‘Hansa’ is excellent. ‘Schneezwerg’ is best for variability of seedlings. ‘Fru Dagmar Hastrup’ is also very good.
What do you think: should I try TB x R. bracteata? I have bracteata pollen in the freezer (it blooms too late).
Rob
A few months back, I read somewhere some expert talk of a bracteata/rugosa combination having merit.
While weeding a seedling bed,I discovered a Zeus op seedling, tag was intact. There are 4 flower buds, likely to be some shade of fuchsia almost ready to pop. The odd thing was the leaves, soft in colour & texture, much like those of Therese Bugnet. If it worked for the bees, it’s possible TB pollen could work on other 4xs. Hardiness is more important to me than ploidy.
Has any one used purple pavement?
I decided to try Therese Bugnet and Nigel Hawthorn (mixed pollen) on Coral Drift. I’m actually more hoping that the Therese Bugnet part works out cause it sounds like a useful cross.
That was a labelling error. The seedling bloomed & was identical to TB. Not a hint of yellow.
‘Purple Pavement’ is one of my favourite Rugosas. It has a very attractive tone of purple-red flowers. I also like the shrub because it is relatively compact. I was surprised when I used it last year that it didn’t function too great as a pistillate parent. Obviously, I’m now more inclined to use it as a staminate one. I have several crosses planned for it this year.
I think the Pavement series look great in commercial settings. I wish something like the Pavement series had something like true pink. The major flaw, other than their obvious hate of any spray residue, is their limit in color. But they look pretty great for 3 seasons, and when they go dormant they dont seem to mind being whacked to about 10" from the ground (commercial style, as most commercial workers dont actually understand plants) because they pop right back up in spring in full bloom and beautiful foliage. They literally look like 3’ green clouds hugging the ground with purple, mauve or white blooms (and hips) floating on them lol.
Who needs azaleas and rhodies when ya can have that?
Rugosas like Blanc double de Coubert LOATHE this treatment to the point that it can cause stem die-back lol.
Thanks for the reply. Just wondering I thought some one said it was a good parent. I threw it on a few miniatures the other week. I know it went successfully on Rise N Shine because I can see the red ring forming on top of the hip. Rise N Shine tends to show that red ring when you have a successful cross. I would love to get a useful plant like Magseed or Joyseed out of this cross.
Rise N Shine worked the other way onto Scabrosa this year as well (until some animal ate the hip).
I made eleven crosses but I do got three hips out of this that have been successful. The rest shriveled up and feel up, but these three have started to swell. If Rise N Shine flushes again before it gets to hot I will do one more round on it.
Has anyone used Rugspin? I’ve been looking at it a bit lately and thinking it looks pretty nice.
Henry,
I went and looked at your gallery and was pretty impressed with many of the blooms you have pictured. Can you tell me more about #470, the OP acicularis x R15? Is it healthy, vigorous, fragrant, fertile etc?
Thanks,
CM
Paul I was rereading some of the comments in this post when I notice your post in a new light.
Hybrids based on R. rugosa sp. are often more difficult to culture; they tend to take two years or more to start flowering, and you will occasionally encounter a cross in which a percentage of the seedlings have had flowering turned off. Yes, you read that right; sometimes something gets “broken” when mating Rugosas far outside of their own relatives and the flowering response fails completely. Some will never flower. Ralph Moore showed me crops of Rugosa seedlings he grew and he said he could identify 9 times out of 10 the ones that would simply never bloom. Its one of the hazards you are likely to encounter.
I was particularly taken by this part. “Ralph Moore showed me crops of Rugosa seedlings he grew and he said he could identify 9 times out of 10 the ones that would simply never bloom.” I was wondering how he identified these? Was it just time factor of how long they where growing or did they have a particular trait in common?
I had a ton of Rosa rugosa alba x Baby Love/Livin Easy/Kanegem/something else (forgot) on my old property. I abandoned them when I moved. I didnt forsee those vampires blooming any year soon, lol.
Simon,
If you checked the parentage of ‘Rugspin’, don’t believe the staminate parent is Rosa altaica. It’s not.
I actually wasn’t looking at the altaica part… it was the rugosa half and the fact it’s quite red that interested me 
The parentage isn’t listed on HMF except in the comments section and it isn’t mentioned in the references… I have searched for it here in the archives and I realise it was thought to be from ‘Roseraide de l’Hay’ x Rosa altaica but also note that it is unconfirmed and without further genetic detective work we may never know… personally I don’t see any benefit in second guessing what it may or may not be… I just want to know if anyone has used it, because rugosa interests me, and if so how’d it go? If it’s from ‘Roseraide de l’Hay’ does it have the same fertility issues as it’s seed parent? I also note it has no descendants so I’m guessing it does have the same issues. That’s all
As an extra bit of information… for Australians reading this… there is a new red/purple hybrid rugosa being offered by Treloars called ‘Freycinet’, named after a beauitful location here in Tasmania where it was bred (in Tasmania not Freycinet - do a Google image search for Freycinet National Park and you’ll see what I mean about breath-taking), by Lilia Weatherly of ‘Burgundy Iceberg’ fame. It is red and double and produces a good crop of large hips. I don’t know what its heritage is but it might be worth a look for fertile rugosa crosses. It’s on HMF but there’s not much on it yet. I’ll post photos of mine if it flowers for me next spring. I’ve ordered it this year to add to my rugosa breeders collection.
Link: www.treloarroses.com.au/products/product.asp?pID=5595&cID=13
Simon,
"I also note it has no descendants so I’m guessing it does have the same issues (as ‘Roseraie de l’Hay’).
I don’t think so. It’s likely because this is a rare Rugosa (at least in North America) and breeders haven’t been able to access it. I have had this rose and I didn’t see any fertility issues with it.