To celebrate a sunny day: 1-72-1 by Ralph Moore.

Breeding: Ralph S. Moore, 1972. Sister seedling to 'Rise 'N' Shine'. Parentage: 'Little Darling' X 'Yellow Jewel'.

Today I am celebrating another sunny, warm(ish) day on the farm by presenting one of Ralph Moore's most important yellow breeding plants, 1-72-1. This just hapens to be a sister seedling to 'Rise 'N' Shine', Moore's most commercially successful yellow miniature. In many ways 1-72-1 it is very similar to 'Rise 'N' Shine' with one significant exception: this is a larger plant, with a growth habit that has come to be known as "a climbing miniature". (Its not really a climber, but rather a large plant with 4 to 5 foot arching canes)

A little known tidbit about this plant's history is that it was submitted for the AOE trials and was scheduled to be released as a commercial variety if it won an award. Unfortunately it didn't win an AOE, but it played a far more important role in Moore' breeding program. 1-72-1 is the parent of many excellent roses, including 'Cal Poly', 'Golden Gardens', 'Joycie', 'Pink Poodle', 'Sequoia Ruby', 'Twister' and 'Work of Art'. Moore made it known to many of his hybridizer friends that although 'Rise 'N' Shine' has played a role in breeding many excellent roses, 1-72-1 was the better parent. 'Rise 'N' Shine' breeds far too many white and off-white seedlings, whereas 1-72-1 breeds a higher percentage of strong yellows and oranges. Without 1-72-1 we'd have a significantly less rich gene pool in the yellow color group, and its influence can be traced through many generations of modern roses both large and small. Here's to Ralph Moore on this sunny day, and to the lovely golden 1-72-1!

10-05-05: an orange moss.

10-05-05: 'Condoleezza' X ('Sequoia Ruby' X 'Scarlet Moss'). The pollen parent, which is extinct thanks to Gophers, is a sister seedling to 'Unconditional Love', one of my commercial releases.

I view this rose as one of those "close-but-not-quite-finished" seedlings that will hopefully be a stepping stone towards something more to my liking. This is a heavily mossed rose in a very attractive shade of orange with a Chinese red blending, becoming more red as the flower ages. It sets seed easily, although this will be the first year I have had an opportunity to evaluate its offspring. (I'm hopeful that it will bring something good to the line)

The plant is a compact, shrubby thing, having grown to 2.5 feet so far, but since it has lived its life in a pot, it may get significantly larger if grown out in the open garden. Blooms are about 2 to 2.5 inches each, with 8 to 12 petals and a few petaloids. The petals are a strong, clear yellow at the base, which may be an indication of its potential as a breeder of yellows.

While I think the Ralph Moore mosses are marvelous plants, I feel there is a lot of room for improvement on the group. In the pursuit of dwarfism, I think Ralph made compromises when making his selections. Certainly some of the "mini mosses" are wonderful breakthroughs in breeding, but most leave something to be desired as far as plant architecture, disease resistance and stability of color goes. As I say, lots of room for improvement. What would I like to see happen with this group of plants? Well, increase in both the plant stature and in bloom size, for one; I am imagining a rounded shrub of about 4 X 4 feet, well articulated with foliage to within a foot of the soil. (In a similar line of breeding I have accomplished this goal already with 'Treasure Trail', a very attractive pink-yellow blend moss that is about 3.5 feet wide and tall.) I would also like to see a significant improvement in disease resistance, This I believe can come through 'Scarlet Moss', which has the wonderfully sturdy 'Dortmund' represented on both sides of its parentage. Take note Hybridizers: both 'Scarlet Moss' and 'Rose Gilardi' have 'Dortmund genes in them and both are potentially the best breeders to pursue for improvments in the moss genre.

