Purpurea (the China from 1930) has deeply colored blooms and is perfectly healthy here. I did a lot of crosses with it in 2009. None of them took. I tried more crosses in 2015. I didn’t get anything from Purpurea pollen, but it set two hips with a grand total of three seeds from Comtesse du Cayla pollen. Two of the seeds germinated five weeks ago. One of the seedlings looked normal. The other one had unusually dark reddish green cotyledons. The tops of the cotyledons look greener now, but I just noticed that the bottoms of the cotyledons and leaves are brick red. The stem is a deep purplish brown, similar to Comtesse du Cayla. I don’t remember Comtesse du Cayla’s leaves being this red on the bottom. I’ll look when Comtesse du Cayla leafs out.
Lovely, Jim, congratulations! I raised very few things from Purpurea and only one which looked promising. It had lovely foliage but the flowers were a mess and the leaves rusted very badly. It was culled. Torch of Liberty, another of the fertile, fun triploids X Purpurea.
Thanks, Kim! It’s interesting to see that your Purpurea seedling has red in its foliage too. Purpurea doesn’t have any red in its foliage. I think that my Purpurea seedling got its red from Comtesse du Cayla, although it is a deeper red than C.duC. Maybe Purpurea has some red foliage genes hiding in its chromosomes.
My hope for this cross is to get Purpurea’s health in a more fertile plant. I’ve never seen any disease on Purpurea in the seven years I’ve grown it. I don’t suppose this seedling’s bloom quality will be high. Both of its parents lack form and substance. If my seedling keeps its red/green bicolor foliage and has Purpurea’s health, I think it will be worth keeping, regardless of bloom quality.
I agree with you about Purpurea’s foliage, Jim. It is gorgeous! It wasn’t a very willing parent for me. It set self seed, but nothing with any pollen I put on it and this was the only parent and seedling from that parent to germinate. I might have held it longer had it not been so addicted to rust. I can tolerate a bit of mildew and even some late-season black spot, but rust is a terminal offense.
Both of these seedlings have produced their first blooms. As expected, the bloom quality wasn’t very good. Both seedlings are perfectly healthy so far. I’ll keep them as long as they stay healthy in hopes that they have Purpurea’s health and will be more fertile than Purpurea.
I bought my plant from Vintage under the name ‘Purpurea’. I don’t know whether it is the same rose that ARE sells as ‘Winecup’. Comparing their photos on HelpMeFind, it looks like ‘Purpurea’ has glossier foliage, and ‘Winecup’ has a few more petals, but that might be due to their being grown in different climates.
