Have any of you folks had experience with crosses of two roses which are totally unrelated, and had that cross actually yield seedlings of merit??
I have a bouquet of “Orange Unique” – a florist’s rose with long stems and exquisite burnt orange blossoms – full of pollen. The only rose with warm-colored (i.e. having yellow pigmentation) flowers currently in bloom and in a location where I can watch a hip’s progress over the cooler months in my (zone 9) garden is “Happy Chappy” which I recently bought on a whim.
Dunno HC’s classification. It’s too erect to be a groundcover and to big to be a mini. It has changing-hue single blooms (like mutabilis) and even though they want to darken with age, they fade quickly in hot sun. (?)
I can’t believe such a cross could have any merit, but it’s tempting… I have done almost no hybridizing this year.
Any clues as to what such might yeild?? (I’d expect a disease prone, leggy thing with little butt-ugly blooms, but with such diversity in the genes, who knows??)
Is ‘Happy Chappy’ clean there Phillip?
I dunno, I got 1 keeper from Cherry Meidiland x Caribbean, lol. All of them had fabulous color, but Caribbean passes on mildew easily and all but 1 were culled.
In all honesty, you’ll prolly get a range of sizes and vigor.
But also, you can consider something leggy as an F1 if it has positive traits you wish to keep.
Happy Chappy looks like it may be a mix of multiflora hybrids (Smarty, for example) and miniature hybrids.
Robert, I haven’t had the rose long enough to give any meaningful attestations, but thus far the fella appears relatively healthy. I think the blossoms would fare better in a cooler, drier climate. In the hot rainy weather we’re having, they are already looking a tad ratty by the time they are fully open, but I saw one in early spring here which was magnificent. Of course, it was at a garden center…
HC certainly exhibits the china influence in that the color darkens as blossoms mature, but nothing beyond that tells of a definitive lineage to me. I suppose it has some minis in its lineage and possibly hybrid musk, but speculating is not something I do well…
The foliage is somewhat glossy.
It’s just an educated guess from what theyve done prior combined with the foliage traits.
I think this is part of the joy of being an amateur. Professional breeder so many of their crosses are ruled by wheither they can see something econmically worthy coming from it and rightly so. But as amateurs we can cross things just to see what will happen. On the flip side of this I am reminded of Ralph Moore alot of his crosses are for econmics purposes but some of his greatest break throughs have come from crosses that are much farthher apart than what you are even proposing. I am also reminded of the first hybrid tea that came from two distinct classes. So I think if you have a gut feeling go with it. You can always weed them out with a spade, and with some luck maybe you have something truly amazing. As a late friend of mine used to say “Remeber a amateur built the ark a professonal built the titanic.”