I have worked with R. Minutifolia for some years now and am finally seeing some success. Previously, the few seedlings to germinate were terribly diseased and very weak. Now, using fertile triploid roses, there are some healthy, vigorous seedlings showing some promise. I'm intrigued with the triploid crosses because they express a very wide range of each of the parents' traits and have succeeded where the diploid and tetraploid crosses didn't.
There are four seedlings from its pollen now listed on Help Me Find-Roses. I planted self seeds of one this April, just two months ago, and already have flowering seedlings from those seeds! The first rose which produced successful crosses with Minutifolia is Jim Sproul's L56-1,
a brilliant, healthy, fertile single red mini he bred from his healthy Thrive!. The chromosomes haven't been counted yet, but L56-1 certainly breeds like a triploid. Here are foliage samples from L56-1, Minutifolia (Otay Mesa version from the Otay Mesa in San Diego, CA), L56-1 X Minutifolia and a self seedling of the L56-1 X Minutifolia. I didn't record which of the original seedlings these seeds formed on.
Top left, L56-1; top center, Minutifolia; top right self seedling of L56-1 X Minutifolia; lower right, L56- X Minutifolia.
Stipules of the above. The L56-1 X Minutifolia foliage is in the center.
These are the self seedlings from which the sample above was taken. I'm amazed the seeds were only planted back in April, 2016. Today is May 30, 2016!
The second new Minutifolia seedling of 2016 is Lynnie X Minutifolia. Here are foliage samples from Lynnie, Minutifolia and Lynnie X Minutifolia.
Minutifolia and the Lynnie X Minutifolia seedling have very serrated foliage.
Lynnie's foliage is rather smooth edged.
The seedling is extremely well branched, right at ground level, something Lynnie seedlings generally don't produce. It appears to be without prickles, which is very surprising.
The sepals are quite interesting. Traditionally. Lynnie seedling sepals are very strap-like and not very lacy. These show more of the Minutifolia "branching".
This is the most spreading of the L56-1 X Minutifolia seedlings. It flowers repeatedly.
I'm eager to see what results from these and from crossing Minutifolia and Pure Bea, the white Minutifolia with larger foliage and flowers, on the L56-1 Minutifolia seedlings. There are already hips forming on one of them from those pollens. Exciting!
Some interesting things to come from them I believe Kim.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! They seem to be happy to be alive, unlike any other minutifolia seedling.
ReplyDeleteThat's great Kim! 2 months from germination to flowering this is faster than some annuals I've planted :-) I'm glad these survived the downey mildew.
ReplyDeleteYour link in the first paragraph in the sentence: "Minutifolia is Jim Sproul's L56-1", goes to your L56Minut #1, instead of Jim Sproul's. I thought you might want to know.
Thank you! Yes, these were quite surprising in their urgency to germinate. I guess that should make sense. Minutifolia would have to germinate quickly to make use of the annual rains. Thank you, Bob. Sorry I missed that link mess up. It's fixed now.
ReplyDeleteYour persistence with Minutifolia has really paid off.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see your persistence with minutifolia has paid off. Hope to see something commercially available down the road.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stephen. We'll see if there eventually is anything "commercial" or not. Who knows what the eventual disease resistance might be?
ReplyDeleteYou always come up with the most interesting crosses, Kim! These are looking great. I'm wondering what your theory is behind doing self crosses? Are you expecting/hoping to reinforce the unique characteristics of the original plant while retaining vigor and bloom from the hybrid you're doing the self cross on? Just wondering...Regards, ~sally
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sally! Selfing can be a bad idea if the parents are too closely related. Since these are completely unrelated, selfing them shouldn't produce weak, diseased plants. The triploid X diploid crosses can result in plants with half and half of their parents' genes or a third and two thirds, if the combination turns out to be another triploid. Selfing them just might bring more of the species traits forward while (hopefully) fixing some of the modern ones, such as health and repeat bloom. Now, if the cross were something like HT X HT, I would never raise any self seedlings from it as most are likely related somewhere in their back grounds, but modern mini x an unused species? Oh, yes! So, yes ma'am, what you suggested! Thanks! Kim
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kim. I am always learning something new from you! Best regards, ~sally
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sally! That's the fun, I learn from everyone else, too!
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