I do not know if Silver Moon is fertile. But I like its parentage and it may be worth a shot.
Great, Jeff, I’m glad! I would think out of everything, Silver Moon would be the most easily successful. I would be surprised if you don’t eventually “discover” one in your neck of the woods, it’s such a survivor. A very efficient, thrifty plant. I’ve known someone who used to reach for it for root stock for things he wanted to be sure he saved. The one time I had Hulthemia itself, it was from him, grafted on Silver Moon. The Hulthemia didn’t live very long, but the Silver Moon did! This one came from Greenmantle many years ago and per their list at the time, was imported from Britain.
From your list, I’ve grown:
Dusky Maiden - very nicely fragrant and enjoyable as the museum piece it is. One of LeGrice’s early single floribundas and the source to blame for how really bad Austin reds are in many places. Too much mildew and black spot for modern eyes.
Lilac Dawn - as I collected everything “blue” available, this had to grow in Newhall. Being too closely related to Lavender Pinocchio, the bush was stronger, but still too wispy and prone to black spot. I could detect a hint of lilac scent when everything was perfect and if I squinted hard enough. I enjoyed it but would never add it to anything I was breeding these days. It’s a beautiful museum piece, particularly for those on the blue quest, not that it will help produce them, but it represents where they were half a century ago.
Pinocchio - A very good rose, particularly in its time. Ralph claimed there was “still a lot to mine” from it. It did express the “mossing factor” and was used very well to create Pinstripe, what Ralph felt was his best striped mini. I like using Pride of Oakland better because it combines Pinocchio with China Doll.
Little White Pet - an excellent poly which can get REALLY large in these parts. I like the multiflora type scent and it’s very healthy here. I have frequently sought pollen from it (never found any) and I’ve never discovered a single hip on the plant. One best dead headed with a strong hose stream because it LOVES ripping your flesh and feasting on the pooling blood beneath it. Otherwise, a very pretty rose. It grows up and through a huge Yves Piaget at a client’s house where it looks like Baby’s Breath in a six foot bouquet of Yves.
Marie Pavie - shade tolerant, continuous flowering, fragrant and very healthy…what’s not to like? I play with this one as I think it contains nice things to strive for. This is the only one from your list which actually lives at my house now.
Yvonne Rabier - oddly chlorotic in the old garden, which I wouldn’t have expected and the papery flowers HATED the overhead watering which was required there. I did detect scent and I did try to get it to contribute making seedlings, with no success. Though “very disease resistant”, it did suffer mildew in Newhall. It may, or may not, perform similarly for you where you are now. I liked it, but don’t have it now.
From their poly list, these two seem decent for breeding:
Borderer
Katherina Zeimet
Brittania is a rare color for a poly, but there are superior versions of this polyantha color out now. Lullaby is great, but it is pretty much infertile.
From their floribunda list, the following may be interesting:
Chanelle ( I think Pretty Lady is superior, but this is a good oldie)
Inner Wheel (the healthiest handpainted Ive ever encountered)
Yellow Cushion
Erna Grootendorst: I have no clue about this rose, but it looks to be unique. Im assuming its triploid, however.
HMusk list:
Art Deco: I adore this “HMusk,” even if it is really a red hybrid multiflora shrub.
Hybrid Teas:
Tampico: One of the parents of KO, and an uncommon source of pelargonidin. I dont think it is remotely perfect, but it may provide interesting things.
Several Brownell HTs. Im not going to list them all.
A few other rare HTs, but I gotta go lol…
Slightly off the main topic (sorry), but have any of you tried ‘Paul Délépine’? I picked it up this season as I liked the look of it.
It’s got quite attractive red stems, few thorns, nice glossy leaves, and it’s breeding makes it about 50% wichurana. I figured that was enough to warrant giving it a try.
I picked up a Paul Delepine from EuroDesert when Cliff was closing. Unfortunately, the entire run of that poly at the end turned out to be root stock. A friend who grows the right one says it’s bullet proof for him garden which is quite a bit cooler and with much greater coastal influence than mine. I haven’t gotten cuttings from him as I’m tapped out for room!
I grew Inner Wheel for many years. My cuttings came from a Peter Schneider import. He stated it was the only painted rose which didn’t black spot in Ohio. It didn’t black spot here, either and I liked the plant, how heavily/continuously it flowered, its fertility both ways and the sepals. I raised a few decent seedlings from it, too. I think you would enjoy this one. I don’t grow it now simply due to room.
If you desire a dark red poly, Anda is tremendously better with significantly less mildew, which Britannia is addicted to. I still grow Anda, BTW.
I think I may be the only person in the rose world who is seeing Vintage Gardens go and lamenting. Yes, they have/had a very fine collection, but every plant I ever bought from them, without fail and including specially ordered cuttings, has arrived either dead, covered in blackspot, covered in slugs, chlorotic or all of the above. One was even shipped in a box with no packing material and was out of its pot when it arrived.
How awful, Fara! I’ve never had any of those issues with material from them, but things DO happen. I hope you let them know so they could fix their foul-ups. Everyone messes up, it’s how they fix it that matters most.
“Everyone messes up, it’s how they fix it that matters most.”
Truer words never spoken, Kim!
Fara, sorry to hear of your bad luck. The two shipments I got from VG were the best packed and grown plants I’ve gotten anywhere. Though I have to admit that Soliel d"Or did have B.S. within 48 hr of arrival. I managed to keep it a year and a half but don’t have to patience to spray three times a week.
@Jeff: Kim’s classification of these as “museum pieces” is right on the money (and while we’re at it, lets just take a moment to reflect on the very nature of Vintage Gardens and its collection; it is pretty much an entirely “museum pieces” archive). Of the cultivars you list, only one is a variety I would even consider using in breeding, and that’s ‘Marie Pavie’, because it is such an indestructible shrub here in our area, fragrant, generous with bloom, and mannerly too. However, it will give you precious little pollen, and the results will be almost uniformly dreadful: mildew, mildew, and more mildew. Try as I might, I never got a nice seedling for all my efforts.
The rest of that list? Not for breeding, nooooo.
Kim,
Bullet proof sounds good. Perhaps ‘Paul Délépine’ was one of my better impulse buys if you’re happy to use those words to describe it.
Thanks for the reply.
Paul: Thanks for the input. I sort of look at this hobby like many others. You read and take input from the experienced and then aquire what you can and what’s available at the time and run with that for a while. My four kids were in 4H and raised show rabbits. It took a few years to aquire and breed them to finally get a couple of grand champions, but it was worth the effort. Anybody else ever pay $400 for one rabbit?
I’m always on the hunt for roses that are mentioned in this blog, but most of the time I just see they same old stuff at nurseries. For a variety of reason I have not been able to get to Burling’s in Central California, but that is quickly becoming a priority. I’m guessing that she will have a much better selection of breeders. I did get her availability list last fall and she has a lot of interesting plants so maybe she will have my $400 rabbit. 
.
Dang! I’d PAY $400 for someone to slaughter them on my hill! Preferably as painfully as humanly possible!
I finally put in my last order to Vintage Gardens. It’s kind of sad since about 50+% of the roses I have ever grown probably came from there. I am going to miss them. I decided to get the few Brownell roses they had that I still do not grow and plus a few others I wanted to posibly breed with. I also got one I have wanted to grow just for fun. Here’s what I ordered (I hope they are still in stock):
Apricot Glow
Illusion
Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James
Lichtkonigin Lucia
Oldtimer (my just for fun rose)
Proud Land
Scarlet Sensation
Coral Creeper