Has anyone done any work with the single form of the species R. roxburghii normalis? I collected some pollen from mine today to fiddle with.
It accepts pollen from just about every dipoid around & produces seedlings with varying characteristics, horribly thorny if you put rugosa pollen on it. Some seedlings are not recognizable as roxburghii relatives. When mine was alone it produced about 6 op seeds per hip. Later when surrounded by a variety of hardy dips, it was five times that. It seems to prefer foreign pollen. Currently I have a number of seedlings from R. primula pollen. They’ve survived zone 5 winters in pots, whereas R. roxburghii is very tender here. Most of my op seedlings did not survive over winter. I’m breeding for cold hardy seedlings so that was fine.
Therese Bugnet accepts R. roxburghii pollen. Roxburghii seeds don’t need stratification. Almost all will germinate. will do so at room temperature and they start germinating early. I kept mine cold to delay germination. So far there are no blooms on any of the plants.
I’m sure you already know that if you’re using it as a female you need a very light touch. As soon as the hips are ripe, they will drop. When processing fresh hips they will dye your fingers black. They’re ready to cut up when they’re still green. You will need secateurs for that, if you decide to use it as a female. I’ve only used diploids on it.
Lydia’s response - “…horribly thorny if you put rugosa pollen on it.” The reverse cross is the same and also the seedlings are susceptible to mildew.
Lydia when you write “I’m sure you already know that if you’re using it as a female you need a very light touch.” does this mean the pistils are easily damaged?
I raised one to maturity but I had to leave it behind a property before I got to do anything real with it. I did use its pollen on Baby Faurax. I didnt get any seeds from it. I tried to stay with diploids because I believe it will often act similar to Rosa primula when crossed with tetraploids. I believe the two are closely related and that Rosa primula is less like the other persian briars.
I would personally use it as a pollen parent. It produces a ton of fine, powdery pollen like Rosa rugosa does.
I would rate Rosa roxburghii normalis, along with Rosa primula and Rosa hirtula, among the most beautiful, aesthetic species roses that I have ever seen. R. r. normalis (at least my clone) had beautiful and graceful foliage, pretty red stems that even looked good in the winter, very elegant blooms and the neat spikey hips. I would definitely love to see this species used as backdrops (mine grew upright and arched slightly with weight to a nice fountain shape) in modern landscape design. It is stated to be fairly hardy, so it could even be used to expand the limited choices to areas colder than zone 7.
Adam
No the pistil bed is flat.
I can’t remember the term, but the underside receptacle of the bud is horribly thorny as are the sepals & there is a risk of the short stem snapping off before the bloom is emasculated. Also whatever tag you use has to be close to the bloom so that if/when the hip drops, the tag is still attached to the bit of stem. In my garden the hips start dropping at the end of August. It blooms with modern hybrids after the early blooming species are finished.
This is my favorite rose & for a species rose has incredible substance. The scent is faint musk. I have to cut mine down every couple of years to renew it, but new growth always gets up to 7 ft or so the next year. I’m hoping to get something that is cane hardy in my zone and still retains the look of the fronds.
Yes I did some crossings this year with this speciemen.
Info follows.
Grx!
Arno