My America crosses did not germinate last year, but that’s most likely because I pollinated in mid-August and I didn’t give the hips enough time to ripen.
I’m still a freshman in rose hybridization. I’m learning every year with costly mistakes.
I’ve always figured its genetic potential had already been explored
To this, I would say that there are some wonderful roses that have come out in the past 20 years that most likely have NOT been crossed with America yet.
In hybridization, the current focus seems to be on disease resistance. Many of us want to avoid creating roses that cannot survive the most basic rose diseases without an extensive spraying regiment.
My biased expectation is that roses that are already half-a-century old might be getting skipped entirely during the selection process in an effort to focus on newer more-resistant varieties, under the assumption that older roses are automatically weaker or that they were bred without disease resistance in mind (for example, this appears to be a common discussion online with David Austin vs Kordes roses, where DA focused on an “english rose” appearance while Kordes focused on disease resistance and durability).
I think any rose variety that has at least 2 desirable traits AND readily produces hips should be included in any breeding program. If anything, just for stratification and germination practice.
America offers vigor, large blooms, and fragrance, AND she has Fragrant Cloud in her parentage, so regardless of breeding goals, some of her babies should be pretty interesting.
Of course, I’m not gonna force you to go out and buy the most expensive America you can find, but if you do come across her as an inexpensive bareroot locally, I think you should get her.
She definitely stands out from some of my other climbers. That salmon/coral color is breathtaking up close.
P.S. I never connected the dots that she was named “America” because she was introduced during the 200th anniversary of the US in 1976. Now that we are on the cusp of the 250th anniversary, she has turned 50 (as you pointed out).
Fascinating!
EDIT: I just realized that your original post was asking about disease-resistant roses from the past 15 years, so I don’t know if this response is still relevant. But I guess I would still say that an America X New-Rose has probably not been attempted yet.
