Raspberry Kiss (Eyes on Me)

Christopher Warner appears to have done it again! He seems to be able to crank out healthy, beautiful roses at will. I'd lusted for Eyes on Me on line for the longest time. Discovering Certified Roses in Texas imported and has begun distributing it to Lowe's stores led me to my only retail rose hunt of the year. I purchased a pulp potted Raspberry Kiss (Certified's American name for Eyes on Me) from my local Lowe's for a whopping $9.99. A lusty, husky, healthy, apparently budded, new British hybrid Hulthemia in a pot for $10. What could be better?

I expected it to have nice foliage, being bred from Len Scrivens' seedling, SCRIVbell. Not much is known about the rose, except it has also been used to create such noteworthy, healthy, beautiful roses as Blue for You and Bull's Eye. Per the Royal National Rose Society's article in 2013, it appears from the roses used to create Eyes for You, it is also related. 

The plant appears to be created from plastic holly. It's throwing flower buds at nearly every twig tip, and they're opening! Take a look at these leaves. They look good enough to eat! 

I didn't allow the first bud to open by itself as I had pollen I simply HAD to use on something and this was the only rose even close to ready. But, number two opened today and WOW!

Compared to the larger flowered types such as Jim Sproul's Eyeconic Lemonade and Eyeconic Pink Lemonade, these are on the small size.

The "blotch" is intense. I noticed it has an unusual texture where the petals attach to the top of the ovary which gives an interesting "cross" effect to the open flower. You can see it much more easily in the petals after I removed them from the bloom.

This is something I've not noticed in any other Hulthemia hybrid, much less any other rose. It is an interesting facet to the flower. 

Stamen color can vary greatly in roses generally, in Hulthemia hybrids, they can be strikingly dramatic. Raspberry Kiss's stamen are particularly beautiful. I've not observed any others which graduate from nearly yellow, through nearly red to an almost blackish-brown. They are gorgeous! 

I'm eager to see how this performs as the season progresses, but can already see it may be one of the better $10 garden purchases of the past several seasons. Stay tuned! 

A fun result from 2011

I've been "obsessed" with R. Fedtschenkoana for quite a few years. In 2011, I crossed my mossy Dottie Louise - Fedtschenkoana seedling with pollen from Midnight Blue. It has grown quite well and has finally set three buds. This morning, one of them opened. It isn't as deeply saturated a color as I had hoped, but the scent is heavier, sweeter, spicier than the DLFED 3 parent. The "linseed oil" scent from Fedtschenkoana is definitely there and persists long after the heavy, spicy, sweet elements evaporate. 

It retains the gorgeous silvery-turquoise blue foliage along with the linseed scent. This seedling is a bit more vigorous than the DLFED 3 seedling. The prickles are very similar to the seed parent's. I had hoped for quite a bit more color saturation, and fewer prickles. It is interesting it has lost the "mossing" on the peduncles and sepals. 

The prickles begin as very dense, hard bristles and prickles at the cane bases. They thin as you go up the canes and eventually become very long, gently hooked, very sharp weapons toward the upper ends. The very ends of the canes are virtually prickle free. 

Some fun results from the 2012 seeds (germinated in 2013)

It frequently takes a season or two (or more) for seedlings to begin showing their potential. These are all plants which were bred in 2012 and germinated over winter 2012 - 2013. They've been individually potted for only about 90 days. Some of them are beginning to show some rather startling vigor. 

One of the more satisfying crosses has been Pretty Lady X Lynnie. Most seedlings have quite clean, attractive foliage. Some are very low prickle count while a few have a rather high density of them. And, most are showing quite good vigor. Colors have ranged from a medium, almost lilac-pink, through the expected pink range to a light-medium red. Forms have ranged from high-centered HT; semi-double, ruffled, open to an almost quartered. A few have rather exaggerated, lacy, decorative sepals, something I am increasingly desiring in crosses. Surprisingly, there is also a good deal of scent. 

Pretty Lady X Maytime. I hope it inherits Maytime's legendary mildew resistance. 

April Mooncrest has proven to be a good pollen and seed parent. It is passing on decent health, vigor, scent, foliage and even some of its crested sepals. 

Some rather interesting foliage colors have also shown up in this seedling batch. April Mooncrest when crossed with Pookah provided pretty summer foliage, but when things turned cool...WOW! Now temps are warming, the red tints are remaining, though slowly returning to more green.

Rosy Purple X Lynnie provided this result.

Art Nouveau has really proven to be quite a breeder! It is fertile as both seed and pollen and it germinates extremely easily. Its foliage is healthy here and so are all of its offspring so far. 

 Art Nouveau X Blue for You

 Art Nouveau X Gina's Rose

Eyes for You didn't produce many seedlings, but this one from Eyes for You X Lynnie is quite attractive.

Yellow Sally is my seedling raised from Sally Holmes. I raised an incredibly vigorous seedling from this using pollen from Secret Garden, a found Musk rose. This one is gorgeous and more than a bit scary! 

Finally, there are also some rather interesting results from my 1-72-1Hugonis seedling. Using it with a very healthy, dark red, single rose related to his Thrive!, Home Run and Knock Out, shared with my by Jim Sproul, some quite nice foliage has resulted. 

Pink Petticoat X 1-72-1Hugonis provided two seedlings. One is more dwarf and diminutive. 

The other is extremely vigorous with quite dense, beautiful foliage. 

1-72-1Hugonis X First Impression

And, one of the most "out there" crosses to have germinated from this line yet, 0-47-19DLFED X 1-72-1Hugonis. This represents the combination of Floradora, R. Wichurana, R. Fedtschenkoana, R. Hugonis and 1-72-1. It contains three species, a mid century German floribunda, and two of Ralph Moore's most useful breeding roses. There is no way to second guess what might result from this cross. 

Stay tuned as there are many more results developing from the 2012 breeding season!