The hardy Canadian rose Therese Bugnet…bred by Georges Bugnet (circa 1941)…can be found on several continents and could be a rose that has passed the test of time. In my area, I’ve seen it planted along golf-course fareways and have even seen it effectively used as a privacy barrier between RV campsites in British Columbia. Along with the great hardy roses Metis and Lillian Gibson, it shares the trait of attractive red stems.
It was one of the first roses I ever grew and I have only kept one cross pollinated seedling from my work with it . This seedling (cross with a modern purple tetraploid) has acceptable winter hardiness but has a couple other desireable traits…a more complex color and importantly a larger number of buds per flower cluster. It has retained the smooth red stem trait. Theoretically it should be a triploid. Even when used as the pollen parent, Therese Bugnet’s distinctive foliage dominates this seedling.
Have any of you used Therese Bugnet in your breeding programs and what were your results…could you post some photos?
Very nice Doug. I’ve not had success using TB yet but will attempt it again this spring. I’ll be crossing yellow diploids with it both directions. Was TB the seed parent in your cross?
I’ve only used T.B. as a seed parent myself. And only with a triploid R. pomifera (from David Z) as the pollen donor. Very odd results. I get hips set, seed produced, but so far most of what survives looks like T.B. It seems that we are seeing induced seed formation but maybe no genes actually transferred from R pom. I realize that I might simply have lots of T.B. selfs. However, among unpollinated flowers less than one in several hundred ever sets a hip. Few seedlings have matured enough to bloom yet in 2nd or 3rd yr. So I can’t answer much further. I’ve had a couple that bloomed and look different from T.B. in flower, but not much in overall habit.
Why make the cross? Timing of flowers. Both are very early, and disease resistant and in our location quite winter hardy.
Larry…I’ve used TB and Lillian Gibson as seed parents with the same results…perhaps healthy seedlings but too long to wait for them to bloom…and have almost given up. So I get fairly interested when someone succeeds where I didn’t when using them as seed parents. I wonder what results I would get if I took the pollen from the above seedling and put it on TB.
Joe… I can’t honestly answer that question…but I suspect not. It grows in with quite a large seedling bed and I wasn’t around it enough later in the summer to say for sure…It’s a few miles away. The seedling was planted in 2015 so, as I’m sure you are familiar with, it should take another 5 years to really get established. I do remember the pleasant main flush. You’re lucky to have the large growing spaces…I’m usually digging out nearby seedlings to give the better ones more room.
I have a couple hardy polyantha x Therese Bugnet crosses. One is ‘Catherine Guelda’ and it won a silver certificate in the ARS ARC trials years back. The other is tall like Therese Bugnet. Both rebloom pretty well. ‘Catherine Guelda’ is only about knee to waist high. I want to use Therese Bugnet more again with even healthier roses. These are above average for health, but have more defoliation than I would like.
This one is ‘Temple Bells’ x ‘Therese Bugnet’. Once flowering and excellent health… but does VERY poorly in my ground. ‘Temple Bells’ also does very badly in my ground. Strong and vigorous in a pot. I am hoping to redo the cross with a different multiflora/wich rambler that does better in my soil (pH ~5) or with my Rosa Longicuspis var. sinowilsonii x Violette seedling. ‘Therese Bugnet’ is a large and healthy rose in my climate and soil, as are other rugosa-based roses. I was hoping for a ground cover type rose with TB-like flowers in the ‘Max Graf’ line of rugosa/wich hybrids. No scent to speak of. Does not form OP hips.
