Has anyone here done much work with Teas ? and if so how were the results even ongoing if they are. The other part to this question is, of the Teasm which in your mind has the “strongest” stem ?
In case it’s of interest, Ralph made a few Tea hybrids. Notice, they were always used as pollen parent.
Dave these are grown on the home front.
[attachment 593 SafXGB2.jpg] Safrano x Gold Bunny
[attachment 594 4E18F.jpg] Whiz Kid x Lorraine Lee
[attachment 595 HeleneDeTroie3.jpg] Safrano X Peace
What goals (if any) have you got for using Teas, David M?
The last one reminds me of Royal Highness. Ive been using its improvement, Bride’s Dream.
I don’t know how Bride’s Dream does down there, but here it is enormous! I’ve actually seen English roses from Hortico years ago, budded on it. Imagine fifteen gallon plants of Bride’s Dream, six feet and more tall with bud unions the size of an average size man’s knee in two years!
Sounds Lovely!
You might think so, but it was just too coarse. Pink Favorite was often a mountain of a plant, too, but it had grace to it. BD didn’t and often expressed fasciation.
Kim, did Ralph ever mention why he preferred to use teas as pollen parent? I’d guess he had his favourite seed parents that he used for most things or maybe teas tending to have large seeds took longer to sprout.
I was being politely sarcastic-a six ft tall 15 gal with bud unions that looked like a man’s knees? That painted a picture I didn’t want to imagine! And I’ll bet it wasn’t really an exaggeration either!
In relation to your question George,
“What goals (if any) have you got for using Teas, David M?”
There are some wonderul Tea’s out there, but most not all hang thier head, can I assume it is thier origin ?, this the part I am not fond of, so a stiffer stem, hopefully.
Of the photo’s Warren posted I prefer the first and third, mainly the first “Safrano x Gold Bunny”, if it has a stiff neck.
I actually like to see the flower looking at me, not having to ly on the ground to see it.
Charles C; I use Teas mainly as seed parents ,in an attempt to obtain as much hybrid vigour, by increasing the amount of genetic material going into the embryo. The only issue I have using Teas as seed parents is, the seed can be quite difficult to germinate.
I actually like to see the flower looking at me, not having to ly on the ground to see it.
Ha ha ha… I don’t blame you!
Thanks Warren. Do you do anything different with teas to help germination.
Memorial Day if you are in need of strong stems.
Ralph used Tea pollen because his experience in Visalia was Teas weren’t reliable seed setters and what he got didn’t reliably germinate. What he used as seed parents were known good setters and germinators.
I also use Teas as pollen because the seeds are, in general, large and difficult to germinate. I have had tea seed germinate in a single season but often, if I leave them in the pot somewhere for several seasons I get better, sporadic, germination over time. So far I’ve used Tea pollen on ‘Abraham Darby’ which resulted in two keepers ( this that I love Plant Search and this one that is a sister to the one listed previously Plant Search ), and Trier resulting in seedlings like this Plant Search . I am tending not to use Teas at all right now because they don’t do well for me down here and despite all their devotees I am beginning to think they fell out of favour for a reason and it may not be very productive to go back to them too much. I’m mainly using them with hybrid musks to try for more heat tolerant hybrid musk-style plants… because I love the fountain-like habit of HM. I have about twenty seedlings in the test beds at the moment between ‘Trier’ and ‘Marie Van Houte’ and ‘Trier’ and ‘Monsieur Tillier’. They have all been white or very washed out pinks. Some are very strong but a lot are very prone to mildew. I have also introduced Tea ‘blood’ to a seedling of mine called ‘Rugosity’ ( 'Rugosity' Rose ) because I’m curious to see what Tea x foliolosa x rugosa can turn up and am chasing a ‘Schneezwerg’ type of plant… maybe… I also have hips now between ‘Madame Lambard’ and ‘Rouletii’ to try for mini teas. I don’t know how/if this will work and is one of those crosses I’m looking back on now and wondering why I did it. I’m trying to stick with diploid x diploid though the ‘Abe Darby’ x ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’ seedlings (prob. triploid) are looking really good and I might have to repeat this approach with all the teas I have here.
EDIT: I’ve also just harvested ‘Temple Bells’ x ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’… so wich x tea