laflin I am not sure where you are on this big globe of ours regarding climate. Here in Oz where I live, the temperatures when I am pollinating is around 25 to 27 celcius with humidity of around 30 %. The stage in which you pollinate is important, if left to late the stigma secretions have stopped and then there is also the risk of contamination from Insects. I tend to pollinate when they are 1/2 open with the petals still slightly tight. I only apply one lot of pollen with good hip set. The quality and ferlity of your pollen may be a key factor. I pollinate as soon as it releases from the anthers.
Warren Millington
Thanks Warren, I appreciate you taking your time to share your technique. I think next season I might try pollinating the flowers just once and see how that goes. I might have over done it with my enthusiasm 
Hi- I’m thinking that it’s hard to evaluate what went wrong when you were just working with one plant. Maybe it was in poor health, or maybe it was a reluctant cultivar. I wouldn’t worry too much about changing your methods until you have a bigger sample size to evaluate.
For what it’s worth, I had very good success with hip formation and seed production this year, under the following conditions: We had a sunny summer with day temperatures in the 23C range, rarely higher. I watered quite abundantly this summer. For the pollinations, I didn’t do anything really special technically- I emasculated and pollinated when the blooms were just loosening to open. I pollinated immediately, not worrying about sticky stigmas, though I often re-pollinated later the same afternoon if I had time.
I dried my pollen for a day before using it. I used most of it within a week of harvesting it, though I did store some for a month in the freezer and it seemed to work.
Now we’ll see how many germinations I get. Oh, and like you I have very little space for all of this. Where on earth I am going to germinate 1500 seeds is beyond me at the moment.
Thanks Donald for sharing. I am going to hopefully work with more plants this year so there is at least a slightly bigger pool to draw from.
Hopefully one day I’ll have a bit of property and have more roses to work with 
So you have limited space as well? Just out of curiosity what kind of roses do you grow? Are you working with miniatures and are you in the Vancouver area or is that part of you last name?
The 1500 seeds isn’t that hard- Put 144 per tray of 12 x 6 as they sprout in a refrigerator. At max that would be 10 trays or 5 shop-lights area. More likely half that if the crosses were complex. What is really hard is culling after first bloom to keep just the best 15. Good luck.
Hi- Thanks, Larry- that is much less daunting when you put it that way. I’ve been hoping to cull well after first bloom but I may not have a choice there.
Lafflin- Yes, I’m in Vancouver BC. I live in an apartment and have access to some community garden space. I hope to buy a couple of acres in the next few years, maybe in the Gulf Islands. I grow mostly shrub roses. Right now I’m crossing a mix of tender and cold-hardy roses but my goal is to specialize in creating healthy zone 3 roses (I’m originally from Alberta.)
If you’re looking for a seed parent, Julia Child seems more than willing. I also got over 600 seeds from a single bush of Easy Going this year, though I haven’t seen the offspring yet.
I don’t do much with miniatures but my Hot Tamale produces a lot of hips- I crossed it with About Face, Morden Centennial, Easy Going and a couple others this year.
Ok, I was just curious to see what varieties work for you since your in a cooler climate.