Ralph Moore and the Rugosa hybrids: 'Peach Candy'

'Peach Candy', bred by Moore, introduced by Sequoia Nursery in 1995. Parentage: 'Sheri Anne' X 'Topaz Jewel'.

Ralph Moore did considerable work in the past 20 years with various Rugosa hybrids. There wasn't a breeding line at Sequoia Nursery that didn't get some Rugosa genes injected into it at some stage. The results, of course, varied wildly; some were spectacularly unique, some were monsters with a renegade persona, some were tragic mutants that signaled a mismatch of genetics from widely divergent branches of the family tree. My recollection when discussing these breeding lines with Ralph is that many seedlings were troubled in some way and very, very few were noteworthy.

One of the most successful of the Hybrid Rugosas Ralph bred was 'Topaz Jewel', a stunning soft medium yellow hybrid from a cross of 'Golden Angel' X 'Belle Poitvine'. Many breeders, Ralph included, have sought to take 'Topaz Jewel' a step further in the hopes of generating a true yellow Rugosa hybrid that has the toughness of the Rugosas and the generous rebloom of more modern hybrids. Unfortunately that hasn't been easy. I know that some people continue to try to work with it, and in spite of the fact that it apparently is a diploid, (no aneuploidy as far as we know) it almost never sets any seed and its pollen rarely, if ever, results in seed set on other hybrids. Ralph himself produced but one hybrids from 'Topaz Jewel', the lovely 'Peach Candy' pictured here. It has none of the characteristics of its Rugosa pedigree (unless you count its reluctance to propagate from cuttings), looking like a rather ordinary peachy-hued Miniature.

Some goals, no matter how persistent the breeder, just aren't going to get you where you hoped to go. Still, it doesn't hurt to try.

04-07-05: making progress with L83

In 2007, thanks to David Zlesak, I began working with the AgCan Kordesii breeding variety L83. My main interest in working with L83 was to improve Blackspot resistance in my work, but there was a likelihood that improvements in Winter hardiness might be had as well.

From the 2007 crosses I made, two groups stand out as having at least two or three selections that show both extremely good Blackspot resistance (near immunity) and apparent Winter hardiness (based on my limited experience). It should also be noted that several selections have good to excellent color and attractive bloom form. All have excellent vigor and attractive foliage. About 5 plants have been kept from the cross of ('Penny Ante' X 'Tradescant') X L83, including the fire engine red 77-07-23, which was used to a limited degree in 2009 breeding.

Illustrated here is the best yellow selection from 'Golden Angel' X L83, numbered 04-07-05. Some of you have probably noted that this is a cross of a triploid X a tetraploid, and so it is possible that the 04-07 selections are a mix of triploids and tetraploids. Some of these set open pollinated seeds last year (which I allowed to happen in order to determine fertility) and seeds were saved and a percentage have germinated. I am now starting to put select pollens on this yellow cultivar with the hope of moving forward with a Kordesii derived yellow breeding line. There is certainly a lot of room for improvements in both Winter hardiness and disease resistance in yellows! For now, I am limiting myself to using other first generation L83 hybrids to breed with this selection, and in fact will be crossing most of my best L83 selections with each other this year. Most are strong reds and medium yellows, so color results should be bright and rich with any luck.

97-09: Golden Angel X Reve d'Or

An ocean of possibilities!

100-09, stage two.

Today I potted up the seedlings from cross 100-09 ('Golden Angel' X 'Champlain'). I have over 100 individuals of this cross now, which is ideal. Ralph Moore told me that he believed that you weren't seeing the full scope of what was possible in a cross until you had at least 100 seedlings to look at.

Also noteworthy is that the seed parent, 'Golden Angel' is a known triploid, and yet I got nearly 98% germination from this cross. The popular mythology about triploids suggests that they are often infertile or have very limited fertility. Clearly that is not always true. I suspect if we did gene counts of many highly fertile parents, we'd discover many triploids.

Up they come!

