Following on from an interesting poll I recently saw on The Rose Society UK facebook page, where do you keep your breeding plants? I was always under the impression it was important to keep at least the seed parents under cover and that crosses were significantly less likely to take if done in the garden, and yet a significant amount of people seem to manage it year after year!
I have very little experience, however I use organza bags over the newly pollinated flower to protect it from the rain.
Interesting! This is my first season keeping seed parents in a greenhouse and I’ve had quite a bit of dieback because of too much humidity, I’m wondering if I may be better off outside!
The correct answer depends upon climate; when you need them to flower; how safely you need to maintain them after pollinations, etc. I am fortunate to live where everything can safely be accomplished outdoors. Perhaps I might be able to make good use of a green house to encourage some of the parents to flower earlier as this beach environment doesn’t received any real “heat” until late in summer, so many types just won’t flower very early. The upsides are it’s very comfortable to live with and once-flowering types continue flowering for a long period of spring through late summer. If I had early or late frosts; heavy rains or other weather events to contend with, cover would likely help. Likewise, with flower covers after pollinating, I don’t as I’ve never seen a need. Usually, the only “insects” which tend to visit emasculated blooms are slugs and they’d get into them even with covers and our sun intensity would likely destroy them if they were covered.
Thanks for the very informative reply! I’m in the UK myself so the climate is usually very wet and cold for the most part, hence I did notice mine came into flower much earlier in the greenhouse. However because I’ve struggled to keep a handle on the humidity I’ve had a lot of dieback on the ones in there. Makes me wonder if any benefits are outweighed vs keeping them in pots in the garden 