"Moore's Nutkana"

Breeding: 'Orangeade' X 'Schoener's Nutkana', by Ralph Moore. Date of creation unknown, probably pre-1990. (The nickname of "Moore's Nutkana" is one I gave it, not Ralph's name for it)

Following quickly on the heels of my last post about R. fedtschenkoana, here is another rose that has a species prominently featured in its pedigree. The species in this case is the native North American R. nutkana, a beautiful thicket forming shrub with excellent architecture and often very richly colored single blooms.

Here, Ralph Moore put pollen from 'Schoener's Nutkana' (R. nutkana X 'Paul Neyron') onto 'Orangeade' (if 'Orangeade' won't take your pollen, nothing will!) and this was the seedling Ralph saved from the cross. (There may have been others, but this is the one I know about) It is a large plant to 12 feet or more, with graceful arching architecture, presenting clusters of 3 to 7 blooms all along its canes at every lateral. In many ways, it comes close to the ideal plant architecture for a rose, in my mind, and it is this trait that I include this rose in my work. I made several crosses with this hybrid about 7 years ago and found it to be a less than willing seed parent. Now that it is fully established I find it sets seed much more readily, and so in 2009 I made a number of crosses and await the germination of the seeds.

Although "Moore's Nutkana" leaves something to be desired in terms of Blackspot resistance and freedom of bloom (it blooms only sparingly after the first flush), these problems can be fixed in subsequent generations. *crosses fingers* I'll post photos of anything worth looking at when the seedlings are up and (hopefully) blooming.