Sometimes, a seedling just doesn't seem to measure up to the others raised in a year, but something about it just 'speaks to you', so you allow it to hang around and show what it's made of. This is one of those.
I'd made the cross back in 2010, wondering what would result from putting pollen from the incredibly healthy China, Purpurea, on Ralph Moore's Torch of Liberty. This mini was one of my favorite work horse breeders in the old arid garden, but has fallen by the wayside here on the more humid hill due to foliage issues. It's just SO fertile and it saturates colors so wonderfully. Purpurea's pollen proved agreeable with it, and seeds resulted. They were sewn November 2010 and germinated early spring 2011.
The new foliage has always been very mahogany-russet, with an almost lacquered finish, but it didn't seem to want to grow. I don't remember seeing a flower on it that first year. If I did, it didn't impress me. It was potted in a gallon can and permitted to languish in partial sun, receiving water when I thought about it.
The recent rains seem to have suited it just fine. New growth is popping out in the same highly polished, mahogany-russet, lacquered finish as I remembered, only better and there are fat, promising flower buds on the plant! As exciting as the shiny, beautiful foliage is the plant's complete freedom from prickles! There is also an herbal scent to the sepals when rubbed.
There are two or three leaves which show a very little bit of rust, but I'm not holding that against this seedling. It has had nothing but the minimum of water since last summer. It has had very little direct sun as those around it have kept it fairly well shaded. Many of the surrounding seedlings are demonstrating high levels of mildew and black spot with a few suffering rather severe rust infections (I don't spray...at all), yet this one is remaining surprisingly free from any foliage issues. It shouldn't be surprising the other seedlings are having foliage issues. I make many "what if" crosses with may "conflicting" foliage types so issues are to be expected. None of the "safe" crosses here!
It impressed me that it has earned its place and a better chance, so it has been rescued from its gallon can of depleted soil and is now resting in a two gallon can of premium potting soil. Heck it might even get fertilized! I'll add photos of the flowers as they open. I think this might be one to watch!
It's been two weeks since receiving and wrapping the cuttings of Schmidt's Smooth Yellow, the thornless, yellow poly Jackie Schmidt rescued from an old cottage in her coastal California town.
I was excited to find they had callused and actually begun to form roots on one cutting! These have been potted deeply in new soil and placed with the other cuttings out front where they will receive part day, morning sun. Hopefully, getting this remarkable rose growing in more gardens will not only insure its survival, but assist in determining what its original name might be. Yes, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
I've had several people ask recently how soon a new seedling can bloom. It all depends...
I have a climbing seedling from Ralph Moore's climbing yellow mini breeder, 1-72-1 crossed with the lovely dark purple shrub, Midnight Blue. It's a very nice plant: completely thornless, lovely foliage and very disease resistant. It is going into its third year since germination and it has yet to flower...once.
Then, you have this kind of thing. This is planted in a four inch pot, to give you a point of reference so you can estimate the size.
This little rose germinated February of 2011, making it about six months old. The seed parent is the russet mini, Suntan Beauty. The "father", or pollen parent, is my thornless shrub, Indian Love Call. My hope was to create a dwarf, repeat blooming, thornless, healthy shrub rose. This one should be repeat flowering by the fact that it has flowered at six months old. Once flowering roses shouldn't flower for another year, or two, from seed.
I love the sepals on the rose and the bud is quite attractive. I know it will be double and it's a very good bet that it will be pink! Not a favorite of mine, but if it's healthy, hopefully prickle free with a nice plant habit and frequently in flower, how can I reject it?
So, as you see, new baby roses CAN flower fairly early in their lives. Anyone want a thornless, healthy climbing rose that won't flower?
Quite a few years ago, I purchased a rose from Sequoia Nursery they called "Basye's Thornless Wichurana". It grew..and GREW....AND GREW! As with any Wichurana, it roots at every leaf node, creating a new plant each time until it colonizes all available space. Due to lack of room, I removed it and quickly wished I hadn't. I intend to eventually begin working with it to determine if the thornless character can be bred into its hybrids.
Winter of 2004, while visiting Sequoia, I asked Ralph Moore if he still had the plant and might he please have one available for sale? He didn't but told me he'd make some. The following summer, May 29, I was in Visalia to attend the dedication of his memorial garden. People lined up to shake the great Rose Man's hand. Many of us wore name tags with our names, the names of our roses he'd created and named for us, as we slowly moved toward the honorees seat.
As I approached him, he caught sight of me out the corner of his eye and reached for my hand. Jerking medown to his face to be heard, he asked, "You know that thornless Wichurana you asked me for last winter? I got two little plants for you if you remind me when we go back to the nursery". Easily six months since my inquiry, with the dedication of his memorial garden with its associated hullabaloo, and this 97 year old gentleman is focused on my inquiry of six months ago! That's the source of my two plants of Basye's Thornless Wichurana.
It still grows and grows. These plants have been starved in depleted soil, crammed into five gallon nursery cans, yet they STILL grow! One has thrown itself through the other roses in the pot ghetto, into a huge Manetii root stock which got away, and cascades down the sunny side of the mound. Laterals spring from its smooth canes, each terminating in clusters of single, white flowers.
The foliage is attractive, and I noticed today it has the trait of "tanning" to red in heat and sun, particularly on the reverses of the foliage.
The canes ARE thornless. The leaf mid ribs do have small, hooked prickles. The plant roots EXTREMELY easily and GROWS quite well. It should easily make a very successful ground cover for a slope, rooting as it creeps along the ground. Not having the flesh eating prickles on the canes should help make it quite a bit easier to deal with when having to pull weeds or trash from the plant. When it flowers, it is quite beautiful.
Catching the fragile flowers while they are still fresh and without damage is quite a trick. Unfortunately, I can't detect much scent from them. What I did notice today during an overcast, warmish morning is a slight "soapy" scent.
Strangely, the stipules are slightly fringed like the bracts in the flower clusters, a trait indicative of multiflora heritage. No other Wichurana or its hybrids not containing multiflora I've encountered possess the fringing.
Cuttings of this easily rooted, healthy rose are available to anyone interested within the Continental US for the cost of postage.
