This year I learned Peach Drift x OP germinates well and gives a lot of blackspot free, small, bushy seedlings,that tend to have pale colors and weaknesses to Cercospora and spider mites. I did get one deep yellow/orange bi-color on a healthy, bushy plant. Overall, I’m glad I picked PD up, it has good potential.
I learned Sproul was right, Darlow’s Enigma seeds germinate like weeds. A lot of seedlings die early, but it does make some very healthy, bushy, fragrant seedlings.
I learned Souv. de Francois Gaulain germinates fairly well and tends to make red, double, healthy seedlings. White Pearl in Red Dragon’s Mouth germinates well and tends to make red, semi-double, average health seedlings.
I learned Grande Amore, First Impression, and Easy Does It are vulnerable to some type of stem canker in Florida.
I learned that Therese Bugnet is the favorite food of Little Leaf Notcher - Artipus floridanus weevil.
I learned that my English Springer Spaniel is getting too old to chase the squirrels away from my seedling trays.
I learned that t-budding is easy.
I learned that Julia Child has child-bearing hips.
I learned how easily tiny pieces of thorns can get terribly inflamed when broken off under your skin.
I learned that I need a couple of acres.
I will never use Fimbriata，David Thompson，and Crested Moss as female parent. I believe the rugosa in this pic that I found from HMF is not Fimbriata.
[attachment=0]getImg.jpg[/attachment]
I learned that Yellow Brick Road is a favorite of aphids in the greenhouse.
I learned the joy of waking up early to pollinate newly opened blossoms in the dew.
I learned that pollinating just-opened blossoms and leaving them unwrapped results in plenty of hips and seeds while allowing me to get more crosses done.
I learned that Home Run will set seed using the above method.
I learned that Fire n’ Spice is reluctant to set hips, Morjerry and Double Delight will not set hips, Francis Meilland and Love & Peace will set hips.
I learned that my rose breeding friends are some of the most generous and helpful people in the world!
It seems we sometimes forget the yellow color attracts aphids like a magnate. If you want to clear out your garden, wear a yellow shirt while working there. You’ll be covered with bugs! No Pest Strips and fly strips are yellow for good reason! New growth that is more yellow-green tends to have greater concentrations of aphids than most other colors.
I learned that titanium pruning shears are able to cut through seeds when shelling seeds. Quite easily.
I learned that working with glass mosaics and roses with thorns have a lot in common.
And seedling roses get a lot healthier in the second yr. A lot of the time, but not always.
Sometimes it is not necessary to pollinate one more hip just because it is in front of your face. It just means more seeds to process and sometimes it is not even clear why you did it anyway. What was I thinking?
Another thing I learned is that it is possible to produce roses that are an improvement over last yrs.
And it gets more and more obvious what has to be culled.
I learned the typical hip set and seed count of this year’s 5 tested mothers. One produces, on average, 23 seeds per hip and the 2 plants I have will be enough. Another only averages 5 seeds per hip, and I will need many more plants of that cultivar if I want to continue using it as a mother.
I also fine tuned my rose breeding plan, which allowed me to buy only those new roses that meet my specific goal. Less waste of money and garden space. These roses will be tested as seed and pollen parents in 2014.
Finally, I am learning that growing potted roses for breeding in a cool greenhouse is not a good idea, because of mildew issues. I am better off overwintering a few roses in my 72-degree house, so that I can save on greenhouse propane costs during the winter!
Thank you Roseseek, I did not know this. One of my favorite mothers is a yellow Floribunda. Did not see aphids on her this year, but that may be because they preferred my vegetable garden!
