Thanks for the compliment, minutifolia!
I wouldn’t bother trying as a pollen parent, it typically has no anthers. I think I have seen 2 ever
@James_D try harvesting all the available blooms and collecting all the anthers together. If you can keep them cool and dry, I think you may find you can hold them for many weeks without freezing them and still obtain viable seedlings from their use. That’s the way I was able to succeed in obtaining Minutifolia hybrids. Maintaining the anthers in a mid sixties to low seventies temperature range and keeping them dry permitted me to gather sufficient pollen to make many crosses, most of which resulted in viable seeds and seedlings showing hybridity. Don’t stay stuck in the box of believing pollen only remains useful for hours or a few days. Or, pull a Ralph Moore and propagate many of the desired pollen (or seed) parent so you have sufficient stock to accomplish your desired efforts.
I mean even If I did that, I have had that rose since I was about 8 and I have generally only ever seen 2 anthers total. I have found that rose de rescht will give me a usable amount if I use 6 or more flowers. But Charles De mills where I am is basically petals
Charles De Mills doesn’t sound very promising for my purposes then. Too bad, it is quite lovely.
The idea of gathering pollen from many blooms (supposing they have a few anthers) might work if I had the luxury of having many plants, or one or two large plants. But CDM is not hardy in my garden and would have to be grown in a pot. This of course will limit the size of the bush as well as the number of blooms I can collect from.
I’m open to substitutes if anyone has positive experiences with other Gallica or near Gallica pollen parents.