Inheriting doubleness.

Looking at the AgCan breeder L83 you would never guess it would be capable of producing double offspring. And yet, it frequently does. Many of my selections from three crosses made in '07 are at least semi-double (15 petals or more) and some are intensely double. Take this seedling 77-07-03 for example; double in the style of many of the Old Garden Roses displaying "quartered" blooms, packed full of petals arranged in a swirl. This seedling also happens to be a pretty good repeater (compared to its somewhat reluctant siblings), grows with abandon and yet is maintaining a shapely, restrained architecture. So far it has shown complete immunity to all diseases. If that continues to be the case, then this selection may have a future in commerce. If it has Winter hardiness, as many L83 seedlings do, then even better!

FYI, as the tedium of my routine settles in, what with all the weeding and watering and dull chores to do, I am posting less and less often these days. I need a vacation, to be honest, and yet I have to maintain things. So, don't expect a lot of detailed blog posts in the next month or so; I'm just not enthused about adding yet another task to my to-do list at the moment!

Towards immunity from disease: 'Home Run'?

With the introduction of Bill Radler's 'Knockout' about ten years ago, hybridizers have placed greater emphasis on the creation of roses with greatly improved immunity to the typical diseases that trouble garden roses, namely Blackspot: Diplocarpon rosae. Its not an easy task; Blackspot resistance is complicated and may involve multiple genes to accomplish. Of course, it IS possible, but a breeder can easily take ten years or more to achieve reasonable results. Fortunately for many of us, the groundwork has been done by several breeders and we have several lines of hybrids we can incorporate into our work. One of the roses I am working with that I have found to impart superior Blackspot (and often Mildew) resistance is Ralph Moore's 0-47-19, the old R. wichurana X 'Floradora' hybrid. However, it tends to breed a lot of pinks and whites, which has so far been a rather limiting factor.

More recently I acquired Tom Carruth's shrub 'Home Run', bred from 'Knockout' and involving 'Baby Love' as a grandparent. The latter is a five-petaled yellow shrub rose that is often used in breeding for disease resistance. Like its pollen parent 'Knockout', 'Home Run' is a triploid and only somewhat fertile. Its pollen will take on a limited number of plants and seeds are frequently infertile. However, in 2007 I made a successful cross of the old red Hybrid Tea 'Roundelay' X 'Home Run'. Why 'Roundelay', you ask? Well, here in my cliate it is immune to Blackspot even when not treated with fungicide. It is a shapely shrub of about 4 X 4 feet and blooms in clusters of deep garnet red 4" blooms. It does have some fragrance, but not very strong to my nose. Mainly, the Blackspot resistance was the thing that appealed to me most.

As usual, there were very few seeds from the cross, and even fewer seedlings. Two survived by the end of the season and were in fact growing very strongly and making an impression on me. The best of the two is the seedling pictured here. (Photographed April 20, 2009) This seedling has dark red tinged green foliage that is quite large and very healthy so far. The plant branches freely from the base and blooms in clusters, much like its seed parent. The photo does not do the bloom justice; it is a dark black-garnet red much like 'Black Jade' at its very best. From a beautifully scrolled bud it opens to a slightly cupped, 12 petaled bloom about 3 inches across. There is a modest fragrance that I detect. I will propagate this from cuttings and by budding this year to multiply the plant and to evaluate its ease of propagation. Now the deal is to find out just how disease resistant it (and its sibling) really is.

The seeds they are a-sproutin!

Its that time of year; the seeds are germinating and I am starting to pot them up this week. Unfortunately mice are a serious problem where I am and so rose seeds must be sown in flats that are kept in a wire mesh "cage". Otherwise, the mice would sniff out the seeds, dig them up and eat them all. Yes, I've seen it happen. Thats why I do it the way I do now!

At left is a photo of some of the first seedlings that came up about four weeks ago. The cross is 'Rosy Purple', a Louis Lens Hybrid Musk X 'Vineyard Song', a Ralph Moore shrub that is very Musk-like in character. In my garden, both of these are almost completely disease free (the former is 100% Blackspot free, the later nearly so) and so I hope I might obtain some compact, highly scented, disease free shrubs that bloom in big clusters. 'Rosy Purple' often produces panicles of over 100 blooms all over the shrub. I don't know why this isn't a more popular rose; it is nearly an ideal garden shrub, especially since it is so disease free.

You can see in the photo that there appear to be two albino seedlings; pinkish, showing no evidence of chlorophyll. This happens with some crosses. Some of them will eventually produce chlorophyll and grow normally, and some never do and therefore they die. I potted up these seedlings yesterday and the pale seedling at the top center of the photo did produce chlorophyll, whereas the bottom center one did not, and so that one died from an inability to produce its own food. (These albinos survive only as long as the food stores in the cotyledons lasts)

Curious, eh wot?