Very excited, many of my seedlings are forming their first flowers, which is very very cool considering they are VERY young, only a few weeks old.
These are the most seedlings that I’ve ever had that have survived, I had about four last year, and this year I think I have about of a dozen + some of my mystery ‘Roseraie de l’Hay’ cross/OP. Most are ‘Plaisanterie’ seedlings, care for two, one which I think is a rugosa seedling, and another which might be a Lynnie OP, but is very distinct looking compared to all my other seedlings.
A few have ‘bloomed’ and as I mentioned, seem to show the ‘Mutabilis’ colorhift as the pseduo first flower petals were cream/yellowish for a while and seemed to age to a matte pink. I could be wrong, as they were only a millimeter in terms of bud/flower size MAXIMUM so I’m going to wait it out for their next flower flushes to see improvement of course, but in general the seedlings look like Mama with their foliage, which is rather distinct; I wouldn’t call 'Plaisanterie’s leaves willowy (that’s palustris!) but they do have a slight lancinate look and lean towards a matte-green blue that brings to mind ‘Mutabilis’ of course. So far one seedling, the first to bloom, has been very vigorous and after I deadheaded the “flower” it started making a new branch + leaves so I’m very happy with their vigor. In fact some of the other seedlings that are not ‘Plaisanterie’ so far have not done as well.
I think more people should try using ‘Plaisanterie’, it seems pretty easy to work with judging by the possible vigor of just OP stuff.
As they age I’ll post some pictures, I’m hoping there will be one with more petals than either of ‘Plaisanterie’'s parents, but that’s probably unlikely…
I’ll surely add more pictures Philip! I’m very excited about these plants. I’ve never had this many seedlings survive to “bloom”. Now compared to those that plant out hundreds, thousands of seeds these 15+ probably mean nothing but I’m impressed. It’s taken me this long to learn how to keep them alive.
I’m a big fan of them too, I think if a shrub rose would be mutable and great for landscaping a la ‘Knockout’ I think you could have a really popular or at least unusual plant.
People here still seem to think of roses as hybrid teas. It’s so sad.
I’ve been thinking of these phototropic flowers a little and how one might breed to target this trait specifically and the mechanisms behind it (I have not done much reading yet as to why it happens). ‘Mutabilis’ starts life as a kind of yellow but the red tones are clearly evident in it even at this stage. Then it fades to red(ish), however, the yellow is still clearly evident in it (to me). What’s going in these flowers? A lot of yellow flowers fade to white as they age. Is ‘Mutabilis’ really a red flower in a yellow ‘overcoat’ and as the yellow fades it is revealing a red undercolour? Or, is it that as the yellow pigment in ‘Mutabilis’ degrades it changes from yellow to red? Is the yellow pigment in ‘Mutabilis’ different to the yellow pigment in other yellow roses? Do you think one could change the colour of the under colour so that it fades to say… purple? If one was to get ‘Midnight Blue’ together with something like ‘Masquerade’/‘Mutabilis’/‘Plaisanterie’/etc could you get a seedling that starts out yellow that ages to purple?
I saw Cocktail at a rose show and loved the white center and the shade of a blue red. It is a single.I bought the plant from Sequoia. When it bloomed, I thought I had received the wrong rose! The center was a bright yellow and the rest of the petals were a fire engine red. As the bloom aged, the yellow faded changing the center from yellow to white and the (sorry our fire engines USE to be a bright scarlet in my younger days and now are a chartreuse green for visibility- don’t know what they use in Tasmania/Australia.Forty or so years ago everyone in the States knew what color you meant by fire engine red; if I said it now, the young people would look at me with confusion) Anyway…, the yellow fading to white in the rest of the petal changed the red from a scarlet to a more crimson color. I have since noticed this phenomenon in a lot of yellow/red blend roses and avoid them since I like the red as it initially appears combined with the yellow. Just an observation.
I don’t grow Mutabilis and have only seen it at the nursery so haven’t spent enough time with it to make an observation. One nursery in California had it in a permanent bed and I always enjoyed walking by it and stopping to look at it.
Jim
Glad you still have the red fire engines;our are all this odd but very visible shade of green.
Hi Michael,I was reading an article the other day on flowers changing colour due to being exposed to sunlight and this intern effected its fertility. People have theorized that a lot of pollinating insects such as honeybees visually see things in UV.
You could imagine Mutablis at its early stage of being yellowy orange would fluoresce brighter under UV from sunlight compared with the red developed 2-3 days later. Plants probably developed this strategy as a means of younger more fertile blooms being pollinated and the older non productive blooms lacking the ability to fluoresce being left alone.
It would be a good tool to use in the darkening and enriching of colour.
‘Cocktail’, ‘Playboy’ and ‘Betty Boop’ all show that bleaching to white with red ruffled edge I think.
I believe ‘Comtesse du Caya’ the tea displays a bit of color change, or at least somewhat all the colors of ‘Mutabilis’ sort of at once like Mercurochrome. The buds are pretty buff right now and have been aging more to orange-pink as the flower opens. Mine is a tiny tiny plant I thought was a goner but it has seemingly resurrected itself and is throwing out flower buds. I’ve noticed teas take a while to get established and comfortable here…my ‘Crepuscule’ being a tea-noisette has taken years to get comfy…it’s finally big enough and setting buds so it’s finally going to bloom which mean I’ll finally be able to use it’s pollen.
‘Plaiserantie’ is hardier than ‘Comtesse’ and I guess slightly more than ‘Crepuscule’ due to ‘Trier’, certainly more vigorous in getting settled in so I’m gonna try both ‘Crepuscule’, ‘Arethusa’ and maybe ‘Comtesse’ pollen on ‘Plaisanterie’ and probably a reverse cross on ‘Arethusa’ since she apparently forms okay hips as well or so I’ve heard. Worse comes to worse I get more climbers with fuller, mutable flowers or buff-pink things, which isn’t so bad either. I will try ‘Plaisanterie’ pollen on ‘Softee’ and reverse, since I LOVE 'Softee’s habit and relative thornlessness and willingness to form hips, but I find the flowers age rather ugly even though they are very attractive while opening and when buff. The center stamens age rather ashy and petals fade out to white just like 'Ghislaine de F
I believe GdF is pretty good here in Maryland USA too, which really is a great climate to grow roses on a chemical program, but is rather unkind no-spray due to disease pressure, more blackspot than mildew, but it does happen. Knockout is very, very good. I’m going to put ‘Knockout’ pollen onto ‘Plaisanterie’ soon myself, get a little paint brush ready.
). Do you think the ‘Cocktail’ phenomena (LOL) is the same as the ‘Mutabilis’ effect?