72-08-11

I finally located a photo of an open bloom of 72-08-11 (Condoleezza X William III), mentioned last Spring in a blog post. Not much of a photo (low res from my iPhone) but you get the idea. This reminds me of 'Great Maiden's Blush' in color and form, and it has a decent fragrance as well. See the spiky mossing on the bud in the upper left?

I plan on working a few of this group of 72-08s into breeding this coming spring, assuming any of them have fertility. Who knows, maybe the Spinisissima genes will be a new resource for winter hardiness and disease resistance.

72-08: mossy Spinosissima cross updated.

A couple of weeks ago I posted here about a Spinosissima cross I made in '08, of which several seedlings were preparing to flower for the first time. Well, I just wanted to submit a quick photo update to show the progress of the buds of one of these. As you can see, the buds are mossed in a most peculiar manner, with spikes on the receptacle! I will be using its pollen (assuming it presents any) in some crosses this Spring to see if I can recover remontancy in the next generation. I have hopes that some of this cross will be fertile and might add something to the shrub architecture and hardiness of my work.

Spinosissima Surprise.

72-08-11: 'Condoleezza' X 'William III'

I made this cross in late May of 2008, on a whim. I wanted to determine what, if any, fertility the Spinosissima hybrid 'William III' might have. It is a remarkably sturdy, disease free rose with great charm in a garden setting, and exquisitely scented purplish-pink blooms. I figured it might have some merit in breeding for improved care-free shrubs. I chose 'Condoleezza' simply because it is my "indicator" rose for breeding. If 'Condoleezza' won't take a specific pollen, nothing will.

What I got was about 7 well developed hips full of seed, and nearly every one of 'em germinated. The result was about 70 seedlings, of which I selected about 30 to grow on. (I made selections based solely on vigor, health and attractive growth habits/foliage, as none of these would bloom will the next year) Well, these are now leafed out and the first three are showing buds. Much to my surprise, all three are Mosses! ('Condoleezza' is very hit-or-miss when it comes to transmitting the mossing trait) Shown here is the most well developed of the three, clearly illustrating well mossed buds. Suddenly these seedlings are far more interesting to me as far as taking them forward into another generation is concerned. I will post more images as these grow.

More info about 'Condoleezza' here.

Suzanne/Spinosissima breeding

This year I have acquired the Spinosissima hybrid 'Suzanne' for breeding purposes. Bred by F. L. Skinner in 1950, this is generally considered to be an F2 hybrid of ('Stanwell Perpetual' X R. laxa). It is a tetraploid, which is what you would expect, given that both parents are tetraploids.

'Suzanne' has played a significant role in the breeding of the Canadian Explorer series of roses, contributing both disease resistance and Winter hardiness. The key hybrid in creating the Explorer roses was a seedling by Robert Simonet of 'Red Dawn' X 'Suzanne', with deep pink semi double blooms. Ian Ogilvie and Felicitas Svejda at Morden and AgCan took this hybrid on for breeding and in combination with R. kordesii' and others, created the Explorers. 'John Davis', 'William Baffin' and 'Champlain' all include 'Suzanne' in their pedigree.

All of these Explorers are fine roses, but the question is, what else can 'Suzanne' offer us? I have done some preliminary work in yellow using the fertile triploid 'Golden Angel' crossed with 'John Davis' and obtained some buffs and soft yellows that appear to be fertile (have set open pollinated seed). The next step is to cross the best of these yellows with each other to intensify the yellow (hopefully) and then start working 'Suzanne' into the mix. With this in mind, I have also a selection of Spinosissima hybrids this year that are 'Condoleezza' X 'William III', from which might come some non-pink hues if I'm lucky. I will select from these seedlings next year when they bloom and incorporate these with 'Suzanne' and the buff colored 'John Davis' hybrids. 'Condoleezza' has shown itself capable of producing clear yellows and peachy tints in breeding, so I am hopeful something of this sort might appear.

I think the Hybrid Spinosissimas are very beautiful and valuable landscape-friendly shrubs that should be explored in breeding to expand their color range while retaining their hardiness and disease resistance. In a decade or so, I just might have made some progress in this area, with repeat bloom thrown in as well!

'Suzanne' on HMF