Robusta, LaFollette are fertile (at least in this instance)

I collected some hips of LaFolette last year, a gigante hybrid with extraordinary flowers, color, fragrance, foilage and hips.

I found only one seed out a dozen or so OP hips, and it germinated. (The fruit are HUGE… like small apples. But most of the time, there’s no seeds.)

Robusta was supposedly infertile (even though Rugelda is its offspring). I made a cross of its pollen on Livin Easy. I’m going to recepricate the cross on my plant, although-- it is quite young.

So this means that even though LaFollette is supposedly sterile, it’s possible to get a sucess.

Livin’ Easy X Robusta made a single germination today. I’ve carefully extracted and put it in soil.

I know there’s a renewed interest with gigantea hybridization. Perhaps people should experiment LaFollette as a pollen parent.

Robusta is triploid which may in part explain why it has limited fertility.

Sincerely,

David