A cross I am very excited to see

"Moore's Nutkana"

Breeding: 'Orangeade' X 'Schoener's Nutkana', by Ralph Moore. Date of creation unknown, probably pre-1990. (The nickname of "Moore's Nutkana" is one I gave it, not Ralph's name for it)

Following quickly on the heels of my last post about R. fedtschenkoana, here is another rose that has a species prominently featured in its pedigree. The species in this case is the native North American R. nutkana, a beautiful thicket forming shrub with excellent architecture and often very richly colored single blooms.

Here, Ralph Moore put pollen from 'Schoener's Nutkana' (R. nutkana X 'Paul Neyron') onto 'Orangeade' (if 'Orangeade' won't take your pollen, nothing will!) and this was the seedling Ralph saved from the cross. (There may have been others, but this is the one I know about) It is a large plant to 12 feet or more, with graceful arching architecture, presenting clusters of 3 to 7 blooms all along its canes at every lateral. In many ways, it comes close to the ideal plant architecture for a rose, in my mind, and it is this trait that I include this rose in my work. I made several crosses with this hybrid about 7 years ago and found it to be a less than willing seed parent. Now that it is fully established I find it sets seed much more readily, and so in 2009 I made a number of crosses and await the germination of the seeds.

Although "Moore's Nutkana" leaves something to be desired in terms of Blackspot resistance and freedom of bloom (it blooms only sparingly after the first flush), these problems can be fixed in subsequent generations. *crosses fingers* I'll post photos of anything worth looking at when the seedlings are up and (hopefully) blooming.

R. fedtschenkoana hybrids.

54-08-03 = 'Midnight Blue' X ('Orangeade' X R. fedtschenkoana). The latter is a Kim Rupert hybrid given to me years ago for breeding purposes. See: LINK.

Some of you probably know that R. fedtschenkoana was identified about a decade ago as one of the species that helped found the Damask class. Since then, some hybridizers like Kim Rupert have incorporated the species into their breeding program in order to explore its genes as a potential source of new characteristics. Kim gave me a piece of his 'Orangeade' X R. fedtschenkoana hybrids several years ago and I have only recently started using it in my work. It took several years to start to flower, and because it clearly isn't ideally suited to my climate, it blooms only sparingly during its first cycle. And so, I rarely have pollen available at the right time.

However, in 2007 I managed to pollinate a few late blooms of 'Midnight Blue' with its pollen and about 14 seedlings resulted. Several of these grew so fast that they had to be moved into 5 gallon cans by June! I can see that hybrid vigor is something Kim's hybrid can bring into the mix. As expected, none of these flowered in their first year, and although "Kim's Fedtschenkoana" does rebloom, I don't expect my seedlings to be remontant. Often the remontancy genes from one class don't "play nice" with remontancy genes from another and what you get are mostly once bloomers. We shall see. To be honest, I don't expect anything but pinks, but with 'Orangeade' and 'Midnight Blue' in the mix, anything is possible.

The foliage is particularly attractive on these seedlings, most of them open with reddish tints and mature to a matte blue-green hue. The canes are matte as well, in brown and grey tones and fairly well armed with straight prickles. This year I will get them moved outdoors and see how they handle the typical diseases. (Kim's hybrid doesn't get any of the "big three" diseases, and with any luck, that might carry through to these seedlings)

The more I work with breeding roses, the more I find myself exploring non-traditional territory, often involving species and near-species hybrids. I think that if anything truly original and new is to be done with roses, it will surely come from the experimental breeding work of the dedicated "amateurs". (My friends, you know who you are!) The temptation to make crosses that will yield quick results is always there, but I say RESIST that temptation, and dare to strike your own trail. You just might end up creating a building block that future hybridizers might find invaluable in leading their own work forward. What better legacy could you want?!

Cross #100-09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXJZzvkYypA

Sent from my iPhone

Pursuing better foliage: the Canadian Explorers

In the past few years I have discovered that both good reds and glossy, Blackspot resistant foliage can be had when using 'Scarlet Moss' in breeding. The seedling shown here is 'Scarlet Moss' X 'William Baffin' from last year's seedlings. Working with 'William Baffin' is a bit more of a waiting game than usual, as its seedlings often don't start to flower until year two. (L83 seedlings behave this way also, which is not really much of a coincidence since the Explorers come from similar genetic backgrounds: heavy R. rugosa influence) I have loads of seedlings from last season that I hope to see flower for the first time in the next couple of months.

I am hoping that a few of the 'William Baffin' seedlings show excellent disease resistance, strong red coloring and very good Winter hardiness. This particular cross "feels right" to me, bringing together one of the best of the Explorers and one of the best Moore roses with heavy 'Dortmund' influence. Photos of the blooms will follow, when it happens.

Hardwood cuttings of roses.

Back in early January I decided to try my friend Simon Voorwinde's technique for rooting hardwood cuttings of roses. This technique could prove useful for cultivars that might otherwise be difficult to propagate by softwood methods. This is Simon's technique:

"All you do is make all your cuttings somewhere around 15-20cm long (I cut the base with a sloping cut behind a bud), remove all their leaves as they harbor lots of fungi etc (you could dip them in some kind of fungicide but I don't tend to bother), bundle them up and wrap them in newspaper, put a rubber band around the top and bottom to keep the whole thing together. Run the newspaper under a tap to moisten it, allow all excess to drip off, then seal it all in a plastic bag and forget it for a while. Some will begin callousing after only a week.

When they've started callousing pot them on as you would normal rooted cuttings and keeping them humid until leaves and roots begin to appear. I have a few large clear tubs (about 140 litrres so nearly about 70cm long by 50cm wide and about 40cm tall) that I put a 10cm layer of moist perlite and peat in that I plant the calloused cuttings straight into, put the clear lid on it, put it outside in a shaded position (as the sun will cook them quickly) and they are ready to begin hardening off in just a few more weeks. With my multiflora cuttings I do this except instead of planting them in the tub I stick them straight in the ground after pre-callousing them and they are away in about a week and I tend to do about 50 at a time. I do this at all times of the year and it occurs faster in the warmer months than the cold."

The photo illustrates my results with one of the Kim Rupert Gallica hybrids I use in breeding. Cuttings were taken from a fully dormant plant and placed on top of my fridge for about 6 weeks. As you can see these calloused easily and have roots well formed, ready to pot up. I would suggest experimenting to find the ideal stage for potting these up; some varieties might work best if potted before roots formed and others might fare better with roots well on their way.