Crested Damask

Just a quick post to show off the exquisite buds of my 'Crested Damask', released in limited quantities a few years ago, Breeding is 'Marbree' X 'Crested Jewel'. This has some of the best sepals of all the crested hybrids I know. I haven't tried its pollen on anything yet, perhaps I should?

Click on the image to see the larger image.

Oh man, thats UGLEEE!

Sometimes you get some real "horror shows" in a group of seedlings, and this is one of the finest I have encountered in ages. This is another of the 'Golden Angel' X 'John Davis' seedlings, blooming for the first time. Yes, what petals it does have are greenish, and it is proliferating like mad. (I think I'll nickname this "The Mad Hatter") Ordinarly I'd throw this kind of monstrosity out immediately, but the plant is so healthy and vigorous that its a temptation to keep it as a novelty. Good thing it has no stigmas or stamens, huh? *laughs*

I have R. woodsii pollen to spread around.....gotta run!

R. nutkana

I love this graceful, hardy species, but I can't think of a great way to use it this year. The last thing I want to do is cross it with some modern HT or Floribunda, because thats not at all the kind of character I want out of it. What would you do if you had 2500 different roses to cross R. nutkana with???

They just keep getting better.

The 77-07 group of L83 seedlings continue to flower, and yesterday there was a new crimson seedling that is the best of the lot so far. (Click on photo) Today this bloom has opened to a deep crimson red with purplish splashes on the outer petals, expanding to 4" in diameter. Slight fragrance. Very busy afternoon watering and out pollinating some of the Rugosas, but I wanted to share this photo with you.

The search for yellow through L83, part II

There isn't a lot to say here that wasn't said in the previous post. This is another "orange" seedling obtained from an L83 cross. This time I used 'Golden Angel' as the seed parent. It is surprising how easily influenced by the seed parent these L83 hybrids are. Very few of these have been five petaled blooms (L83 is a five petaled pink) and in fact, most have been quite full. This selection is one of only two from this group that has shown any yellow pigment worth mentioning. It has been potted into a five gallon can for growing on. It will be allowed to open pollinate to determine if it is fertile. The L83 seedlings from '07 are looking very promising. I'll need to get these propagated and tested in some Northern gardens ASAP.

More from L83: 37-07-03

The seedling pictured here comes from a cross of Ralph Moore's yellow breeder 1-72-1 X L83, the AgCan tetraploid Kordesii breeder. The idea here, of course, was to work towards yellow in the Winter hardy, Blackspot resistance line. This is as close as any of this group has come to yellow, and it is peachy pink with a yellow center at best, but I think it represents a step towards better things. As 1-72-1 is a tetraploid yellow miniature climber, the likelihood is that all of this group are tetraploids also, and therefore fertile with any luck. The first thing I will do is allow these seedlings to self and see if seeds result. Then next year, if the open pollinated seeds germinate, I will make some intentional crosses, probably mating this with other peachy seedlings from the same cross. (There is one other so far and many still to bloom) I will undoubtedly mate this with the 'Golden Angel' X 'John Davis seedling mentioned a few days ago.