Will Alderman

General Discussion
1

I know Will Alderman is a highly recommended rugosa. (Betsty VdH and Henry K; this forum, personal correspondance, HMF)

Mine is too small yet to do much blooming, and it was almost drowned by some Heliopsis this year. I’m curious if anyone has grown out OP populations of Will Alderman seed and whether it exhibits signs of self-sterility as do many other rugosas.

I’m also curious about Wasagaming, a once blooming Skinner hybrid rugosa. I used to have one (before I started breeding), and it was indeed a huge and lovely plant. However, I see on an old forum post that Henry Kuska mentions he had little luck breeding with it and he recommended Will Alderman as a superior alternative.

Any observations about breeding with these two would be welcomed.

One thing I like about Will Alderman is that it has relatively few thorns for a rugosa. I think I will propagate it so I can get about 5 plants lined out and grow out large populations of open pollinated seed to work towards thornlessness or any other cool characteristics that pop up.

2

Joe
I looked through some old notes and couldn’t find mention of anyone growing out op Will Alderman. Robert Erskine used both Will Alderman and George Will in his breeding work. My dad grew several op George Will. He named some of the seedlings. I collected a few of them from the old homestead about 5 years ago. They are semi-double and fragrant. Wasagaming, George Will and Will Alderman appear to be related. Perhaps it is the woodsii influence. My George Will has attracted rust. So far neither Wasagaming or Will Alderman have. Good luck with your experiments.