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!