You’re welcome, Cathy. About too many crosses and seeds…yup, I’m encountering that right now. I KNEW I had to be more “selective” in what I mated and how many seeds I generated. I thought I was… I also knew I needed to begin early so things would sufficiently ripen early enough to prevent having to battle the vermin for the hips. That part worked very well. I don’t think I lost many (if any) to foraging. I did lose quite a few to the plants aborting hips, but the results are definitely too “generous” for my seed planting space. I feared that, so I began planting the more desirable crosses first and worked my way through the bags. I now have one-third of the second table available and enough seed to fill nearly a full table left. Now comes the harder part…figuring what I can live without seeing what the results of the cross may be and deciding if I honestly want to sacrifice space to attempt planting more seeds to find that out.
I was ruthless culling seedlings from last year when I transplanted them from the tables into pots. I retained only the more vigorous, well developed seedlings and threw out hundreds of ‘also ran’ types. As usual, those which didn’t result in really good plants their first season didn’t have impressive roots. I know, “chicken or egg” possibility. Were they stunted plants because they weren’t endowed with the ability to form good root systems or where they impaired, prevented from developing roots by external factors, hence never produced vigorous plants? Space dictated the former and it seriously reduced the resulting candidates for further observation. Seriously meaning reducing the remaining ones to roughly 10% of the original quantity.
[attachment=1]DSCN5795.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=0]DSCN5799.JPG[/attachment]
Precisely! Consider those two seedlings are from the same cross. Not necessarily the same hip as I often made multiple pollinations of the same cross. As far as I’m concerned, the huge one on the blue trash can is the one to choose. Those with roots like the smaller one, unless there were only a few seedlings from the cross, just weren’t worth messing with. Perhaps if there was unlimited room and water, but not when each had to be individually potted and space found to carry them on. Plus, those with the smaller root systems are pretty much always the worst disease issues. If I was a J&P of forty years ago and planned on budding and spraying everything, perhaps, but I’m not.
I learned roses can flourish in the tropics at the same latitude as guadalope and still have no fragrance like the original china and from jan 24 to feb 7 14 I hunt for tne originals once again in the tropics and in search of the damask lokiana (sic) rose once again on Oahu and on the big island.
… A don q. Search
Also dr merkely pollen makes a small prairie joy hip relative to a self pollinated hip … Lost the darn seed!!!
[attachment=2]2013 001.JPG[/attachment][attachment=2]2013 001.JPG[/attachment]Late germinates
[attachment=2]2013 001.JPG[/attachment]Some of these grew to 3ft.
[attachment=2]2013 001.JPG[/attachment]From last year
Just had my post trashed, so this is the short version.
One of a series of yellows.
The rest of the new seedling bed about 250 in here. Another 250 should have been planted.
No problem Joe.
My fifth year started in July. Since I do population breeding what you see have good horizontal resistance. The red rose above had Mr. Lincoln pollen on a yellow orange rose. Don’t waste your time using Mr. Lincoln as a seed plant, even the F2’s are not very good.
Neil
I found that 5 min of hail can destroy 95% of one’s hips for the season. I can only hope that this will be a continued trend with the global change. johannes
I love the design and layout of your seedling beds, I wish that I had that much space! When I graduate and move out of my parents house in a few years I’m definitely going to look for a big yard. 250 Is a lot of seedlings, at least to me lol. What traits are you breeding for and do you have favorite seed parents?
I’ve learned so much this year but some of my most important discoveries are that embryo rescue is not as daunting as is seems and that surprisingly “New Dawn” is my most fertile seed parent. It’s almost on par with “Carefree Beauty”! Another useful discovery, apparently “Home Run” seeds do not need to be stratified?! I wouldn’t believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes, but sure enough, I’ve got many popping up!
I think you’ll find, in many cases, most seed from modern roses need no stratification. We receive virtually no “winter” here compared to most of the rest here and seeds spring up where they fall on the ground. So far, this “winter” has been cool. It’s already frosted, or nearly frosted, three times. The rest of the evenings have all been well above forty degrees with days in the mid to high seventies and several bursts into the eighties. The seeds I’ve planted after months in the refrigerator aren’t up yet, but I’ve found several which have already germinated in the weeds around the in-ground plants from seed dropped by the varmints which have eaten the hips I didn’t remove.
