in different parts of the country. HV also dies almost to the ground, but must be able to store up a lot more energy.
The problem for me is that Morden Sunrise is so charming that I want to use it as a parent. I’ve done quite a few open pollinated seedlings of MS and kept some that had good vigor and a pure yellow color but haven’t had the heart to submit my favorite to a winter yet. I’ll take some cuttings and plant them out next year.
I’ve also crossed both HV and MS with Prairie Joy. I’ll have to check out this Suzanne y’all are talking about.
Joe
Dave,
I have also crossed ‘Carefree Sunshine’ with ‘Suzanne’, so it’s good to know of your success with this cross. It’s actually not my ideal tender yellow x ‘Suzanne’ to make, but sometimes one has to work with what you have got. I’m in the process now of crossing ‘Morden Sunrise’ x ‘Suzanne’. The idea of making these crosses, of course, is to develop breeding lines (like Julie Overom’s ‘Easy Going’ x ‘Suzanne’ selections), that when taken to another generation of breeding could produce considerably cold hardier, repeat blooming, yellow roses than what we currently have.
Hi Paul,
I have to agree with Joe about my experience with Morden Sunrise. The ability to withstand BS is essential for the winter survival of Morden Sunrise in our Zone 3. Because of its susceptibility to BS (with both early and late complete defoliation in my area, much like Morden Snowbeauty), Morden Sunrise is not even crown hardy here. I have seen it in growing in the more northern town of Chisholm, Minnesota (on the frigid Iron Range) like I have seen it growing in the greenhouse–beautiful, healthy, dense foliage, and lots of bloom. I was stunned to find that it had not been sprayed, so the race of BS that affects Morden Sunrise must not have a presence in that area. Also, the plant receives a lot of snow cover from the plow that makes regular trips past the Irongate Rose Garden and it has survived there well for at least 4 years. It is the susceptibility to BS that is at the root of the survival issue for any rose that is borderline hardy. I really tried to get something useful out of Morden Sunrise but I only have one seedling that I have kept from many, many crosses. The BS issue was simply too persistent.
I am just starting to see the results from my Easy Goin’ x Suzanne hybrids. I have two that go back to 2005 or 2006. One has excellent health and good hardiness, although the color is a washed out pale yellow that fades white. The other has orange buds with a bit brighter yellow/ pink coloring, but it is not quite as BS healthy and that does affect winter survival. Neither repeats. From 2007 are at least 4 with some yellow coloring and excellent winter survival. It can be hard to judge hardiness here when even roses like William Baffin and John Davis routinely die back to under 3 feet most years, but these 2007 seedlings are now over three feet and they received minimal pruning this spring. One of these–the prettiest one–does repeat, although the color would be considered more apricot. From 2008 and on I made a lot of use of EGS1 and EGS2 as healthier yellows such as Yellow Submarine, Yellow Brick Road, and High Voltage came on the market. I probably have at least 7 or 8 roses that have made the health cut so far. They have all been through at least one or two winters outside. I know that some of them repeat and flower form is starting to improve. That 2002 cross between Easy Goin’ x Suzanne was a very lucky break. I am finally taking some photos and I should probably write up what my experience has produced. Now there are even better yellows on the market so the idea of a cross between a rose such as High Voltage x Suzanne is a very good one.
Joe, welcome to the forum. I’m in northern Wisconsin and its nice to hear of someone else facing similar challenges. You might be a bit colder where you are but I did have -36F this past winter so it does get pretty cold. Also, my plants are in an open field with no protection from wind or sun so sunscald is a major issue.
Julie O
Yes, Julie, please do write it up! Your experiences would fit in perfectly with the Newsletter symposium topic of Breeding Better Yellows. And of course we want photos.
Betsy,
I think I’ve finally have seen enough results to have something concrete to write about. I still have more to accomplish regarding the intensity of the yellows but I’m making progress. I’ll try to put something together soon.
Julie
I for one would look forward to an article Julie. Just this brief bit on the forum is very interesting.
Thanks, Julie. We will look forward to reading about your progress.
I hope the rest of you will also contribute to the newsletter symposium with your experiences breeding yellows, successful or not! Even a brief commentary on the newer commercially released yellows and how they might be used for further breeding would be useful.
Can you tell I’m hoping to fill up the summer newsletter before fall gets here? 
So, this thread is from 2010, and it looks like there will not be a patent for this rose. I checked.
I bought it today because I am narrowing down the number of seed parents to work with, and I am also making sure I have enough seed setters for early June hybridizing. I’ll probably use this rose for High Voltage x (Rosa canina x Baby Love). I’ll probably use its pollen on Aunt Honey.
The new foliage is red and it hardens to a mid-green. The foliage seems to follow the same patterns that Singin’ in the Rain does, including foliage shape. I wonder if it is a Singin in the Rain x Buck-type hybrid.
I’m growing a fairly large (maybe 400 or so) population of OP High Voltage seedlings this year, and I will report on the color spectrum.
Julie mentioned to me that some of her HV crosses that shouldn’t be repeat bloomers have buds on young plants. I have also noticed that for a cross where I used pollen from the same once-blooming rose on both High Voltage and Carefree Sunshine, several of the HV seedlings have buds but none of the CS seedlings do. This might indicate that High Voltage has some tendency to release its pollen early and pollinate itself. I will keep track whether the supposed crosses have phenotypical differences from the open pollinated population.
Now that it is growing and blooming for me, the obviousness that it is some sort of descendant of Charles Austin is quite obvious.
I was surprised to see a garden centre in Edmonton bring in a good quantity of ‘High Voltage’ for sale this spring. It was the only Bailey rose cultivar they were selling. I bought one for breeding purposes, but it is mildewing quite badly. Disappointing!