Topaz Jewel hips/seeds

General Discussion
1

Hi all,

I was at my local rose garden today and happened upon a bed of the yellow Rugosa hybrid ‘Topaz Jewel’. Knowing how notoriously infertile this rose is, I looked around on the off chance that there might be a stray hip and to my surprise I found two. They were both greenish and quite small yet together yielded three seeds. They seem to be viable after doing the water test, so I’m hoping for the best.

Has anyone else had experience with Topaz Jewel seeds? Germination?

What else have others harvested so far this season?

Best,

Mike

2

Mike,

Several years ago I too found one stray hip on what I am sure was a Topaz jewel. If I remember right I got a total of 5 seeds and one germination. Six months later I tossed out the little seedling as it never got more than an inch tall.

I assumed at the time whatever causes the infertility wasn’tovercome when the hip set. The seedling still had genetic shortcomings of some kind and simply couldn’t grow.

I hope you have better luck.

Randy

3

I had several op hips from Topaz Jewel two years ago when we had a long, hot, dry summer. The seeds didn’t germinate their first year, maybe this year (if I can find them).

4

I’ve also occasionaly found Topaz Jewel seeds. I’ve got three seeds from this year and one seedling from several years ago. The seedling is a very double yellow (slightly lighter than TJ if I remember correctly). It is not a vigerious plant and tends to mildew. I think it is about 2 feet tall now. Leaves are narrow and show no rugose influence. It repeats, but poorly. I’ve not found any pollen and it tends to have a vegative center.



I also have a healthy seedling from TJ pollen, although there is no rugose influence I can see in this one either. I only got a few seeds from a number of crosses that year, so I combined all the seeds from TJ pollen into one bag. This seedling is a moderately-double orange minature. Based both on the color and the look of the leaves, I suspect the seed parent was Westerland. This seedling set a small amount of OP hips this year (its second summer). I’m looking forward to seeing what I might get.

Joan

5

I have TJ in a pot this season that in December now has 4 hips still hanging on. One has quite a bit of swelling going on. I’ll move the plant down to the basement under lights in hopes of keeping the ripening process going on. It would be nice to get some seeds that would germinate.