Hello all. Great forum. This is my first year, growing roses from seed, (Idaho, Zone 4).I now have 37 rose seedlings that have made it thus far with a loss of approx. 36 seedlings. All of my babies are OP. I collected hips from several locations Aug. Sept. 2005, but did not research the mother plant(s). I have now gone back and found out, of the 18 roses I obtained hips from, seedlings may or may not be from: French Perfume, Melody Parfumee, Tigress, Tropicana, Chicago Peace, Seirra Skye & Falstaff. The other 11 mother plants are at this time unknown. Now for my question. I have one seedling that has me scratching my head. It reminds me of a mirror image. As far as I know it is only one rose with 1 cane, however each new leaf or (stipule/petiole/stem?) appear to be identical on each side of the cane, they are not off-set, one grows above the other, like my other seedlings. I have not pulled her out to look at her roots, in fear of killing her. Here are pictures: Each stipule/petiole/stem identical on cane, one grows on one side of cane,one on the other side:
Hope the pictures work,couldn’t figure out how to post them, viewable in the message.Any feedback would be great. I just don’t know what to think about this little lady. Is she normal or deformed?? Thank you. Cheri
My thought too, though the plant has grown several nodes already with this trait. Are you using any kind of chemicals on the plant (fertilizer, pesticide, other stuff) that might cause an abnormality such as this? It is somewhat intriguing, and not like the usual abnormalities I’ve seen. Switching from alternate to opposing leaves does seem rather strange…
I have not used or done anything different with her, she has been treated the same as my other babies. I used the water/peroxide solution:(1 part peroxide 9 parts water), for watering all my babies. Last week I started using “ferti-lome” Blooming And Plant Soluble Food @ 1/4 the recommended dose with a small amount of peroxide added to the mixture. The soil I use is “Black Gold” seedling mix, does not have fertilizer in it as far as I know. I have gave the other babies a better looking over and not one of them are like her. All have an alternate leaf pattern. Also, I do not believe the locations I gathered the hips from spray or use pesticides. The poor mother plants were lucky to have been watered from what I could tell. So I think it is safe to say her mommy was not chemically treated.She does have 2 new leaves sprouting, both as the other leaf sets, mirror image once again. Guess I will keep watching her and posting her growth. Thank you. Cheri
Thought I might post an update. No sign of a bud/bloom yet, but her last set of leaves have me head scratching once again. Rather than growing outward they have grown more in-ward, toward the center. She does have 2 more new leaves sprouting, as before, mirror image once more. She is healthy and seems to be ‘growing like a weed’, so to speak. If I have counted right, the 2 new sprouting leaves make the 5th set of leaves growning in her ‘strange’ pattern or trait. The lower center double leaf has not changed to date. Cheri
Cheri, I have to admit that I haven’t seen that kind of growth habit. If nothing else, it is an interesting trait and it would be a curiousity to see whether or not the trait could be passed along. I would keep it if the habit continues, regardless of whether or not the bloom is desirable.
It looks like it has two growth tips that in the beginning were together in the stem, but have now splitted. Each of the two growth tips looks normal now, with a regular placement of the leaves. If you take a bud to graft it, you would probably get a normal non-mirrored plant.
Still no buds, but her mirror like way has not changed. Her 5th leaf set grew identical on both sides of the split. She has had another 3 sets of leaves, all three once again in an identical growth pattern. She now has another leaf set sprouting, will not know for a day or 2 what they will do. I have been noticing the left side split grows faster than the right. I still find it strange, with the split, that each new leaf on the left and the right grow identical. Each side grows a leaf at the same time(the right a little slower), each face the same direction weather the leaf grows to the front, back or side(s) of the stem, and each have the same leaf count, if the left has 3 leaves or 5 leaves so does the right. So, I am thinking maybe “Mon Gemella Rosa” for a name ?? Just a thought )
The two sides are still mirroring, but orginally , the rose had one stem, and had leaves appearing together or ‘opposite’ each other. Now that the stem has split, each stem is forming leaves in an alternate pattern. It will be interesting to see how the rose continues to develop.
)
Robyn
