Add to the list:
Roseraie de L’Haÿ finally accepted Orienta Aylin pollen 
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Would love seeds.-Have beed collecting Hulthemia plants for a while.Hard to find hardy ones for zone 5
Hi, sorry for the late reply. I had surgery this year and zoned out of roses for the most part of 2023.
My area is prone to raspberry borers, because berry agriculture is massive here. I get about 15 dead canes per year in the garden due to them. This time, it was White Roadrunner. It happens. Has nothing to do with the cultivar. Those stems just smelled good that day to the borers lol. They lay an egg in the stem, and the larvae burrows a spiral in the stem. The stem grows fine, and then suddenly dies in August.
White Roadrunner was fertile on Lemon Zest, and EotE was fertile on some tetraploids I put it on. So theyre both fertile. The question still is compatibility. I put Eyeconic Lemonade and Persian Flame onto Purple Pavement for years, with zero hips to show. Despite it itself having hundreds on op hips on it every year. Although, Persian Flame never stuck on anything here.
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Good to read you again, @pacificjade I hope you are feeling better now.
Thank you for confirming that the pollen of White Roadrunner works. I tried to use WR as seed parent with various hulthemia hybrid pollen all spring/summer but none would take, and it never set a single OP hip either. So next year I will definitely be focusing instead on trying it as the pollen parent.
Thanks also for your earlier recommendation that I add this rose. Breeding considerations aside, WR is a really nice plant, and did very well in our summer heat, which is not always a given with rugosas.
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Thanks. Sort of. My heart rate was 250. Now it’s 175 
But at least I don’t black out any more. It’s been a fun 3 years lol.
I’m going to hold judgement until White Roadrunner is completely mature. Pink Roadrunner is only slightly bigger,but WR would be preferable, as it is immensely small for a rugosa.
Alternatively, it could be bred with that white Bugnet rugosa out there, and then breeding the persica. No idea if their dwarfness is compatible.
Rugosa Magnifica might also be an option, because its a fertile triploid, but it can breed rust and, honestly, no commercial grower wants a rugosa that is not small. It’s just not in the cards. Unless its one beyond royalties, they wont even look at it unless it is quite modern and quite small.
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Welcome back! Good to “see you”! I’m glad you’re improved! In my experience, particularly in SoCal and similar climates, pretty much ANY rugosa will breed rust. Linda Campbell is one of very few I’ve grown which didn’t rust, but it CAN black spot and mildew when sufficiently stressed in appropriate disease pressures. It’s Anytime (which I believe may have been a fertile triploid) X Rugosa Magnifica. I guess the disease resistance depends greatly upon what it’s mated to. Topaz Jewel didn’t rust for me, either, being a fertile triploid cross of Golden Angel X Belle Poitevine.
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You should see the tons of Rosa acicularis planted by those that landscaped the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Cornelius, Oregon. It’s borderline hilarious. So much rust you’d think there were orange flowers blooming in August. Well, A for effort for trying to give local wildlife some of their plants back.
But yeah, that whole clan of cold-bearing briars tend to produce rust. It’s frustrating, since very few roses give polar climate resistances.
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And, we stupid people never stop to think perhaps the reason WHY they provide polar climate resistances is BECAUSE the symbiotic relationship between rust shutting them down and the polar resistance exists. Natures “uses” rust to “tell” them to stop pushing sap so they will resist polar conditions, yet WE think WE can obtain the resistance AND eliminate rust. Everything exists for a reason.
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First germinations from my 2023 crosses in this category started in early December.
Jean de Luxembourg × Glorious Babylon Eyes :
JdL is proving to be a good seed parent, with 12 germinations out of 15 seeds this time (1 failed at cotyledon stage, so 11 seedlings now). This is twice as much as the 2022 cross with Raspberry Kiss; I don’t know if this higher germination rate is due to the pollen parent, or to JdL being more mature now. Maybe a bit of both?
Last year’s seedlings from JdL × Raspberry Kiss were ok, but most turned out too rangy and climber-like for my taste. I only kept one seedling due to excellent health and fragrance. It bloomed three times in 2023, in perfect sync with its seed parent.
So this year I used pollen from Glorious Babylon Eyes on JdL instead. GBE has been flawlessly healthy here, blooms almost continuously and has the very short, compact, well-branched habit I prefer. Both of GBE’s parents are blotched, so I am hoping that could mean it carries a double dose of blotch gene.
Roseraie de L’Haÿ × Orienta Aylin :
The one hip pictured in an earlier post above was eaten into by something, but continued to ripen, and although 8 seeds remained inside, I would guess I lost a lot to that critter. Still, this morning, I found one had germinated! Excited to see how this one will turn out.
Other crosses in this category just came out of the fridge after a second round of stratification, since nothing germinated after the first round. Fingers crossed this will do the trick.
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Congratulations! Thanks for sharing. Your seedlings look very promising. I’m sure some of them will develop into something very special. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all your expectations get fullfilled.
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You have some intriguing looking foliage there! Good luck!
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Very nice. I love the serrated foliage on those! Fingers crossed for the blotch! (…And at the top of this thread you were a Newbie! LOL)
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Thank you so much @Roseus @roseseek and @philip_la for your encouraging comments!
Philip, I think I’m still very much a newbie: 2023 was only my second year of hybridizing, so maybe I’ve reached the level of sophomore hobbyist? I have a long journey ahead to hopefully get the rose I want one day, but whether it works out or not, it’s fun to learn and observe and try things along the way.
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Well, I won’t tell you how long I have been a newbie. Recent results should earn me “born-again noob” rank…
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Is that like “I’m a virgin, nine times!”?
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I’m afraid I am missing the reference, Kim, but… Maybe?..
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GL on rebloom with these guys. I am hoping they have eyes and rebloom. That would be nice for you. These types of roses are never easy to work with, and its nice you’re willing to take the plunge all the way through.
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Thanks @pacificjade!
Many simply die at cotyledon stage, which is always a big disappointment. Rdl’H×Aylin seedling died today. I’ll try making that cross again in the spring.
This year I’m going to try breeding a second generation from that one seedling I kept from last year’s attempts, using various rugosas as the other parent. It has only the faintest ghost of a blotch but it’s what I have for now, so I might as well try to use it.
The good thing about this experiment is it doesn’t take up too much space, since so many crosses fail!
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Will Alderman × Orienta Aylin finally germinated. 12 weeks cold, 4 weeks out, 6 weeks cold, then after 3 weeks out they started popping up. 14/47 germinated.
After the initial excitement came the sobering reality: 3 have already died. The seeds were very small and these babies are quite puny looking, with tiny cotyledons that really struggle to break out of their seed coats. Very few look like they’re going to survive. I hope at least a couple of them will.
The same cycling has so far failed to trigger Mont Blanc × Eyes for You, and nothing is happening with the Snow Pavement crosses either. Back in the fridge they go.
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Hope for solid success,
Cycling was something that was a good learning for me and kept me going thanks to Roseus suggestion after being busted many times, glad it is working to get germinations.
… but I too have noticed a ~50/50 split on late cycles for healthy seedlings. But don’t care … nature culled them is my claim.
Yet 7th cycle (02-4C x 18-20C) gave two special ones that had no issues except surviving post summer indoors in winter … 90 days to go and going to be close call if they make it
… but nothing beats 24, 1 st cycle, 24 healthy ones from R. beggeriana for winter green.
Forgot first step for the rock hardy R. begggeriana was “freezing in pearlite at -2 to -4C” for 4 months. This done after adding water to saturation to dampen pearlite - seed mix in a baggy, leaving 24 hrs and then draining quickly excess pore water.
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