Question about mossy seedlings...

This is the only year where I’ve gotten a good number of mossy seedlings. Last year’s seedlings of Heidi X Queen Elizabeth yielded no mossy seedlings (only 4 seeds…) none of which I didn’t keep. But this year I did numerous crosses with Goldmoss and Living Easy. One already has a bud on it and it seems to inherit the yellow color, but the bud itself has VERY sparse moss. My questions are: will the mossing become more dense on future flowers as my seedling grows. Or does one know right away on the amount of moss by the first flower?

Enrique,

Lightly mossed seedlings often develop more pronounced mossing as the plant matures. Even the most lightly mossy seedling can become at least moderately mossed once mature.

Paul

Thanks Paul. This is my first year where I’m going to cencentrate of moss roses (mainly on Goldmoss, Scarlet Moss, and Dresden Doll). Although I’ve done a few crosses in the past, but very few and none of them survived.

I do hope the seedlings with Livin’ Easy come out very mossy, but I’m not going to expect too much. When I had this cross in my mind, I was thinking more about flower power. Goldmoss is really floriferous in my garden and I hoped to get it with the good foilage and size of Livin Easy.

I agree with Paul that mossing can increase beyond that seen on the first bloom of a new seedling. This is similar to what you see with petal count that can change rather dramatically at times. Even so, I haven’t seen much increase after the 2nd or 3rd bloom cycle. At that point, in my experience, you will have a good idea of mature plant mossing. As always though, even if you have not achieved your goal, use the approximations of your goal as intermediate steps to getting what you are looking for.

‘Gold Moss’ X ‘Livin’ Easy’ sounds like a wonderful cross to me with a truckload of possibilities!

Please keep us posted!

Jim