Improvements in color intensity and stability are also very possible and again, 'Scarlet Moss' and 'Rose Gilardi' are likely to be useful in this regard. Although the odds of success are slim, I have made one more attempt in 2009 to use Moore's old breeder "Orange Moss" in combination with seedling 10-05-05 and its sibling 10-05-09, a clear yellow. "Orange Moss" is a poor choice in that it rarely breeds any strong colors, and it has a dreadfully weedy growth habit. (Read; tall and lanky) However, I gave it a go with these two seedlings, hoping the stronger color genes of the 10-05's and their compact growth habit might tame "Orange Moss" and pick up on its lovely coloring. We shall see. Its all just wishful thinking until the first seedling flowers!

Old dogs and new tricks

I've said this before and its worth mentioning again: 'Joycie' is a remarkable rose to use in breeding. It will take pollen from just about anything and produce loads of viable seeds that germinate well. Even more important, it is very malleable, unlike its relative 'Sequoia Ruby' which I spoke of recently. (Both 'Joycie' and 'Sequoia Ruby' share the same seed parent: 1-72-1, which I'll tell you about in an upcoming post)

The seedling pictured at left is 52-04-03, a cross of 'Joycie' X 'Maréchal Niel'. As you can see, this rose is heavily influenced by the pollen parent, a Tea-Noisette from 1857. I doubt 'Maréchal Niel' has been used in breeding is quite some time (although I see the clever and innovative Louis Lens has a 1995 hybrid listed using it with R. helenae.)

52-04-03 has been slow to mature, as one would expect from a cross like this. Tea hybrids usually are slow to build up size, and finally, at four years of age this one is showing its potential. It doesn't much like my climate, which isn't surprising, so I have budded it last year onto R. multiflora and will keep a specimen in the greenhouse where it will perform better. The photo is of that bud grafted specimen in a five gallon container, taken two days ago. This will be a warm climate hybrid, I expect, and in the right situation it will make a climber. How big it will ultimately get is anybody's guess at this point. I'm guessing modestly large: 8 to 10 feet, perhaps.

This beautiful seedling bears clusters of nodding 3.5" blooms that open slowly and last a long time. In the open garden, the coloring is quite a bit richer with hints of antique gold. It has a moderate Tea fragrance that at 10 or 11 in the morning is quite wonderful. It has recently formed a new shoot from the base that has about 9 blooms forming on it, indicating that it may be capable of making bold displays. It is also nearly continuous with bloom, cycling rapidly. Sounds promising?

I will begin propagating this a bit later on this season. It may require an understock to perform its best, we'll see.

Modern Mosses: 10-05-09

Although people like Ralph Moore laid down the essential ground work for the modern mosses, it is still a difficult path to follow. Part of the problem is that you are adding another factor into the equation (all the other desirable traits + mossing) and so selecting for all of the qualities you want means you have even fewer seedlings to pick from. Fortunately there are some plants in my arsenal that makes the job a whole lot easier. Moore's 'Scarlet Moss' is one such rose. Not only does it pass on good mossing, with 'Dortmund' represented twice in its pedigree it readily passes on rich coloring.

The seedling pictured here, 10-05-09 came out of a cross of 'Condoleezza' X ('Sequoia Ruby' X 'Scarlet Moss'). The pollen parent is a short plant with 2.5" very double cherry red blooms and moderate mossing, and is a sibling to my commercially available 'Unconditional Love'. The seed parent,'Condoleezza', a Ralph Moore mossy Floribunda, is a modestly mossed pink flowered shrub that often shows a bit of an orange/yellow center. 'Condoleezza' is one of my best seed setters. You can put any pollen on it and get seeds that germinate easily and soon after sowing.

In this cross I was pleasantly surprised to discover not only some reds and deep pinks among the seedings, but this heavily mossed number that opens to bright, clear yellow semi-double blooms. (Two more photos here) There was also one very strong orange mossed seedling in this group which I will post about at some future date. 10-05-09 is a small shrub, not quite a miniature and not quite a Floribunda, about 2 X 2 feet and very full. It blooms in big clusters in flushes all season.

