Hello! Just curious if anyone has had much success with using Rosa chinensis ‘angel wings’ in their breeding and what the outcome has been? I have attempted a couple of crosses with no success
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Dear Velvetrose28,
Yes, they have formed the foundation of much of my polyantha rose breeding. They cross well with the diploid Synstylae section roses like R. multiflora, R. setigera, R. maximowicziana, and R. wichurana. I have crosses with R. foliolosa and ‘Therese Bugnet’ too, although much harder to get. My ‘Catherine Guelda’ is one such hybrid with ‘Therese Bugnet’. My polyantha lines like the Pretty Polly series have them as a foundation.
My suspicion is that they are mainly R. multiflora based. They can be a bit finicky with what they can cross with. If you put them on Ralph Moore’s fertile minis like 'Rise ‘N Shine’ and others that have a good amount of R. wichurana in them, you can get hybrids somewhat easily there too and bridge ploidy levels generating triploid hybrids. ‘Hannah Ruby’ is one such hybrid.
My suggestion is not to give up on them, but try to explore what they would be most compatible with. They do offer a lot in terms of flower power and many have wonderful mounded plant habits too. Using them as a male parent may be a bit easier at times with fertile and compatible female parents in my experience.
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Since they are propagated sexually I suspect that what you can obtain with them could vary significantly depending on your source/location.
My seeds came from British stock through Irelands, if that matters. What I have seen from a relatively small sample size is that:
- color varies from white to medium pink. Also, color tends to deepen as the seedling matures
- A good percentage of these turn out to have completely thornless stems.
- Growing habit can vary, with some seedlings more lanky than others.
- Most of my seedlings had some fragrance (musk) - fragrance can also improve a lot as they age
I tried my first crosses (using these as the pollen parent) in spring 2024. I’ve had quite good results, with big hips with many seeds on many tetraploid moderns (Carmen Wurth, Madame Anisette, Francis Meilland, The Wedgwood Rose). I’ve had a good germination rate from the Carmen Wurth seedlings, even though an above average number of seedlings (about 50%) were lost to damping off. I have a few seedlings growing now, I’ll probably be able to update you on this in a couple months
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I have a few Rosa chinensis Angel Wings in my garden, that I grew from seed about 6 years ago. This could have been my fault from overcrowding plants, but many of the seedlings from their hips got mildew, although the original plants that I grew from seed don’t get mildew or any disease. I threw out the mildewed seedlings years ago.
I used pollen from them last summer, mixed with other roses’ pollen, to fertilise both Jacqueline du Pre and a rose with large yellow highly-scented single flowers. I got a few good hips from both and planted them last autumn, about November or December, leaving them in pots to overwinter. As it is now mid March and getting warm hopefully some of these might germinate, and it would be very interesting to see what results.
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I have tried using angel wings as a pollen parent and have also tried crossing it with mutabilis. None of the seeds germinated, but I will keep trying!
Here’s a small update on Carmen Würth x R. multiflora ‘nana perpetua’.
The seed parent is a modern purple hybrid tea/floribunda. The pollen parent is a single pink selection of multiflora nana/angel wings. This specific selection is bushy, thornless and has a medium musk fragrance.
This seedling has been growing in a 10cm pot inside under led lights. The multiflora influence is evident in the bud shape and in the seedling’s leaves. So far, this seedling appears to be healthy and vigorous. Surprisingly, it has a strong myrrh fragrance
This is the only seedling out of the 10 or so that have germinated to survive. all the others have perished to what seems to be damping off. I have not observed it in other crosses this year, so it may be that R. multiflora nana has offspring that is especially susceptible to it.
I expected angel wing’s narrower petals to pass through, but I’m happy that Carmen Wurth’s prevailed. (near) thornlessness seems to have passed as well, even though it is early to tell. The blooms seem to be long lasting, too. 6 full days open and it’s still holding on all of its petals and fragrant. Note that the pollen parent was blush in its first year and only darkened with age, so this seedling may turn out to be pink when grown outside or with age. So far, it’s white with no hints of red pigments.
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Thank you for the update! It is a very pretty seedling , interesting that only 1 survived after germination… I still have had 0 germination success from any of my seeds 
I was hoping that some may be a bit delayed in germinating
I had three different modern × R. multiflora nana crosses. As seed parents I used Carmen Wurth, The Wedgwood Rose and Madame Anisette. I had good germinations from Carmen Wurth (~30% if I remember correctly), but as I said most perished. I had a single germination from Madame Anisette and the seediling was growing nicely before I “cooked” it by leaving it covered in a sunny day. No germinations from TWR, and it is usually a good germinator, also proven with diploid seed parents (I grew a few the wedgwood rose × mutabilis seedlings). This makes me think that there could be some genetic incompatibility with some moderns, and some trial and error may be necessary
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