The second seed has germinated: 'Golden Angel' X 'Champlain'.

This year I started sowing the seeds very early. First was open pollinated seed from 'Magic Wand' and a week later was this cross, 'Golden Angel' X 'Champlain'. The photo was taken yesterday morning, and by the end of the day two more seedlings were starting to emerge, so undoubtedly many more are on their way.

Regarding this cross: I have found that 'Golden Angel' (yellow miniature from the 1970's, by R. S. Moore) is quite malleable in breeding, often taking on characteristics from the other parent, to the point that none of the 'Golden Angel' traits are visually apparent. Of course, you do get a fair number of miniatures or dwarf plants, since the miniaturism trait is a dominant, but many are shrubs that show no miniaturization whatsoever. With this in mind, I made this cross using the Canadian hardy shrub 'Champlain' as the pollen parent. The hope is to obtain some very Winter hardy orange-red shrubs that bloom frequently and generously, and have attractive, compact plant architecture. It is also known that 'Golden Angel' can sometimes give highly Blackspot resistant offspring, so in combination with 'Champlain' the odds of achieving this might be improved.

Speaking of freeze hardiness...

I have a number of seedlings bred from John Davis and L83 currently living in five gallon pots outdoors. These selections are from 2007 crosses and so will be two years old this Spring. I chose to leave these plants outside during the recent cold snap, unprotected, to see how they handled the cold. Crosses involving 'John Davis' and L83 were made to improve Winter hardiness (and disease resistance) and I figured it was time to start testing them for this trait.

I am happy to report that all of the L83 seedlings and all of the 'John Davis' hybrids came through with no damage whatsoever. Canes are green and healthy right to the tips. I recognize that compared to the mid-West regions, a cold snap like our recent one (a week of night temps down to 7 degrees F) isn't much of a test, but since I have seen significant damage to other seedlings (and some appear to have died completely) this tells me these hybrids have inherited some degree of freeze tolerance.

Shown above is a cane of 'Golden Angel' X 'John Davis', one of the pale yellow selections from this seedling group. As you can see, not only did the canes survive without damage, even some of the foliage that grew in late Fall stayed on without any damage! I hope that's a good sign.

PS: today I am processing seeds in preparation for sowing. Next is 'Midnight Blue' X 'Veilchenblau'!

More from L83: 37-07-03

The seedling pictured here comes from a cross of Ralph Moore's yellow breeder 1-72-1 X L83, the AgCan tetraploid Kordesii breeder. The idea here, of course, was to work towards yellow in the Winter hardy, Blackspot resistance line. This is as close as any of this group has come to yellow, and it is peachy pink with a yellow center at best, but I think it represents a step towards better things. As 1-72-1 is a tetraploid yellow miniature climber, the likelihood is that all of this group are tetraploids also, and therefore fertile with any luck. The first thing I will do is allow these seedlings to self and see if seeds result. Then next year, if the open pollinated seeds germinate, I will make some intentional crosses, probably mating this with other peachy seedlings from the same cross. (There is one other so far and many still to bloom) I will undoubtedly mate this with the 'Golden Angel' X 'John Davis seedling mentioned a few days ago.

Results from the L83 crosses: 77-07

At left: 77-07 selections. Click on the photo to see a full sized image.

In 2007 I made a few crosses using the Agriculture Canada breeder L83 by Dr. Felicitas Svejda. It is basically a R. wichurana and R. rugosa selection, multiple generations long. It also happens to be a tetraploid, making it particularly useful in breeding with modern lines. There were three crosses I got large numbers of seedlings from and L83 was the pollen parent in every case. 'Seed parents were: 'Golden Angel', 1-72-1 (Sister seedling to 'Rise 'N' Shine') and a proprietary red Floribunda I use extensively in breeding. Out of at least 70 seedlings of each cross, at least 40 of the two yellow groups were saved and potted into gallons and about 60 seedlings from the red cross were potted on.

