Each issue contains two symposiums, one labeled “Beginner’s Luck” and one labeled something else. The “other” symposium topic for the summer RHA Newsletter is “breeding for fragrance.” I would like to begin working on the issue soon, and some of you apparently have forgotten to send the articles you have been working on.
Please remember to send the articles and notes you have written. Remember, the sooner you send them, the sooner I can put the Newsletter together and get it to you.
Do you need to write about the genetic basis for fragrance in roses (or people)?
Do you need to conduct a controlled experiment in which you blindfold rosarians and ask them to identify which rose has been drinking Coke and which has been drinking Pepsi?
Do you need to prove that one of your seedlings has won the Gamble Award for rose fragrance?
To have your article or note or question published in the Newsletter, do you need to submit a list of the articles you’ve written about roses?
No.
No.
No.
And No.
But if you’ve found some crosses that seem to yield a good number of fragrant seedlings, or you’ve noticed that a particular parent seems to have a better-than-average number of fragrant offspring, or you’ve found that a high percentage of the grandchildren of a particular variety have good fragrance, please share your knowledge with us all. Knowledge of this sort, shared, will come back to haunt your nose, and it will benefit us and our favorite flower.
And if you haven’t had thoughts about fragrance, write about something else–maybe something that you thought of in relation to a symposium in an earlier issue.
Or just pass along a suggestion about a good way you have found to do something (or maybe to avoid doing something) related to hybridizing.
Soon.
Let me hear from you.
If you want to ask me about whether something would be useful in the Newsletter, let me hear from you.
Soon.
Thanks–
Peter