Rose Hybridizers Association

Uh oh! I..um…I actually…just started hand-pollinating 2 weeks ago. I know most of you start hybridizing right away, but for me, the blooms from the main flush in June are cut off so that I can use the stems for propagation, since my goal is to hybridize AND to propagate the rose varieties that I already love. My genius idea this year was to plant all of my parent roses in pots so that I could bring them indoors in an unheated space under growlights to finish ripening the rose hips, so the hips that are forming will hopefully be kept frost-free while the rose slows down and eventually enters dormancy. I’ll probably fail again like I did last year, but so far, having roses in pots has been very convenient. I move them around the yard regularly so that they can get the most sun, since the sun has already shifted so much since the summer solstice and their previous locations are somewhat shaded now during the day. I don’t mind. I only have 1 cross that I’m very interested in, and even if I fail, my priority for this year is to keep the roses alive and to successfully get my rooted cuttings through the winter, since many of my roses had extensive dieback last year due to our stupid Midwest winters. I wish you all luck with your efforts!

The last 2 seasons I have gone as hard as my roses would allow really. Not sure I will be able to keep up that level of crossing in the future. But saying that I have got a lot of pollen frozen for next year!

Indeed, @James_D ! Congratulations on your successful year! Here too, the season is finally here. I harvested the last hips from my crosses yesterday. Still have some OP hips remaining, I’ll get them this weekend. It’s been a small harvest this year, I had to spend a lot of time away from home and didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but it’s better than nothing!

The harvest has started, how close is everyone else to their harvest, is it going well?. Once again it looks like I am having an unbelievably good year. I guess we shall have to wait for germinations. But my indigo is on a mission this year. Way over 100 seeds so far, with about 7 hips to go! If I get one germination from my own plant " Goliath" which I have quite a few hips to go and over 30 seeds then I will spend next season throwing the kitchen sink at it. Very excited for the next seasons germinations to start and to hopefully have the winners of this season flowering to show me it’s all worth it! 4 posts - 3 participants Read full topic

The harvest has started, how close is everyone else to their harvest, is it going well?. Once again it looks like I am having an unbelievably good year. I guess we shall have to wait for germinations. But my indigo is on a mission this year. Way over 100 seeds so far, with about 7 hips to go! If I get one germination from my own plant " Goliath" which I have quite a few hips to go and over 30 seeds then I will spend next season throwing the kitchen sink at it. Very excited for the next seasons germinations to start and to hopefully have the winners of this season flowering to show me it’s all worth it!

Do you think you are coming to the end of your germinations for the season. How many have you had now/ how many have you kept?

I’d think probably heat or residual frost damage. I’m not aware of a disease which would cause damage to the pith like that without major discoloration. If the bud beneath it is swelling, most likely the damage was confined to that area and the growth beneath it is OK. I’d watch and see.

While I was pruning a rose today, I noticed the following damage. It’s located at the tip of a long shoot. Could this be old damage from a late frost, perhaps damage from heat and drought stress over the past few months, or a pest infestation? I didn’t see any sawdust. However, the bud behind has started to swell. What do you think?

While I was pruning a rose today, I noticed the following damage. It’s located at the tip of a long shoot. Could this be old damage from a late frost, perhaps damage from heat and drought stress over the past few months, or a pest infestation? I didn’t see any sawdust. However, the bud behind has started to swell. What do you think? 2 posts - 2 participants Read full topic

Actually, that’s an easy answer. My experience from the beginning and it holds true today is, if a seedling is a weak grower, it has junk roots. A vigorous seedling has GOOD roots. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an OGR, species, HT, floribunda, shrub, etc. offspring, if it is weak, has overly thin wood, sparse foliage it doesn’t have a decent root system. Emptying seedling tables to pot up those I want to evaluate further shows it constantly. There will be a massive seedling with an enormous root system and MANY twigs with one or two little roots and they have never developed into anything worth growing when individually potted. I won’t hold them until flowers can be forced from them for fear of raising another “pretty face” demanding budding because we’ve been damned with too many thousands of those cursed things over the past century. I refuse to add to the tsunami of garbage the market has promoted. If the seedling isn’t good on its own, it’s out.