Today I found a very nice suprise. My abysinnica has several flowers on it. Last year it gave very few flowers, and I didn’t get anything.
But this year, just wow–
And for this reason, I’m making this thread to keep track of my progress.
Now I’ve told this story before, but I might as well tell it again. Around 2003 when I attended Santa Clara, I meet with this lovely rose again not for the first time. It’s was planted by Father George Schoener of “Schoener’s Nutkana” and “Arrillaga” fame. When I was helping out a school Christmas pagent about the Virgin Guadalupe, I saw the school’s gardeners trimming it.
They didn’t mind I took a branch, although I felt quite embarrassed about dragging that branch to car. Everyone looked at me.
I had a dozen cuttings. Two struck. One survived. And now my work will pay off.
This year I will use pollen on it from miniature roses. Right now, Golden Angel is about to bloom. Fair Dinkum, Pacific Serenade, Cotton Candy and Renae are in bloom. I’ve just broght in a few blooms of Renae (a diploid).
I also have Lynnie, my Queen Elizabeth X 77-361 seedling, and a seedling from Basye’s Amphidiploid. Since they’re all related, I hope to see what kind of seedling I will recieve if I return some of the DNA back to its species relative.
R. foliolosa and the possible Swamp Rose aren’t blooming. I should have saved pollen last year. And my single Lady Banks stopped blooming, and I didn’t use its pollen because of the heavy rains this year.
But I will try to use Cecil Brunner, The Fairy, and Perle de Or-- all the diploids in my garden. (Especially Renae-- It’s fully mature now and just beautiful.)
I do have a main concern right now. I found an unknown pest. It looks like a lady bug… but… with spikes. I think I’ve seen this in rose books in the past, so I will try to identify it. My concern is that it may spread to my other roses, and I can’t simply have that. Anyone who knows something about what I’m talking about, please feel to jump in.
Well anyways–
Here’s to the future…