2017 Pollen from varieties not on Help Me Find-Roses

L56-1 X Burgundy Iceberg. Large, arching, once-flowering shrub with good foliage.

Ping Dong Yue Ji X R. Fedtschenkoana - once flowering.

L56-1 X Grandmother's Hat (Big Pink) - not sure about repeat yet. L56-1 X Grandmother's Hat (Deep red)

L56-1 X Mutabilis, large plant, repeats.

 

Pretty Lady X R. Fedtschenkoana, once flowering.

IHTLB X Renae - [International Herald Tribune X (Lilac Charm X (Old Blush X R. Banksiae))]  X Renae. Climber, repeats, not much scent.

Lynnie Moss - Lynnie X Kim Rupert. Continuous bloom.

Tom Brown X 1-72-1Hugonis. Once flowering.

0-47-19DLFED X Tom Thumb (double pink) -[(Wichurana X Floradora) X Fedtschenkoana] X Tom Thumb. Large plant, some repeat.

APMC X Pookah - April Mooncrest X Pookah. Climber, regular repeat. Autumn foliage.

First Impression X April Mooncrest (FIAPMC). Soft licorice scent, great foliage, cresting and continuous flowering.

(LTXCD) X DLFED4  - (Loving Touch X Country Dancer) X (Dottie Louise X Fedtschenkoana) (the repeat flowering seedling). Some repeat. DLFED5 X Tom Thumb. Repeats like Fedtschenkoana. Ping Dong Yue Ji X R. Fedtschenkoana. Once flowering. Indian Love Call X L56-1 (Black). Great foliage, large stiff shrub, once flowering, little scent.

Some fun results from R. Minutifolia

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!

Restoring moldy tags

As I've posted previously, I use the Avery paper string tags to mark my crosses. The positive points are their ease of use, decent cost and availability. The negatives are that slugs and snails LOVE eating the paper surface, particularly the side with graphite on it where you have written the cross. My Toy Fox Terrors are finding them great sport to pull off and eat before they harvest the hips, which remind them of tomatoes. Every tomato within reach is already gone, so the "balls" on the roses are the next "harvest". 

Because of the long season and wonderful weather, I can use the same tag two or three times a year before it is too worn and needs recycling. But, due to the heavy fogs and dews and the temperatures, the paper supports the growth of mold, often making the tag unreadable by the end of its useful life. 

I harvested some ripe hips this morning from seedlings I raised this spring, and was disappointed I couldn't read what pollen parent had been used. I was excited by the seedling's performance and apparent fertility and I honestly wanted to know who the other parent was. The tag was too dark gray/black from mold to read the graphite writing. I had an idea, which worked like a charm. Unfortunately, I hadn't photographed the offending tag prior to trying the idea, but I did photograph the next worst tag to demonstrate how successful the idea is. 

I put the tag on a dirty breakfast plate which was slated for the dishwasher anyway, and dropped two drops of straight bleach on the paper. Almost instantly, the mold disappeared, leaving the tag perfectly legible! I have my information and the tag had served its useful life anyway, so it was ready for the trash whether I could read it or not. Simple!