My r. acicularis is about to go into bloom. It will be my first rose to bloom. I would really like to try to pollinate it with a rose like Ross Rambler or Polstjarnan.
I dont suppose anyone has some interesting diploid pollen available? I would love Ross Rambler. My Ross Rambler looks to be 2 or 3 weeks from flowering yet. Same for Polstjarnan.
I also want to try r. xanthina or r. hugonis. Dont think my r. xanthina is going to flower this year. Still very small.
-Steve
Steve,
the few. undropped blooms on my xanthina and hugonis seem to be freeze dried.
Would you be interested in Suzanne? it seems to be one fo the few that has held onto the buds it had for the Easter Freeze. I also have a few Old Blush blooms that might have viable pollen.
Lousy spring.
Ann
Steve, unless your Polstjarnan is unique, it has been very very infertile. I had a very hard time finding 30 pollen grains of it to measure for an experiment I was doing. The anthers just don’t seem to produce much if any pollen, even if they are crushed to try to release more. I once had an op hip on my Polstjarnan, but after opening it there was one misshapen seed with an aborted embryo. I think Ross Rambler would be a much better bet if things worked out to get some pollen while your R. acic. is still in flower. I wish I had some stored pollen on hand to help you. ROses are just coming out of dormancy here in MN. Is your goal to try to generate tetraploids by crossing 6x by 2x? Besides the diploid species, perhaps you can consider Caninae section species like R. glauca because they produce 1x pollen.
Sincerely,
David
My Polstjarnan had a few OP hips last summer. I recovered 5 seeds which have not germinated, and I doubt they will. I’ve been planning to try ploidy doubling of Polstjarnan by applying colchicine to buds at the budbreak stage. Do you think this could produce a fertile sport?
David,
I was hoping that there might be some pollen produced by Polstjarnan. I plan on collecting every anther from every flower on my Polstjarnan when it does produce a flush. I was hoping to get enough for a pollination or 2. Perhaps that will not work.
R. glauca would be interesting. I do hope to end up with a tetraploid which is why I was looking for diploid pollen. Ideally something silly hardy like Polstjarnan or Ross rambler. Something super hardy or yellow like hugonis, xanthina or xanthina spontanea.
ann, Suzanne is definetly on my list of pollens I want to use but not as much for this particular kind of cross. I really appreciate your offer. I wish I had some other stuff in bloom that I could use it with.