After a first-year of failed polinations I now have a much better idea of what it takes to achieve hybridisation on a very basic level. Hopefully this year, with added patience, I will be more successful.
I wondered if anyone in the UK might consider sharing any seed so that I can get a little experience of germination to established plant in case I do manage to produce something this year? I’m more than happy to cover postage.
I don’t know if this is an unusual request, so please do correct me if I’m commiting a faux pas!
Good evening Jake. You’d be more than welcome to some of my seed, but I am in the U.S. so sending is problematic. More important, I, and most folks here, have already stratified our seed from last autumn’s harvest and they are in process of germination. So they would likely sprout in shipping. Typically after an effective stratification, A large fraction of seeds that are going to pop up will do so fairly quickly. For me, about 10 days to 2 weeks is all it takes after they are ready to go. I simply keep them in a cold fridge until they sprout there, then transplant them. That delays things by perhaps 2 months. I started on Oct 19, a large number of seeds of a vigorous (climbing? ) Carefree Sunshine type and between last month and this I’ve hit 30-60% germination for various treatments. So if I had stratified for10 weeks or so, until the new year, and planted them in a warm place I’d have them up by now. Looking back at last year’s studies with the same cultivar I see that there are very few coming after this first burst. For other CV there may be more stragglers.
I have tested seeds that were left on the bushes in their hips for various lengths of time from late Dec, until summer. Many of them have a reasonable % germination, up to 30 % or so. What I’d suggest for you to do is go round and gather a bunch of hips from different CV, clean and then stratify them in continuous cold with 10 mM calcium nitrate (about 1 tsp/gal nitrochalk will do) solution used to moisten vermiculite or peat. You will get a reasonable fraction to pop up sometime in 3-6 months. Your summers are not too hot to transplant them out as they sprout. Or put them away in the cold for 3 months or so, then plant directly in flats in a temperate place. Of course if someone can send you seeds ready to go that would be great. But I expect you could do OK doing as I suggest.
Thanks Larry! I’m always very appreciative of the thorough answers and discussions often found on this forum. I will do as you suggest and gather what I can to see what happens. We’ve had an unusually mild winter in the UK so many of the hips around may still be in good condition. I have a friend who routinely leaves hers to the birds so I’ll see what I can find there!
Thanks Don, I think a combination of being far too eager and damp weather. This year I’ll let the blooms open just a little more before I remove the stamens from the mother plants. My pollen gathering seemed to be productive.
I ended up with only one hip (with 11 seeds, now awaiting germination) from about the only flower I left alone!
Unfortunately I lost my notes from last year when a waterbottle leaked and soaked through my notepad, but all of the following were in the mix:
St Christopher
Persian Mystery (produced 1 OP hip)
Diamond Jubilee (probably not the most well known rose of this name)
Carris
All very nice roses in themselves.
I also dallied with Stanwell Perpetual, but from other posts I gather this is often a thankless task.
Royal Philharmonic had thrip problems and failed to bloom.
This year I’m adding Rugosa Alba into my experiments, and a Gallica (Tuscany). I’m just trying to get to grips with producing anything at all with no particular goals at the moment apart from a healthy plant which has reasonable fertility.
rose seeds fall into the category of ‘All other seeds’ and as such are unrestricted. Therefore you should be able to receive rose seeds in the mail from the USA and elsewhere. My reading of the general cautions indicate that they should be packaged cleanly in small packets with no other organic material, labeled with their weight, and clearly identified. I would label them as being “Seeds of rosa spp.” As added insurance against a zealous postal inspector I would also include a print copy of each of pages 1, 12, 13 and 14 of regulations with the last table entry circled:
“All other seed | All non-EU countries | Unrestricted”