The strongest of my two seedlings flowered for the first time today. It caught me by surprise as I hadn’t noticed the but forming despite my frequent inspections of the plant.
The colour is primrose yellow with a lighter reverse, I’m actually quite pleased with it.
There was however a slight mishap with this bloom when I was photographing it, so it’s no longer on the plant. But I’m gong to try and collect the pollen for use on Rugosa Alba so I can ascertain something about its fertility.
Another bloom shot.
And one with ‘Topaz Jewel’ for colour comparison.
OOPS.
The above should read “I hadn’t noticed the BUD forming despite my frequent inspections of the plant”.
I don’t know how I could have missed this thread before, but I’m glad that it’s resurfaced.
Neat stuff!!!
Similar hybrids of mine have been pod sterile but had enough pollen to generate a decent number of seeds when backcrossed on rugosa. I look forward to seeing your future generations!
I didn’t get much in the way of pollen from the bloom, just have to hope there a few fertile grains there.
Nice work guys, keep it up.
Do you guys have any updates with this breeding work being done and further thoughts/ideas to continue this work?
Unfortunately I lost both my seedlings from this cross to dieback before they bloomed this year. It was such a pity to lose them but no great surprise as Golden Chersonese went the same way. I can see me making the cross again at some point but it wont be any time soon as we’ve moved recently and I’m rather low on space.
Jinks, is there any chance they’re still alive at the roots? I sure hope so!
We went through a move a few years ago too, and it finally looks like I’ve got two pieces of the old rugosa x xanthina established here. If the deer keep chewing on them though, I don’t know when I’ll ever see bloom again.
So as far as updates Paul… sorry there’s not much to report. But “further thoughts/ideas to continue this work”… I’ve got some of those ;0)
First, I would like to see F1 from some double-flowered rugosa and xanthina pollen. Second, I still think that backcrossing what little pollen you can find from these F1, onto rugosa is the best strategy. Theoretically, one should be able to get every bit as much yellow some of the backcross offspring with the added potential to recover some fertility and hopefully rebloom too. Third, chromosome doubling is still an option for getting fertility back from the relatively sterile F1.
Okay, thats final. We need to concentrate on breeding populations of cannibalistic rabbits, squirrels, and crows =/ We could have saved centuries of crops by doing this, lol.
Tom, I appreciate your thoughts on the way forward with Rugosa and Xanthina. For the past few years I have been putting R. xanthina pollen on any and every Rugosa and hoping for the best. The first success was a seedling with ‘Schneezwerg’ as the seed parent in 2008; it bloomed for the first time this spring and looked almost exactly like Jinks’ flower: single, pale, pure yellow, kind of crinkly texture to the petals, foliage intermediate between the parents. The growth habit is more Xanthina, including the canes and thorns and a tendency to die back. I eagerly collected the pollen and put it on all my Rugosas–no takers. There’s always next year and maybe something will click. I also have a little Xanthina seedling with ‘Ann Endt’ as the seed parent that is a couple of years old. It has not bloomed yet and remains scrawny: height measured in inches rather than feet. All we can do is keep trying! The successes you all have been describing here are very encouraging.
I was hoping the seedlings would come back but they’re gone, dead to the core.
It’s good to hear that others have had better luck holding on to seedlings from this sort of cross than I did. I’m convinced that something worthwhile will come out of it if you can just get them to back cross to rugosa. I really hope you guys can succeed with this one.
Michael, Let me know when you’ve got some of those “populations of cannibalistic rabbits, squirrels, and crows” ready for testing. But don’t forget the deer! ;0)
Betsy, hang in there with the Ann Endt seedling. Sounds like a cool cross! And keep in mind, it took my rugosa x xanthina a few years before it built up any steam. Then once it had attained some size it was bordering on invasive as far as suckering goes.
Jinks, I hope you get to remake your crosses and have better luck with them. I’ll let you know if I ever have any success backcrossing or chromosome doubling.
I went out and took a current picture of one of those rugosa x xanthina suckers. Maybe if I’m diligent enough with the egg spray next year, I can get it to build up enough that it can tolerate all the deer browsing. Otherwise I’m gonna have to cage it!
Michael, Let me know when you’ve got some of those “populations of cannibalistic rabbits, squirrels, and crows” ready for testing. But don’t forget the deer! ;0)
Maybe engineer a cross with one of Paul’s Nepenthes to attract, catch and EAT critters up to deer size!
Tom, what is egg spray? I’m getting smashed by possums at the moment eating the leaves and buds off my seedlings. I lost the buds on a rugosa ‘alba’ x ‘Papageno’ that I have been waiting for over two years to see!!! Your egg spray might be my salvation! I dunno though as possums have been known to raid nests for eggs. Nothing except a ‘lead injection’ seems to work with them.
I checked the rugosa ‘alba’ x "Golden Chersonese’ hips done a few weeks back and they are still green, swelling and plump with nice green pedicles. Fingers crossed they can escape the possums.
On ‘Ann Endt’… I was thinking about this the other day. I reckon it would do very nicely as a seed-Mum with ‘Harison’s Yellow’ though AE is a probably a diploid. Is there a double diploid yellow xanthina-type that could be used instead of HY? It creates very nice double rugosa with the right pollen parent ( I just wish I knew what the pollen was that made this one):
[center][attachment 1255 OPAnnEndt9.jpg]
OP ‘Ann Endt’[/center]
Might end up with healthy lavender, orange, or russet rugosa hybrids!
EDIT: Actually… I think I might try the rugosa as the double parent and go and put ‘Golden Chersonese’ onto ‘Belle Poitevine’, ‘Freycinet’, ‘Magnifica’, and ‘Anne Hall’ today!
My Ann Endt x Ann Endt should bloom next year. Its such a nice plant. Ann Endt is such a nice plant, too. It is hard to believe its from the same parents as the stickly Basye’s Purple, which has darker bark and blooms, but is of a lower quality plant. I hope to use my selfling with synstylae types that are rich in anthocyanins, as opposed to yellows, but I think it would work with both, and Ann Endt seems like an excellent rugosa bridge with unrelated rose types.
Hi Simon
Egg spray is just one raw egg shook up in a gallon of water.
It’s supposed to disgust deer but I don’t know if it would work on your possums. Maybe some kind of hot pepper spray since that’s supposed to be “experienced” by mammals of all kinds???
Good luck - I know how frustrating that is!
Commercial “egg sprays” are traditionally “putrefied eggs” or rotten eggs, with a high sulfur smell. I don’t know how effective a fresh egg would be. The pepper sprays burn the animals’ eyes and mucous membranes. Whatever is used, the scent should be strong enough to interfere with their sense of smell so they can’t detect whether there is a predator nearby. To ‘jam their radar’.
Hey Kim,
Fresh raw egg is what I’ve been using for a couple of years now. Its cheaply saved a lot of trees shrubs and veggies here. One per gallon, reapplied every couple weeks or more frequently if you get a lot of rains - and sometimes I add a few tablespoons of fertilizer to do a foliar feeding while I’m at it.
Don’t know what other animals it might work for but it definitely works for the deer here.
Tom
Great! Congratulations! I’m glad to hear that is working for you. Definitely cheaper, easier and less offensive than the commercial preparations. I don’t think I will try it here. I don’t want to encourage any more rats or coyotes to visit than already do! I’m afraid the scent of eggs would attract them.
