I see that Home Depot is now carrying (at least the ones in the PNW) random Buck roses, KO’s, Carefree Sunshines, Meidilands (even new ones like Fire) and so on in place of their usual buffet of rose virused cheapy HT/GR/FL types. Its a nice change of pace. I can only hope that what theyre currently selling is virus free. I also like that wholesalers are now growing other Buck roses and landscapers like they have been doing with the Knock Outs (1,2 and 3G own roots) at big box stores. I hope virus becomes more scarce than it has been before. Time will tell.
That is great news for the diversity. Here in Minnesota we are seeing some diversity from time to time too. Last fall there was some ‘Summer Wind’ roses by Dr. Buck at Home Depot and some of the Proven Winner roses like the really nice newer one ‘Paprika’. There is a box store like Home Depot here called Menards. Their supplier is ordering in rose rose liners from Northwest Horticulture and growing them on and we are able to get the newer Conard Pyle roses and some of the Tantau landscape roses. Hopefully with more own root production that will help reduce spread of a lot of the viruses.
I’m teaching plant tissue culture at my new job and we have a pretty good lab and a growth chamber. I started getting some roses in culture about 6 weeks ago from tips from some cuttings I had at home under lights. Some definately are growing more strongly than others. This is the first time I have really successfully began to grow roses in culture. I ordered a media that supposed to be optimized for roses. I’m excited it is working. Roses definately are not weeds in culture like some of the other crops I worked with!! (mums, potatos, etc.) My desire is to learn how to begin cleaning up roses from virus in culture. I know that others have not done it in culture, but grew large whole plants under heat and took small buds for grafting from what I read and heard. I don’t have the space to do that in a temperature controlled environment, but I do have a small growth chamber I can crank up the temperature on that can easily hold many culture vessels and I have some riboviron to try. Supposedly heat is the key and I’ll start there and hopefully not stress the plant material too much with antiviral drugs if I can help it and take the very tip and subculture it. Hopefully eventually I can get something virus free.
I would love to try to clean up ‘Paloma Blanca’ and some other roses that seem generally virused over time if I can get this system to work. I don’t know who I would share them with besides interested nurseries and us who love roses. In the past working with Dr. Ben Lockhart (a virologist at the U of MN) we were working with some cultivars of roses we got in and one rose was free of the standard viruses tested for that UC Davis didn’t have listed in their collection. To be nice we made the offer to share the plant of this very commonly grown older cultivar with them. They said no and as I was talking with them the person seemed apologetic and recognized what an easy benefit it would be for them to get it. They could have did a simple ELISA and double checked it to confirm for themselves it was free of the viruses they test for and easily have it to add. It sounds like if they didn’t clean it up, they have some policy or something against working with others to get more virused indexed roses into their collection. Oh well. If I can effectively clean up roses of virus there are other outlets to get the material out so others benefit even though it would be nice if UC Davis would be willing to serve as a central source / repository for clean roses in general for the industry.
I need to talk some more with Malcolm Manners and others for any tips they would be willing to share as I get started. I’m excited to move forward.
Sincerely,
David
Hey David,
Your project sounds great! Culturing may be a superior approach to cleaning up virus infected roses. It will be interesting to see how this project progresses.
Jim Sproul
Very small tips (the smaller one can take breaking it with fingers among unfurled leaves) of strong growing shoots are much more rootable than one can think.
Tens of years ago when growing florist roses; in order to build stronger plants from summer plantings by delaying flowering we did “tip pruning”. These tips, less than a cm long taken from still quite condensed growth when fallen on soil often rooted with the help of the misting needed for the not well enough rooted plants. A hot wet not sterile shady environment.
Hi David,
Im familiar with Menards. Im from the Black Hills, so I hear about it all the time from family. I actually saw the Summer Winds and bought one. I thought it was kind of awesome. I am thinking of crossing it with some of my rubiginosa hybrids. Theyre also selling Hawkeye Belle right now, which I think it great. Who would want a virused, grafted Peace when one could get an own-root Hawkeye Belle for the same price? I hope more possibilities open up at the big box stores cause it really is a nice change in tune.