I know that I have been as prone as others to throw away seedlings that are “just pink”, but I am re-thinking that now. Previous to the ‘Knock Out’ phenomenon, you couldn’t dream of getting a pink HT or Floribunda noticed by a grower/introducer. There were tons of them in every imaginable shade of pink. NOW, there really are close to none - that is, there are no HT’s/Floribundas that even come close to the cleanliness of ‘Knock Out’. So you might say that the playing field is wide open.
I actively breed for the salmon tones (like Sonia/Sheer Elegance/ Bill Warriner, etc), because I think theyre beautiful. I dont care what anyone thinks, lol.
However, I HATE magentas and dusky pinks. Yeah, I hate the color of KO. Sue me, lol. DKO can be pretty tho.
Well, pink being “the default” color, this time we might be able to get it RIGHT!
What??? ya mean plain ol pink and umm… no blotch even??
o_O
It is funny- to me pink was never just plain old pink but a myriad of shades, tones, and colors and to me pink was a hundred different colors. But red, red was just red. It wasn’t until I acquired a handful of different red roses that I started distinguishing all the myriad reds that exist- was it my eye that needed training or my brain?
Jim P
Both. cross any two roses and you’re bound to come up with pinks. They’ve always been so common, it was difficult to move many of them. Ironically, many people walk in to buy a rose as long as it’s “pretty, fragrant and pink”, but often walk out with something else “not pink”. Finding homes for orange and red roses is usually more difficult, but they are often the ones people go on the hunt for. Seems contradictory, but often the way it works.
I am not a ‘pink’ person by nature, and cringe when I see little girls all decked out in pink, but I find pale shell pink to be the most attractive of colors. And the ‘Rina Hugo’ deep electric type pinks will stop me in my tracks everytime, even more so if they are fragrant. But I find cherry reds (this can be a fine line) to be boring (they just have too much pink in them), and the ‘Duet’ type mid pinks to be downright unattractive. But pink in a rose, like any other color, has many personal preferences, and especially a pink rose needs ‘charisma’ to attract attention.
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I make a cross I try not to breed pink. I know they will show up on their own. That is alright with me. Flower color is less important than other traits to me. Even though I purposely breed for mauves and russet colored roses. So if a pink with decent form shows up on a plant that is healthy and vigourous I am ok with that. Hell nothing I have selected yet to grow on is in my prefered color range. My first criteria is the overal plant minus the flowers. Then I judge the flowers.
I am a fan of the phototropic effect. Having two shades of pink on one flower makes it much more interesting to me. Light pink with dark pink to red edging, or white with pink edging does it for me. I have some hips growing of Gemini x Quietness, Gemini x Le Vesuve (pink china), Gemini x DKO, and Gemini x Lion’s Fairy Tale which I’m hoping produce something healthy and two toned pink. I’m really looking forward to these.
Jackie if you like that electric pink or what I call hot candy pink, get a Lyon Rose. This is the result of the cross (Baronne Ed Rothschild X Lyon Rose) and the pink in this rose is sizzling.
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plus you get a nice colour reverse as well which can be white , pale pink or yellow.
Warren,
Electric pink is hard to photograph. So I hope that isn’t bubblegum pink! Bubblegum pink may be the second worst color in the pink spectrum. I have Lady Alice Stanley, which Is really a nice soft pink and has classic fragrance. To find out if she is capable of passing on any fragrance to the next gen., I tried her with 2-3 low to no fragrance seed parents, and got some hot pink with white to yellow reverses just like your Lyon rose produces. Also got some green reverses, lots of aphids (aphids seem really drawn to Lady Alice’s offspring) and lots of cabbage-y, overly petaled, all in pink, olde fashioned style roses, many of whom refused to open. Strangely enough, she also produced some Tropicana like colors.
As for pink roses, I like ‘Sonia’ and ‘Sylvia’ style of color, which I call “soft” pink
Jackie definately not BubleGum Pink. I like that Lady Alice Stanley, suppose that is the beauty of using very early HT’s , they are very close to the original OGR used in their breeding and nice things can happen. I don’t like crossing too big a double (41+ Petals) together as I feel you can get into trouble sometimes by creating extreme doubles. I have a rose I bred, one of my very early offspring called Cento Qaranta. This rose averages around 220 petals and has the ability to exceed this, one bloom I pulled apart in front of friends had 292 petals. This is a rose which needs big heat to open and does not open well untill our full summer temps kick in, and it has a killer damask perfume. This rose is crossed only with those having petals numbers under 30.
Scent is a strange thing, I have this rose Elara which has zero perfume, crossed it with Queen Elizabeth ( to me average perfume) and got fruity to intense myrrh.
Phototropic results can be quite nice, unless it’s the lavender staining red like Paradise/Angel Farts/etc. That combination has always set my teeth on edge. Other than the stale canteloup of Margo Koster and red/lavender stain, any other rose color is fine, as long as they aren’t muddy or ‘dirty’. Flutterbye gets dirty in our heat. Brigadoon goes through its orange tones until it bleaches through a dirty brown in this heat.
What is it about Paradise? And I don’t mean the mildew. That is one of the few roses (along with Duet) that I have taken an instant dislike to. And Duet is extremely healthy here, but it is that color. With Paradise I think it looks like a color that is trying to hard.
Duet reminds me of Tenement of Roses, like a color which might be useful to create greens and browns. But, that purple and red (ruby) combination is like fingernails on a chalk board to me. Squeeky chalk! I love Voodoo Fuchsia but the tones of the ruby/lavender petals take on just turn me off.
Kim, Voodoo (the fuchsia) doesn’t have that ruby on lavender shtick going for it–it really is a very nice shade of blue violet with alarizon crimson. I know what your saying. But Tournament of Roses-that is a workhorse in the pink bloom department. Yes it does breed for green, I found that out the hard way. There are some roses that one shouldn’t use in breeding.
Tournament of Roses is a great garden plant here, I just hate the name. You should go for the greens and browns. You might come up with a decent green from it. I don’t particularly find TOR’s color inspiring, but it works in a garden, particularly for people who don’t want “stand outs”. I’ve planted it several times for other people.
Hi George,
I couldn’t help but post the photo below of a new seedling that bloomed 2 days ago when you asked about “plain old pink” and no blotches, because this seedling is “plain old pink” with a blotch (or better yet, a target)! I wonder if this is too much of a good thing?? The bloom is a bit gaudy.
Since this is the first bloom, it will change significantly as it ages, with the blotch gaining size and intensity. This is one of the largest blotches on a new seedling that I have ever seen. I wonder if the store Target, would be interested in a mascot rose?
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“Gaudy”? Isn’t that what the Hulthemia breeding is all about?! LOL! Yes, I like this rose a lot. Imagine the larger blotch, resulting in it appearing to be a dark rose with a light picotee. It’ll be gorgeous!