I was looking around on HMF and Angel Farts seems to have disturbing frequency. Does anyone know any good breeders of those colors? Barden said that Lavender Pinocchio has interesting seedlings, but the plant itself is frail.
So far, some interesting ones (* means Angel fart-free)
'Lavender Pinocchio*
'Paradise
Blue For You*
Blue Nile*
Stainless Steel*
Ash Wednesday*
Heirloom
Not all of these may be the best breeders, but perhaps they can lead to better vigour…
Peace figures strongly, but it does in most HT relatives, so that is to be expected.
I have a small plant of Heirloom- it is much more healthy than good old farts, but it has Grey Pearl’s death gene- it grows in flushes of clean, rather attractive foliage, it tries to push an arbitrarily large number of blooms, foliage gets sick, turns weird olive hues and starts from square one. I stood this for a year and I will try Barden’s advice for Grey Perl.
There’s the new Poseidon from Kordes. Who knows how it might pass on it’s color. It appears to have set a couple hips from controlled pollinations.
Blue for You seems to produce very nice, vigorous seedlings heavy on the lavender. I was kinda sad that my big potted BFY up and died this summer…not sure if we let it dry out or what.
Here are a dozen of the many mauve colored roses I grow and breed with that I might recommend for you to try. This might be better placed in the Newsletter (I have issues with brevity), but you asked so here they are:
Lilacs/Lavenders/Silvers
- Blueberry Hill – a lot of Angel Face in it but with a lot less of the Angel Face traits. Very hip fertile (it is to me what Orangeade is to others). I have gotten a lot of good results with this one including many thornless seedlings.
- Escapade – good for pollen but not as hip (no hips formed in my climate). Has the charm of the 50’s and 60’s floribundas (before they became more stiff and HT like) with descent health. It has excellent rebloom and a good number of blooms. On the pink side of the colors group but you should get something in the more lilac to purple if you pare it up right.
- Lilac Charm – probably the best in terms of “charming” for the lavender shades. It is hard to describe what I mean by charming but once you grow it you will understand what I mean. Good fertility and I am so upset that I lost it early this spring because it is a very good parent in my mind. The bush is worth growing (excellent branching) even if the single blooms are not what you are looking for.
- Lady X – tall and straight growing. Good hip fertility with lots of large flowers with the classic HT bloom form. I find it superior to many of the newer lavender HTs (few exceptions though) because it is a very strong grower. A good choice if you want to impart vigor. Grey Pearl makes up at least 25% of its genetic makeup, but I don’t see any “death” gene rearing its ugly head with Lady X. Good germination rates and seedlings are worth growing out too.
- Neptune – Good vigor, good repeat, nice bloom forms, nice scent, nice color. Average cold hardiness, average disease resistance, average bloom decay (fades to a spotted blah color). The seed parent of Neptune is a Blueberry X Stephen’s Big Purple seedling (I recommend both as parents). It produces large hips with a good number of large achenes inside. I have not tried as pollen parent. I think it can produce something reminiscent of the direct Sterling Silver descendants – i.e. Blue Moon or Blue Girl – but with more vigor and hopefully better disease resistance.
- Twice in a Blue Moon – this is my surprisingly good rose. In other words I did not expect this one to be as good as it is. It produces hips and pollen quite well and it passes on the silvery-lilac coloring and HT bloom form too. This is another tall and straight growing variety. I believe this one was considered a florist rose but it does well in the garden too. It does rather well here in zone 5b even during last year’s harsh winter.
- Winter Magic – If I am going to recommend a lavender mini this is the one that I recommend because it is easy to work with. It can use better cold hardiness and disease resistance but it does have good vigor, branching, bloom form, and even a good scent. Probably best as hip parent.
Purples (if you are looking for purple – some might have the lighter shades in their background)
- Midnight Blue – lots of rich colors and thornless seedlings. It has descent but not great health with above average cold hardiness. Great as hip or pollen parent. Lots of rebloom and a lot of flowers throughout the season. Similar parentage to Route 66, Night Owl, and Ebb Tide.
- Ebb Tide– Not sure what shade you are aiming for but if you need an easy parent this is a good one. While it tends to pink up in heat I have only had one of my many OP seedlings actually do this. Most of these seedlings have actually deepened in purple in the heat. Good for bicolors and those with white centers (reverse hulthemias in a way). Another good source for thornless roses and no Angel Face listed in parentage.
- Night Owl – Night Owl is a great hip parent that produces very vigorous (climbing) thornless seedlings with purple, single to semi-double blooms. Many have white centers. You need to improve health and cold hardiness (if winter is an issue) but it is one of the easiest parents I have available.
- Route 66 – See Midnight Blue. It probably has slightly better health, vigor, and cold hardiness than MB. Whereas MB is more on the blue side of dark purple, I think Route 66 is on the red side of dark purple with a white center.
- Stephen’s Big Purple – This one figures into a lot of the most recent mauve introductions because it has a lot to offer. It is very vigorous and has above average disease resistant foliage that is leathery and dark green. The blooms have a great scent. It can be used to dramatically increase the number of petals on a lot of the single or semi-double varieties (try Blueberry Hill X SBP to see what I mean). I don’t see any AF in this one either. It can be somewhat choosy as a hip parent (about 50/50) but it is good as a pollen donor as well.
I grow many other lavenders and purples but these are the ones I have had the best success with or have actually tried. I am currently experimenting with some of the old garden varieties to add another dimension to the moderns. I also have several polys and multifloras that produce purple shaded blooms.
I will also second Carlin’s Rhythm. I have about 6 OP seedlings from it that Kim sent me about 3 years ago and they produce some really cool blooms on very nice shrubs.
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I can recommend Florence Delattre, quite healthy, nearly thornless, lots of blooms several times in the season, and very fertile, gave me lots of seedlings, here are some of them.
I can’t see the lineage tab. I really should invest in it… I see reve de’or in it. However well it performs in Germany, that is a death sentence here. Hopefully Kordes genes in it should help clean that up. The color is glorious.
I’m in the south west of germany, it is not soo cold here in winter, normally, deepest temperatures hardly -15°C, rarely deeper. But I saw that it exists even in 3 gardens in Russia/moskow region. Don’t know what they do there to pretect it from the cold.
If you want to see the seedlings from FD in HMF and are no member, you can enter each name of these roses, if you have enough patience. ; )
Anke
Barry
Elegante Edith
Erster Bürger
Familienvater
Freiburger Bächle
Freiburger Flieder
Freiburger Perle
Glanzlicht
Harald Lesch
Heimkehrer
Himbeersahne
Laika (shrub, Reister 2009)
Lavender Café
Libellentanz
Lost Beauties Rosenpark
Luftschlange
Mirjam
Pfirsichgold
Rosana
Roseneck
Schönberg
Sonnhalde
Süden
Sweet Cream Cinnamon
Tanja’s Rose
Wonnhalde
Zitronensorbet
Gosh. Its almost indecent how many seedlings there are! How does it fare against Black spot?
Wow, impressive group of seedlings, freiburgbalkon.
FD is really very fertile both as hip or pollen parent.
FD only get’s a little bit of blackspot at the end of the season. Some seasons not at all. My roses are all in pots. Probably it’s better in the garden.