Interesting, and pretty results from a "what if?" cross

April Mooncrest is my crested seedling combining Ralph Moore's crested work with Griffith Buck's shrub roses. Pookah is a multiflora based polyantha which performs in my conditions much better than most others. It impresses me as a darker pink, more controlled growth, healthier Ballerina which never suffers chlorosis here. What happens when you cross the two? 

It appears to want to climb, which doesn't surprise me. It repeats its flowers, which I would expect as both parents flower fairly continuously here. I figured the foliage would be healthy, coming from two very healthy parents. It is, but it's also wonderfully pigmented. 

When still a rather new seedling, it impressed me with its purple toned foliage, scent, health and vigor.

The bloom is just a double pink, not bad, but not exceptional.

But, when fall began, the whole plant turned bronze, apricot and red tones! Wood and foliage both expressed the most wonderful coloring. 

Now in its second summer, it's starting to show what appears to be climbing growth. It's also beginning to demonstrate some more decorative sepals. It continues producing healthy, beautiful foliage and that's what counts. 

What a difference some days make!

In my last post, I'd questioned if a seedling was one I had seen flowering last fall. Since then, it has been potted into the next size larger can and fed. Now there are two buds about to open and one open flower. Keep in mind it has been mid nineties to low triple digits here for the past three days. Humidity during the day has been single digit and the wind has been pretty constant any time the sun has shone. The cross is a very healthy mini breeder Jim Sproul shared with me, using pollen from my 1-72-1Hugonis hybrid. I'm very pleased with what I see so far! There are definitely some Hugonis genes in the plant and it repeats!

I wonder if this is the same seedling?

I've been using pollen from my 1-72-1Hugonis seedling all over the garden both last year and this. One of the most successful crosses resulted from putting its pollen on a rose Jim Sproul shared with me he calls L56. It's an involved cross containing his Thrive!, so it contains "good genes" for health. L56 has quite healthy, glossy, dark foliage with a deeply saturated, bright red single flower.

1-72-1Hugonis has single yellow flowers with heavily embossed, matte, medium green foliage. It's also completely disease free in my garden.

Only one seedling from this cross flowered its first year. It battled very adverse conditions but survived. I was thrilled and amazed to see it flower so quickly after germination. 

 Now, I'm wondering if this seedling, which I found in flower today, is the early flowering seedling from last year.

I believe it shows signs of hybridity in the foliage. It's definitely one of the least vigorous of the batch. L56's foliage is quite glossy and traditionally produces five leaflets. 

1-72-1Hugonis has heavily embossed, matte foliage and expresses nine to thirteen leaflets. 

Notice this seedling produces both seven and five leaflets, is more matte and quite embossed.

I don't know if it will increase in vigor with maturity, but it will definitely be interesting to watch. 

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.