This is a sucker comming from the base of Sequoia Gold. This shoot has no leaves on it just buds. This plant never went into dormancy this winter. It tried to bloom in January or maybe it was Feburary. I do know at the time there was a little snow on the ground. And it was not very successful at blooming then. Half the plant was killed off. What I am thinking happened is that the leaves were damaged during the winter at some point and it came up out of the ground damaged. If you look farther down the stem you can see a leaf scar or at least I think it is. But I still find it cool.
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Here is a picture of the bed. This plant is one of the two plants at the bottom of the picture. It used to be all the way to the house but now is totally lopsided.
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This last picture is just a R. glauca hybrid maybe. It might be a self or a cross with Little White Lies but I am not sure yet. It got small foliage compared to the parent. This plant is three years old maybe four. It flowered for the first time in the spring. It is the height of a minature right now. The flowers were pink with a really large white eye. It has open pollinated hips on it that I will grow out.
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That’s pretty Adam! My first Stanwell Perpetual continually was eaten off at ground level by rabbits. I thought I’d lost it until ONE SP bloom appeared right on the horse manure mulch. Roses can be tremendously difficult to kill!
Now that is an amazing thing!
That foliage in the last photo is just beautiful. Is it just as gorgeous in person?
I know what you mean. I would grow a plant which looks like that, even if it didn’t flower. In fact, I DO grow a few which have that appeal and refuse to flower!
You have the full gamut of what they’ll do. One that wants to bud, leaves or no and one that doesn’t want to bud much but sure has beautiful leaves!
Thank you. I am very fond of this seedling and its sister which I kept from the R. glauca crosses.
On the last picture the photo is pretty close. The plant is definetly a bit greener than what is shown. Its sister seedling which has a more spreading form and the same height is propably the color that this photo shows but it also gets much more sun. The stems are typically dark purple starting out loosing the purple shading as they mature. Both plants get afternoon shade but otherwise are in full sun. I find that the color in R. glauca leaves are affected by sunlight greatly. Leaves on both plants are the size of a typical modern minature. The Hot Tamale in the background where the hose hooks into the house is taller than both plants. But these plants are spreading outward steadyly. I doubt either one will grow very tall. The really purple stem shown in the picture has reached the height of the tallest stem and has stopped growing. I expect the buds on the stem will now break as has been so far typical for both these seedlings. The stems have mostly start prickles but do have a few hooked thorns. The one is much more sparsely thorned then the other one but neither is horribale to work around unlike its parent.
Now the biggest question is if they are R. glauca hybrids or if they are just a selected form. I will be happy either way at this point but happier if they turn out to be hybrids. I hoped that flowering would answer the question but that did not happen. It sister seedling has not flowered yet but it may still yet flower this year. So I have a few crosses with some miniatures on part of this rose and then open polinated seed on the rest of it. Interestily all the hips with miniature pollen have set and seem like they will not fall off. Other plants pollinated after the same time have dropped their hips or you can tell the hips are about to drop. The hips from the actual crosses are smaller than the open pollinated crosses. I will see what come up from this seed.
Now I say hybrid or selected forms because the way I weeded out the seedlings could very well result in the weirdest natural variation showing up. The year I did this cross I pollined hundreds of R. glauca flowers. Over half the crosses did not take at all. I planted the resulting seed which was still alot of seedlings. I weeded out plants that looked like pure R. glauca and furthered weeded out plants that grew up into more glauca chareristics. These two have made it this far for their horizontal growth and smaller foliage. The foliage is not as colorful as the parent plant but when placed side by side by a typical rose it definatly stands out. You can see a yellowing stem of a dafodil at its base to compare foliage color. Also for a size comparison their is a johny jump up behind it about 2 feet away or less.
I will see if I bothered to take a picture of the flower. Which was unipressive besides it extremely small size. I am hopeing I can get this foliage and plant form into the modern miniatures. A very interesting note is that R. glauca seedlings seem to have virtually no powdery mildew.
Appartently I did not think the flowers were impressive enough to take a picture. But they were typical R. glauca flowers. A little smaller than a dime. They had a a bigger white eye than the parent plant. I have been fearful that these too plants will suddenly decide to grow into the typical glauca a 4 foot high or so plant but more and more I think the smaller bush form will stay. These seedling have lost some of the typical foliage color. But as I said above they may be selected forms. Hopefully I will see a segregation of traits in the second generation of seedlings that will prove they are hybrids.
