Greetings All!
I have been reading this forum for many years and have finally joined, now that I have some seedlings to talk about.
I have one in particular that I want to “show off” (I do feel a little bit like a proud father):
Therese Bugnet x OP
This seed was gathered from a municipal rose garden, so I can only speculate on the Dad. My first thought is Rose A Parfum de l’ Hay, but I do not recall this being among the dozens of named and un-named rugosas in the garden. The year this seed was gathered there were a couple of non-hardy Bourbons growing near by, as well as an un-named Autumn Damask seedling. But the rugose leaves have me thinking that Dad was probably a Rugosa hybrid.
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Pt4
Growth is elegant (for a Rugosa):
with flowers nodding. They repeat until fall and have a delicious fragrance: a warm sweet rose and sandalwood, with a pronounced fruity note emanating from the center that is usually very lemony, but occasionally more like fruit punch.
It has been growing up through the sod competing with weeds for 10 years in my zone 3a garden with absolutely no die back. And it appears to be fertile! I have seeds in the fridge right now from a cross with Wasagaming.
The blooms seem to hold up in the rain as well or better than most rugosas, and the nodding habit tends to act like an umbrella shedding the water and saving the blooms.
This one required some patience. It is fortunate that I am such a lazy gardener as I would have shovel pruned the rose before now due to unremarkable blooms that were offered up sparingly. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until this summer that there was anything remarkable at all about the rose, except for the fragrance. It now blooms much more than it has and the flowers are far more shapely.
I do plan to develop it more and have a couple of strategies: first one would be to cross it with other carefully chosen Rugosas: Roserie de l’Hay, Blanc Double de Cobert, Fru Dagmar Hastrup, and then back cross to this seedling.
The second strategy is to choose a couple of OGRs with little to no China influence, and cross these with a fertile Rugosa hybrid. Take the resulting triploids and cross with this rose. I currently have Alba Maxima, and Barone Prevost (probably has China in it). But I am looking for a fragrant Portland or Gallica to serve as pollen parent for the triploids. I like very double blooms but it would not be absolutely necessary for my aims. Any suggestions?
-D. Christopher McMullins
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