Well, my Rugosa Rubra crosses from 2000 have started blooming
this year. The Ferdinand Pichard pollen was courtesy of
Randy Hughes. Thanks Randy!
To see some mostly unworthy flowers, follow the link below.
Link: home.insightbb.com/~ebina1/Roses/Breeding/2002/index.html
Eric,
Congratulations on your crosses! Yes, these wide crosses do produce a lot of dissapointing blooms, but as you can see there is enough positive results to keep us trying. I have one seedling from Hansa x Ferd that is nearly identical to your seedling #8 only the leaves are less rugose.One of my first Hansa x Ferd crosses has very strong striping but is so very double that it seldom opens up all the way. I have gotten a few crosses with Hansa x nonrugosas with nice flower form so I keep trying for stripes, although now with different rugosas. The nicest blooms from these types of crosses were from Hansa x Wenlock and Hansa x Honor.The Hansa x Wenlock is very double red , VERY scented, and disease free, and has blooms about 4 to 5 inches accross. Hansa x HonorHas just bloomed its first and is a semidouble light pink that has nice form so far. It is a healthy plant too.
Keep on crossin’!
Randy
Eric, now comes the important question: does one keep a poor looking rose with interesting genes to see what the next generation will produce? One method that some use is to mix all of the , say, Hansa X Ferd pollen and apply the mix to all of the Hansa X Ferd plants. One does this to bring out the first generation recessive genes.
(It is possible that the plant with the poorest flower will be the best mother.)
Well, since my goal is a striped rugosa, I hope to mix the
pollen of all the striped seedlings, and cross that back with
the mother rugosa. Since the seedlings should all be
triploid I understand this should give me the best chance
of getting a few grains of diploid pollen to fertilize the
rugosa, and at least get me to a striped diploid.
Eric, for a wide cross you may have a range of chromosome levels (see my recent posting - “Use of diploids produced from tetraploids”) both in the pollen and in the eggs. I would not make the assumption that all of the seedlings are triploid. When one determines by experiment which seedling is the best mother, you probably are also indirectly determining which seedling has the “best” balanced chromosome level.
Ah Henry, you’re depressing me. Here I thought one more
generation might get me a stable diploid, but now I see the
genetics are much more complex. I particularly hate to
see the large number of triploids from a diploid x diploid
cross that are described in your recent posting.
Randy, does your multipetaled striped seedling look anything
like the picture below? We are clearly playing with the same
genes.
Yes, Eric
Except it has probably 50 petals and I rarely have one that opens all the way. Year before last it looked like it was setting a hip, but it was too late in the year for it to ripen. Mine produces little to no pollen. Zip.
My striped single Hansa x Ferd does make pollen but not as much as yours shows. I think yours has possibilities.
I would cross it to both diploids and tetraploids to see if there will be any offspring. the uneven meiosis of triploids could just as well produce balanced gametes for diploids as for tetraploids. It might be a slim chance, but when one considers the sheer numbers of pollen grains produced even 1% “fixed” gametes could potentially produce several good seeds.
I say keep trying, I am.
Randy
Curiously, I have found an odd combination using a Rugosa that I didn’t expect to produce decent results. 2 years ago I crossed an open pollinated ‘Henry Hudson’ seedling (single white blooms on a low growing, spreading Rugosa) with one of Ralph Moore’s proprietary Crested seedlings that is known only by a code name. The Crested seedling is a single pink bloom on a Floribunda style plant with beautiful maroon young foliage and intense cresting on the sepals.
I got 4 seedlings from the seeds (I only made one pollination, on a whim!) and all 4 are intermediate in growth and foliage between the parents. All were single blooms, one was a well formed medium red that “blued” to mauve-red, and one was a brilliant ‘Linda Campbell’ red! The bright red one is not very well formed, but it has excellent foliage and a decent amount of cresting on the sepals. I’ll post two photos, one at a time in sequential posts.
Paul
The buds you see below are the same buds of the red Rugosa hybrid posted previously.
Curiously, the three of these seedlings that I kept appear to be setting seeds, open pollinated. I think I should explore these as possible parents. The foliage of all three is beautiful, and has been completely disease free so far.
Paul
Paul,
I don’t know which I enjoy most. Hearing about your fascinating seedlings or seeing your beautiful photography!
If any of those crested rugosa hybrids set seed they could be the start of a whole new class of roses. Do keep us posted.
I tried to get some photos last night with my Kodak Funflash digital camera and gave up trying. It never would take closeups, and now some of the regular features aren’t working, like a little thing called the “flash” Last year when my wife bought it for my birthday it was over $300.00 but I’ve been told you can find cameras that will take pretty good closeups for less than that.
I’m interested in finding a nice simple point and shoot digital that will take fair closeups. I’m hoping you can suggest one in the $200.00 price range.
Any thoughts?
Randy