77-07, the red group, has been the most fruitful. I would estimate that about 35% of these, a much higher number than expected, have been strong reds and several have been large blooms and very double. In the photo, 77-07-08 shows what some of the more double ones have looked like. Several of these have had fragrance and there was one that was a purple very similar to 'Tuscany'. So far about 20 of the reds have been moved on into 5 gallon containers and will be moved outside to watch their progress. This has been a very exciting group of seedlings and I am eager to continue trying new ideas with L83.

Last Fall, some members of the Rose Hybridizers Association received some of my surplus seedlings from the 77-07 group, so this information will be of particular interest to you. Have any of you seen any of the seedlings flower yet?

Breeding for Winter hardy yellows: 09-07-11

In recent years the creation of improved "landscape friendly" shrubs for cold climates has become more of an aspect of my work. To that end, I made a cross in 2007 of 'Golden Angel' X 'John Davis'. I have noted that 'Golden Angel' has bred not only some very disease resistant varieties ('Apricot Twist' is nearly 100% immune to Blackspot and Mildew) but also has the potential for breeding cold climate yellows, seeing as its seed parent was the Brownell climber 'Golden Glow'.

Here is one of about 14 seedlings I obtained last year from this cross of 'Golden Angel' X 'John Davis'. In my wildest dreams I did not imagine getting a yellow as clear and strong as this. (Bloom is about 2/3 open. I will photograph it again later, and get a shot of the plant also) As was expected, this group did not bloom in their first year, as these types of seedlings tend not to have any juvenile remontancy. These first flowers are not large, about 2" across, but the plant appears to have superior architecture and the foliage is very beautiful, with a nearly species-like look: dark green, matte and a bluish sheen. There are two other yellows from this group so far and several still to bloom. This is very exciting as these may prove to be useful in the breeding of good yellow disease free shrubs for locations with harsh Winters.

Very busy day, so I can't go into any more detail. I hope to get another photo later today. Enjoy!

"Orange Moss"

Referred to by its creator Ralph Moore as simply "OM", "Orange Moss" was a breakthrough hybrid in the breeding of modern Moss roses. It was created by crossing 'Mark Sullivan' a brightly colored Hybrid Tea, with Pedro Dot's 'Golden Moss'.When an undisclosed Hybrid Tea was pollinated with "OM", Moore obtained 44-59-4. He then crossed 'Rumba' with 44-59-4 and got his well known Floribunda Moss 'Goldmoss'. From here Ralph Moore went on to create several very attractive and very mossy miniatures in the yellow/orange color range by putting 'Goldmoss's pollen on 'Fairy Moss'.

Very little along these lines has been done by other breeders, which is somewhat surprising. There has been renewed interest in mossed roses in the past decade as people are rediscovering the old moss varieties from the 1800's and early 1900's. I know a few amateur hybridizers are now doing some work with the Moore moss hybrids, myself included. For me, the more interesting varieties are the ones that preceed the introduction of the miniaturism genes, and so I am going all the way back to "OM" to do some work.

Breeding "OM" presents some challenges: it tends to breed tall/climbing once blooming shrubs, and fertility may be a problem in moving forward. However, I think that since there are now so many new avenues to pursue that were not possible 40 years ago, it is worthwhile resurrecting plants like "OM" to see what else is possible using new, better parents. Last year I made two exploratory crosses using two very highly fertile orange/yellow breeders: 'Golden Angel' and 'Joycie'. The former I chose because it has a track record of breeding mossed progeny when a mossed pollen parent is used, and the latter because it is so very fertile and is easily influenced by the pollen parent. 'Joycie' also has a habit of passing on strong, clear coloring, which is a plus.

At the time of this writing I have several dozen seedlings from each of these crosses and will hopefully start to see some blooms in the next 4 to 6 weeks. I hope to be able to select a few full sized, mossed shrubs from these seedlings, and with any luck at all, some will be brightly colored. I will post pictures of anything I select. If these turn out to be total failures I will post a followup to that effect as well.