I have never had so much trouble with my roses setting hips as I have had this year. Doesn’t matter what I have crossed so far this year - dead!
Maybe my new crop of roses are just to fragile so far. Does anybody have any knowledge as to why hips die off - even on fertile healthy plants?
What are the specific varietals you are using as seed parent roses in your garden?
Steve, it’s hard to say. Some roses are easy mothers and some are not. And roses that are in their first year are much more likely to drop hips or not to set hips (I’m not sure which is happening there) because they’re growing too rapidly. I don’t think you need to fear that you won’t get seeds, though. Where you live you’ll be able to pollinate up to probably the end of September and still get seeds to mature. Some varieties set hips better in the fall anyway–or in a greenhouse. Have you searched the forum for others’ thoughts on this subject? If you have The Next Step, you might want to see what is said there.
Peter
Steve,
There are probably many reasons, and you actually may have seen a few of them. One reason can be maturity. Some roses are ready to produce seed at 5-6 months old, while others may not produce until 3 yrs old. And then there is the matter of how well established the roots are. Seeds take nutrients to produce, and if the roots are not well established, or if the plant cannot spare extra water, etc., to grow the seeds, then they may abort the mission. Sometimes a disease, specifically botrytis will attack and kill the hip, and then the plant will drop the hips, or they turn brown when about half grown, with no viable seed. A few plants do produce hips better in either the spring or the fall, as well as the pollen fertility may vary according to the weather and affect the hip set. Weather is a biggie: to cold, to wet, or to hot, and various plants are not happy to set seeds, which may be dependent upon the plants genetic origins. Some plants that are under attack may not produce seed, but the opposite may also be true. Plants sensing their ultimate demise due to environmental threats sometimes set seed as a means of insuring the species survival. If you have roses that have produced hips bearing seed in prior yrs., it is probably nothing in particular that you are doing. If you have always used only OP hips, I would sit down and review several of the great step by step guides on line. The students at Texas A&M produced a guide which Nat Anderson had a hand in,and is a great place to start.
Steve One year I did a stack of pollination in our mid summer, the temp went up to 40c (104F) and I lost the lot, they just dropped off.
Thank you all! Impatient me tends to believe it’s the heat (mid-upper 90’s) and a new crop that may be causing the lack of hips. I will keep trying.
Hi Steve!
There are two big issues that we deal with in our breeding program:
Temperature. We usually get so hot so fast that we can’t pollinate past April. (And, it’s even ‘ify’ in April.) Temperature is a funny thing. If you get hot during the day, but it’s still cool at night…then you’ll probably be okay. However, if you have the hot day/hot night combination…then you won’t get very good set.
Incompatibility. You may think you have a great female or male parent… you may have even had success with it in the past… but this time you just picked a few that aren’t compatible with each other.
There are other reasons. Several were mentioned by others, but I’m sure there are a lot more out there. Just keep good notes and it will save you a lot of heart ache in the future!
I think Jackie may be referring to the ‘Rose Breeding Lesson’ that’s on our website: TAMU Rose Breeding and Genetics. Click on the ‘Basic Lessons in Rose Breeding’ and you’ll see a reference to note taking in Lesson 3 ‘Pollination’.
Apart from incompatibility, the main reason hips die off here is [shocking bad word] rose weevils who pierce the peduncle under the hip and cause the hip to die. Often they pierce the hip itself, generally multiple times, and cause almost as much damage that way. Last year was particularly bad. This year I want to spray, but I don’t want to hurt the ladybugs, so I’m vacillating.
Hmmm… Today for the first time I noticed something has drilled a hole in one out of six big fat green hips I have been sooooo waiting to change color for many months now (Gardeners Glory X St Patrick). Maybe I have those weevil critters too ! …never seen one of 'em tho…I’ll be keeping a closer watch for some such things, come next season.