Last year I stopped deadheading it and it formed seeds readily, so this year I plan on using it in breeding to see what it might do. I'm not entirely satisfied with the size of the plant; I'd rather have a full-sized bush with larger, fuller blooms.

More work with Rugosas: 105-04-08

Seedling 105-04-08 is a cross of 'Sequoia Ruby' X "Magseed", the latter being a Ralph Moore rose I have mentioned before.

'Sequoia Ruby' is both a ridiculously easy and troublesome rose to breed with. It makes immense amounts of seed with almost any other parent, the seeds germinate at near 100% and a wide range of colors often result, including the occasional dove grey! However, this is often where the advantages end; 'Sequoia Ruby' has a lot of gravity and it takes a lot of work to escape that gravity. What do I mean by "gravity"? Well, it has the inclination to breed mostly miniatures that look a lot like itself, but in different colors. Most seedlings are upright growers to between 15" and 36", blooming with clusters of loosely HT style blooms that open to double cups of 40 or more petals. The foliage almost always looks the same as well: miniature and semi-matte, in medium green. However....

Occasionally you get lucky. Case in point is this cross. Apparently "Magseed" has a lot of gravity of its own, because I got a number of seedlings that were clearly Rugosa influenced shrubs that grew quite tall and had 3.5" - 4.5" blooms. 105-04-08 is what I consider to be the best of the lot and it just gets better every year. It is fully fertile in both directions (I am using it in breeding extensively this year) and is easy to propagate from cuttings. It has also grown out in the test bed for four years now and is one of very few roses that is almost 100% resistant to Blackspot. Sounds good so far. Criticisms? Well, It is a bit upright and lacking branching as much as I'd like to see, so it takes a while to fill out as a shrub. (Based on the single original plant in the test garden. The large one in a pot in the breeding greenhouse is a lot fuller and shapely for some reason) It isn't quite as generous with bloom as I'd like it to be, but I hope to correct that in a next generation. Neither does it have much scent, but the color....WOW! No photograph shows how rich and velvety the petals really are. Its a magnificent color, starting out a deep garnet red and aging with violet-purple overlay on the outer petals. I expect to cross it back to some of the "purebred" Rugosas to see if the shrub habit can be improved, and maybe cross it with some Hybrid Musks to increase the volume of bloom. 'Trier' is capable of some serious magic so maybe I'll try that.

11-02-07: 'Sequoia Ruby' X 'Guinée'

This seedling is the sole surviving seedling from a cross made in 2002 between 'Sequoia Ruby' and the magnificent old climbing Hybrid Tea 'Guinée', bred by Charles Mallerin in 1938. The idea behind this cross was to increase bloom production and frequency ('Guinée' is not very generous with bloom) while preserving the rich crimson of 'Guinée'. To be expected, the fragrance of 'Guinée' was lost, but this seedling accomplished some of the other goals, namely the deep coloring and the improved rate of repeat. While I'm sure there were other seedlings from this cross, I don't recall what any of them looked like and ultimately this was the only one saved.

11-02-07 is fully fertile in both directions. I suspect it is a tetraploid but I have not bothered to check. It frequently passes on deep red coloring to its progeny, and seedlings tend to be an equal mix of dwarf and full-sized shrubs. The dwarf seedlings tend to have poor vigor and/or disease problems, but that can be said of many breeding plants, so nothing new there. I can't say that fragrance is a trait commonly passed on to its offspring, but then I am not currently using it to breed for fragrance. For the most part I am using it to breed with the Canadian Explorer roses to create richer colors in the Winter hardy shrub line. Results are still rather early to offer much commentary about, but this line of work looks promising. This Spring I will be evaluating a group of seedlings of the cross 11-02-07 X L83. The latter is a R. kordesii seedling developed by Dr. Felicitas Svejda specifically for the creation of Winter hardy and Blackspot free shrubs. (I'll talk a bit about L83 in an upcoming post, and discuss some of the offspring I've generated from it.)

Next post: a brief biography of 50-05-02, a seedling from a cross of 11-02-07 and 'Dragon's Blood'