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.

A question about raising non-remontant seedlings.

Today I was asked a question about raising once-blooming (non-remontant) seedlings.

"how do you grow your non-recurrent seedlings in pots? I have more non-recurrent roses coming on than ever, and keeping them in pots would be helpful. Unfortunately, I am not clear on how I can keep the pot size down to something reasonable, how long they should take to bloom, and how to water them."

This is a good question. Its a matter of managing space and energy and optimizing the process of maturing seedlings that may take three years or more to start blooming (usually two). Although three years ago I had the garden space to row out non-remontant seedlings as much as I wanted, I am now at capacity in the garden and so I must now grow my selections on in containers. Here's how it works for me: Crosses I make that I know will result in once blooming offspring are potted up into 3" square pots initially and grown on until June, or until they appear ready for potting on. At this time I evaluate the seedlings for health, vigor, architecture and overall attractiveness. In making this evaluation I try to assess the individual plant's likelihood of exhibiting one or more desirable traits, knowing that selecting for bloom quality/color later on will eliminate many of these.

From the 3" pot stage, selected seedlings are moved into 1 gallon black plastic nursery containers where most remain until the following year year. The following Spring, when these seedlings are 12 to 15 months old from germination, most of them will bloom for the first time. Some individuals/crosses may take longer, but the vast majority will flower at this stage. A culling occurs at this first flowering and any plants whose blooms are determined to be inferior will be discarded. The remainder are likely to be moved up into five gallon containers and placed in another greenhouse or outdoors in the open garden for further assessment.

If I select individuals from these once-blooming crosses for breeding purposes (because they have traits I wish to proceed another generation with) they may be potted on the following year (year three) into much larger containers that will likely sustain them for many years. I usually choose a container size that is about 24" across and 20" deep (or whatever I have available in that size range) for this purpose. Selections that are intended for breeding material will either be moved into my main breeding house, or if they are to be timed for pollination with roses in the open garden, they might be placed outside the greenhouse. (Plants kept in the greenhouse, even though it is unheated, often bloom three or four weeks ahead of the rest of the garden and so timing container grown plants to be in bloom when a pollen donor in the open garden is in bloom requires some planning.)

Once-blooming selections that are potentially viable on their own merits as commercial shrubs are likely to be planted out directly in the garden from the five gallon stage, as these will need permanent locations to establish them properly. Its getting difficult to find places for these now, but I am culling plants from oen of the test beds every year so locations do open up every Summer. I still do some breeding with Gallicas, with the goal of producing new Gallicas in the traditional style, and these require placement in the garden in order to perform properly.

If I've omitted any details in this description, please ask for more information by commenting, thanks.

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?

Forgotten seedlings

I hate to think of all the decent seedlings I may have dispatched to the compost heap in the past decade. The thing is that you have to make a choice to keep or discard based on moment to moment evaluations. A few bad evaluations in a row and that seedling is gone. I have no doubt that I have thrown out plants that may have eventually matured into decent plants, but there is a limit to how many seedlings you can permit to reach maturity. Its just not possible unless you have unlimited space and resources. Ah well.

And then there is the occasional seedling that gets put out onto a plot for testing and stays there for years, never quite cared for as it should be, but occasionally you wander by to take a peek. The rose at left is one such seedling. Probably bred circa 2001 it is a cross of 'Duchesse de Montebello' X 'Buff Beauty'. It blooms only for a few weeks in late Spring, and it is a bit of a tall, sprawly shrub, but it is beautiful, generous with flowers and it smells wonderful. It never gets sprayed with Fungicides and yet it is disease free. The bottom line is that there is little room in the Rose market for a variety like this; we don't need any more blush pink once-bloomers. And so, it remains in my test garden, up to its waist in weeds and species Lupins, and once or twice each Spring I wander past to say hello and inhale its rich Honey-like perfume. And then its back to the greenhouse to browse the new seedlings and decide who gets potted up and who goes on the compost heap.