The little stuff: 81-02-01

81-02-01: 'Oakington Ruby' X 'Little Chief', 2002. Nicknamed "Priscilla Plumbbob".

It is undeniable that Ralph Moore's work heavily influenced my own vision of rose breeding in the early 2000s. At times I even sought to mirror some of his own efforts, if for no other reason than to simply see first hand what kind of variations could be had with such crosses. It is worth remembering that when a hybridizer releases a selection into commerce, that we, the consumers, are seeing only one plant the breeder considered to be the best of the lot. The rest of the seedlings tell a much bigger story: perhaps the selected one was the only seedling of merit in a sea of junk. Or perhaps there were dozens of runners up that were so, so close to ideal that many were considered for commerce. Or maybe germination was terrible and there were only five seedlings to evaluate at all! You never know. I've seen all of these scenarios in my own work.

Back to the rose in the photo. I shared Ralph's fascination for tiny roses, and was especially fond of one of the key contributors to modern miniature breeding: 'Oakington Ruby'. It can be a great little shrub, and is totally China-like in all its aspects, except its small stature and tiny plant parts. I played with it a bit years ago, crossing it with other minis mostly, just to see what I would get. 81-02-01 was one such cross: 'Oakington Ruby' X 'Little Chief', the latter being born out of a curious pedigree involving a R. multibracteata hybrid, R. wichurana, 'Slater's Crimson China', and "Rouletii". As a breeder, 'Little Chief' has a reputation for being finicky as a seed parent but very generous as a pollen parent. I've used it on things like R. foliolosa and gotten some striking results. In the case of 81-02-01, seedlings were a lot more typical of this kind of breeding: lots of very small plants in pinks and reddish hues, well-branched, largely unremarkable. (I did release one as a kind of "collectors item" rose, named 'Oui'. Click here to view it on HMF)

This cute little pink number is one of my favorites of the lot, but has not been introduced into commerce, as I regard it as a bit of an anachronism and hardly something a lot of people are going to be interested in. It is 8 years old now and still happily occupies a 5 gallon pot, and has not exceeded 15" tall and about as wide. It is intermediate in style between the two parents and fairly thorny. I presents its bloom in clusters spread attractively across its canopy of dense, bright green growth and is in bloom on and off all season. The candy pink blooms are about an inch across, very double and have an unusual sweet candy-like fragrance, similar to the scent of certain China cultivars. It sets seed on occasion, although I have never tried to germinate them. Maybe I will sow a few this year, just out of curiosity.

Listing on HMF

A more recent miniature: 25-07-07

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't use miniatures in my work to breed new miniatures, but to utilize them for some of their other characteristics. It can be a specific trait I am trying to obtain, or some general trait like compact growth habit. In the case of this seedling, I was aiming to capture stripes, as the pollen parent was 'Pinstripe' by Ralph Moore. While I did get a couple of striped seedlings from this group, I am still evaluating them and am unsure of their merit.

This seedling, number 07 from the cross of 'Midnight Blue' X 'Pinstripe', has been a rather pleasant surprise. Yes, its a miniature, but a rather unique one I think. In many ways it is a perfect miniature replica of its seed parent except that it has more of a tiny Waterlily bloom form. (I regard Tom Carruth's 'Midnight Blue' as a triumph of modern hybridizing in terms of its overall performance and remarkable purple coloring.) 25-07-07 is still only one year old and has not yet matured, so I don't really know much about its ultimate size or shrub form. It appears to be fairly upright but bushy, and it is going to bloom in clusters. Bloom size is about 1.5" and it has a moderate/strong fragrance reminiscent of its seed parent. (Somewhat Clove-ish) This seedling propagates readily from cuttings as well, which is always a good thing.

Out of the archive: 06-02-05

Busy morning here; I have to go pot up the most recent flush of seedlings while the weather is decent.

Looking back to 2002, I was still doing a lot of work with miniatures, breeding more miniatures. (These days I use some miniatures with the intention of creating shrubs of a certain character, not miniatures.) Back in '02 I was using 'June Laver' quite a bit, and this seedling is a cross of 'June Laver' X 'Little Darling', a very "old school" cross. (I mean, who uses 'Little Darling' anymore??!) Still, this turned out to be a very decent seedling. I've watched it for years and it makes a very compact bush about 14" tall, presenting blooms well-placed at the top of the canopy of foliage. No fragrance, of course. Essentially its a light-medium yellow with a reddish flush mostly at the petal tips. It gets the red blush more in the Spring and Fall and is a clear yellow color in the Summer. It has exhibition quality bloom form about 80% of the time.

This pretty rose has sat on my benches for years now and I have admired it but never considered it as a commercial introduction. However, recently one of the "big boys" in the rose industry has taken an interest in it and is evaluating it for potential introduction. No point in leaving a perfectly pretty rose stuffed in a corner of my greenhouse where nobody gets to see it, right? ;-)