“The petals of Rosa rugosa are generally pink and purple, never yellow. Although new varieties of R. rugosa have been bred, no yellow variety has ever been obtained. Therefore, the use of roses in garden settings has been restricted. Three R. rugosa hybrid cultivars (R. rugosa ‘Miaoyu’, ‘Rudiepianpian’ and ‘Jiaomeisanbian’) were bred in our laboratory using wild R. rugosa ‘Hunchun’ as the female parent and Rosa xanthina as the male parent.”
See:
the offspring of Fru Dagmar Hastrup X Elara
Topaz Jewel: Golden Angel X Belle Poitevine; yellow. 'Topaz Jewel' Rose
Agnes: Rugosa X Persian Yellow; 'Agnes' Rose
Dr. Eckener: Golden Emblem X Rugosa hybrid; 'Dr. Eckener' Rose
I posted this not because I was not aware of existing yellow rugosa hybrids; but so that hybridizers would be aware of this possible route for future yellow rugose hybrids.
Tom Silvers made the cross rugosa x xanthina, but he writes that the hybrid has low fertility:
We probably should also add Dr. E.M. Mills as it also has Rugosa combined with yellow and expresses much yellow through its life. 'Dr. E. M. Mills' Rose
Its possibly a case of results will vary. I mean most rugosa x china are sterile to low fertility but a few are fertile. Dr Svedja did a number of crosses around that and exceptions appearred.
http://bulbnrose.x10.mx/Roses/breeding/SvejdaRugChin1974.html
Sure super low percentage but still an achievable possibility with time and space.
I did considerable work with Dr. Svedja’ crosses. I liked what I got and I tried to encourage others to do also, but I do not think that anyone else did.
I have a seedling from many years back of ‘Pristine Pavement’ x R. primula. Strangely it seldom flowers even though it is hardy. The foliage is beautiful and healthy. It didn’t seem fertile when I looked at its pollen. It didn’t set hips either. I have to suddenly move/destroy a rose garden at a friends house who is selling… Last week I went through taking cuttings of things I don’t want to lose. I was on the fence with this one because it wasn’t fertile and doesn’t bloom too often, but its beautiful foliage and health convinced me to try a few cuttings.
I would love to try to do more hardy yellow diploid breeding. I’m struggling a bit with the sources of yellow to use… I should try to get another ‘Golden Angel’ and try working with it more again. I have some peach diploid hybrids with polyanthas. Unfortunately, they aren’t too fertile. I would love to try again using it and to use it with rugosas too.
David it may become fertile if it is grown in higher zone rating of 8 or 9 . see if anyone in these zones would like to take it on.
warren
Hi David, I will see if there is anything I can cut from Golden Angel to send with the 1-72-1 cuttings I will collect from a friend’s large plant in Santa Barbara when we visit her after July 7. Burling may have rooted Golden Angels. She’s worth a shot.
Her early dipoid work has inspired me some. I likely wouldn’t be looking at diploids like i currently do without reading some of the papers and results of her work. Given many of her roses arent here though there’s a bit of reinventing the wheel for me, a lot of diverse schneezwerg babies in my future looking for the tiny percentage of fertile offspring
That’s a great idea Warren! Hopefully the cuttings root well and there’ll be a number to share. Thank you Kim!! I’ll reach out to Burling too. It’ll be great to have a number of plants of ‘Golden Angel’ to cross a lot of diploid males onto.
I think I’ve figured out where to come for pollen, since I only have one plant of Topaz Jewel.
I forgot to mention that the entire parking lot behind the Esquimalt Public Library was planted with ‘Topaz Jewel’ back when I lived there in the early 2000’s, and that’s where it captivated me with its drifting scent and soft colour.
I had to have it.
