I’ve posted previously about my success with ‘Mrs. Frederic Lee’ as a seed parent. I’ve had a few late germinating seedlings from last year’s OP seeds and just noticed today that one has a side bud despite the fact that the terminal bud hasn’t even begun to drop its sepals. Also has a new leaflet popping out of the lowest leaf axil. Prolific bloomer?!
Second photo is of some of the dozens of hips still on the plant after already harvesting approximately 50.
Your seedling looks fantastic for bloom production! These pictures remind me of something with a lot of R. multiflora in its background (polyantha / hybrid musk). Sometimes with seedlings like this one and cultivars like ‘Champlain’ that are incredible branching and blooming machines, it can sometimes be challenging to get many cuttings from them with buds that haven’t made flowers. Please keep us posted!! It will be fun to see a picture of the open flower of your seedling.
Does anyone know what Mrs Frederick Lee is? HMF just lists it as a shrub and the only place to get it is Hortico. Hortico lists it as a sport but not what it is a sport of. I’ve vowed not to order anything from Hortice anymore but I might make an exception here. Is Hortico still shipping to the US? If not, I might be able to purchase in the US what MFL sported from if I knew what it was.
I just found your old post about Mrs Frederic Lee possibly being a seedling of Chuckles. I already have Chuckles and I haven’t had much luck using it as a seed parent. Either the pollinations don’t take or the seeds don’t germinate. The one exception being a Chuckle x William Baffin cross where I got good seed production and good germination. So if MFL is a better seed parent than Chuckles I’m interested because I’m always looking for good seed parents and I’d really like to incorporate the large sprays of Chuckles into my seedlings.
Paul, I don’t know if this really helps you, but out here we have some bushes that I was told are Chuckles. Flowers look like it. I harvested seeds last winter and treated with nitrate and got staggeringly high % germination (details in next newsletter article I think.). Some were collected in Dec, others in March, after 0 F and below. Also one bush (from which I collected hips) is loaded with hips at first flush and pretty much quits blooming. Another in different location on campus with different treatment where they deadhead, blooms until winter. The former bush ought to accept pollen well enough to yield some seeds. But maybe climate difference makes it harder to do up there. I can collect you some hips this week if you like to grow your own seedlings. Country Dancer is the only rose nearby.
That’s interesting that the Chuckles OP seeds germinate so well there. I’ve tried to germinate OP seeds twice and only got one seedling. Your probably right the difference in climate might be a factor for that. The fact that you collected them so late may play a part in it also. I collected some OP seeds again this year because there are different plants next to it now than were before so I was hoping for better results. But if seeds from your area will germinate better than mine, then I’d love some. Do you still have my address?
I’m going to have to start dead heading my plant because it acts just like the first plant you mentioned were there is one good flush and not much after that.
Regarding Mrs. Frederic Lee; I had a number of conversations with Ben Williams son (Ben Williams III?) several years ago. I asked him about the rose in question and he told me that he thought it was either a seedling or a sport that someone had shared with his dad. I grow both ‘Chuckles’ and ‘Mrs. Frederic Lee’ and the blooms and foliage are identical as far as I can tell. The differences appear to be: ‘Chuckles’ is own root, compact (24-28" tall by 36" wide), and blooms in nice sprays of 5 or so blooms; ‘Mrs. Frederic Lee,’ purchased from Hortico, is a grafted plant (multiflora?), grows about 48" in height and width, and produces massive sprays of 20+ blooms all about 3" in diameter on stems that are significantly longer than those of ‘Chuckles.’ Both stay pretty clean until late in my growing season then succumb to some BS. I rarely get any PM in my Middle Ga garden.
Unfortunately I haven’t captured a good photo of MFL to post on HMF, but its been in the garden since 2005 or so. My success with germination from OP seeds has been shockingly positive.
I hope to see color in the next day or two from the terminal bud in the previously posted photo. Will share.