Simon, how has your ‘Therese Bugnet’ x thornless Rosa multiflora selection performed for you?
Paul, this seedling is a ‘Temple Bells’, a thorny miniature wichurana rambler hybrid, x Therese Bugnet. It grows well with no fuss. Once flowering. Dark canes that are not completely thornless but pretty close to being so. It is a low, lax, ground covering type that has so far spread to a bit less than a metre wide and about 50cm high. The seedling is a 2012 seedling that flowered for the first time last season (2015). I have not pruned it ever and have just put it in the ground. Makes plenty of pollen but I don’t really intend to work with it. It’s more a novelty seedling I made out of curiosity that I enjoy having around instead of taking further. Therese Bugnet onto so multiflora types might be interesting, too.
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You might consider the advances work of the Brownells.
I think ‘Therese Bugnet’ has limited value to use in breeding programs these days. Even though this cultivar is very cold hardy (Zone 2), it’s very prone to powdery mildew and the foliage in late season can also be unattractive. However, it’s unfortunate it wasn’t used more in breeding programs in cold climates many years ago, when there was still a good market for taller shrub roses. For example, using ‘Will Alderman’ and ‘Aylsham’ as pistillate parents. I want to see what these potential cultivars would have looked like, so I hope to produce some good selections in this respect. I was able to cross ‘Aylsham’ with ‘Therese Bugnet’ this year, and by the way, ‘Will Alderman’ x ‘Aylsham’.