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Progress
in my Hybridizing Program,
Part 2
Getting back to the Gallicas, I am still working in this group of roses, working with both named cultivars and seedlings of my own involving Gallicas and modern roses. I have a seedling bed where many Gallica seedlings have been planted out over the years for evaluation. I find that more than any other roses, the Gallica hybrids need at least three years to show their true merit. There is one particular seedling I am watching closely that has the most exquisite OGR shaped blooms with about 150 petals in a rich violet-purple color that often reminds me of the best colors of 'Reine des Violette'. Nicknamed “Violet Lobb” (it was bred before I started keeping records of my crosses using code numbers) it came from a cross of 'Tuscany Superb' X 'William Lobb'. It too is a once-bloomer, but it has grown into a handsome shrub with clusters of very beautiful, heavily perfumed blooms. I will begin taking cuttings next year to see if it will be “propagation friendly”. One of the most rewarding Gallicas to breed with is 'Duchesse de Montebello'. There are some OGR experts that have suggested that 'Duchesse de Montebello' has Noisette blood in its makeup, which may indeed be true. David Austin has included it in his early breeding work and obtained some remontant offspring in the first generation, so we know that there are latent genes for remontancy in this rose. Three years ago I made a few crosses using 'Duchesse de Montebello' as the seed parent, and various roses as the pollen parents. One cross was made using 'Buff Beauty' as the pollen parent, and a few seeds were obtained. Interestingly, although 'Buff Beauty' is a triploid, it does have somewhat fertile pollen and will occasionally set viable seed. From this cross one seedling was kept, having 2.5 inch cupped blooms with over 100 petals each, in clusters of three to seven. The blooms are very fragrant and the color of ivory, with cotton candy colored picotee and a honey-gold tint at the center. While this is a lovely thing to behold when in bloom, the plant lacks vigor and tends to be far too floppy to made a good garden specimen.
A far more successful cross was 'Duchesse de Montebello' X 'St. Swithun'. This group was gradually culled down to two seedlings, both of which have very double, semi-cupped blooms in a beautiful blush pink color. In 2004 the best of these two was introduced by The Uncommon Rose as 'Allegra'. It makes a five by five foot bush that is loaded with 3.5 inch soft pink blooms of absolute perfection for several weeks in early Summer. 'Allegra' has a superb sweet fragrance as well, and has been nearly 100% disease free in my test garden. (Although I can't guarantee it will perform the same in all gardens, I feel certain that it will have much better disease resistance than many other modern roses) One other cross I made in 2001 involved 'Duchesse de Montebello' and Austin's exquisite 'Abraham Darby'. Every year I use 'Abraham Darby' in my work and I often find a number of very beautiful seedlings among its offspring. This particular cross was no exception. Although about 20 seedlings were raised, only one had the right combination of peach-yellow coloring, large bloom size, fragrance and good vigor. That seedling has now been named and will be introduced in 2005 as 'Marianne'. It has the most exquisite 4 inch cupped blooms, with well over 100 petals, all arranged in perfect swirls. To me, it looks just like a peach colored 'Charles de Mills'! The shrub itself is quite modern looking, with fairly glossy medium green foliage and robust growth to about 7 feet tall and about as wide. In the test garden this has shown very good disease resistance, much better than many modern shrubs.
Speaking of 'Charles de Mills', I have once again resumed work with this Gallica, using it as a seed parent. In 2004 I made two crosses on 'Charles de Mills', using 'Chianti', itself one-half Gallica, and my favorite 'Tuscany Superb'. The cross with Austin's lovely 'Chianti' will probably yield some seedlings that have the genes for latent remontancy, however, that was not my goal with these crosses. (It would be impossible to determine which seedlings had the remontancy genes without testing them in breeding to see which ones produced remontant offspring; a considerable task) I will be quite satisfied to generate new once-bloomers if they are superior individuals with great beauty, disease resistance and generosity of bloom. My previous efforts in this area have proven to me that there is still an appreciative, though small, audience for the spectacular Spring bloomers. Having grown up in a cold climate where the Hybrid Teas I grew as a teenager rarely survived more than two seasons, I appreciate shrubs that can take long, cold Winters without dying to the snowline or further. And so, I continue to pursue my work with the Gallicas, generating two lines of breeding: remontants and non-remontants. Currently I am evaluating a few other Gallica Hybrids for potential release, including a beautiful seedling with deep violet Old Rose style blooms with well over 100 petals and great fragrance. This particular seedling was bred in 1999 from 'Tuscany Superb' using the old Moss rose 'William Lobb' as the pollen parent. Unfortunately it is difficult to propagate, so I am hesitant to release it. Nurseries don't want new roses that are a challenge to propagate, which is understandable. Working with one of my 1999 seedlings (now in commerce under the name 'Gallicandy') I hope to achieve new remontant roses in the style of the Portland Damasks. While I admire the work of David Austin, I look at what he has created and feel that in the pursuit of repeat blooming bushes for the modern garden, he rushed too quickly away from the true "Old Rose" style of shrub. Some of the better English roses are indeed spectacular plants, 'Mary Rose' being a prime example. However, too many of the rest of them lack character as shrubs. I would like to continue work with some of my favorite Gallica X Modern Shrub seedlings with the goal of retaining the low-growing, moderately suckering habit, while offering at least two flushes of bloom per year. Oone of the most Gallica-like Portlands I grow is 'Indigo', a superb dark purple remontant shrub that looks very much like a true Gallica from top to bottom. If I could create new roses using this cultivar as my model, I will be a happy hybridizer indeed. As an aside, I am curious how the Portlands came to be. While it has been sugested that the group involves either the Chinas or R. damascena bifera which gave them their remontancy, I suspect that a number of them may have arisen as sports of non-remontant varieties. We know this has happened with some of the Damasks, the 'Perpetual White Moss' being one example. So, replicating the breeding that lead us to the Portlands could be difficult. I have noticed that when I work with my Gallica X Modern Shrub seedlings, 'Gallicandy' for example, it takes only one more generation of modern genes to arrive at progeny that have little or none of the Gallica habit. What I expect I will have to do is find a few moderately remontant seedlings and start crossing them with each other to regain the remontancy factor without losing the Gallica style of shrub. Surely this will take a few generations, but I am motivated to make some good shrubs of this style without falling victim to the urge to rush towards the modern remontant style. I spoke briefly about hardiness as one of my goals. While I admit that I will not shy away from a potentially beautiful cross just because the offspring will have diminished hardiness, I do keep in mind the need for more Winter hardy varieties. With this in mind, I did a few crosses with the Svedja hybrid 'William Baffin', undoubtedly the best known of the Canadian Explorer series of roses. (Surely the Svejda hybrids are a key to Winter hardy roses of the future.) In 2003, the one cross I made was 'Penny Ante' X 'William Baffin'. The seed parent is one I have used for several years: it is a yellow and red blend Miniature that sets seed readily and often imparts good color to its offspring, and produces a good percentage of full-sized shrubs. In this cross, the results were very surprising: out of 75 seedlings, only three bloomed! Two were whitish seedlings with poor growth and were discarded immediately. The third seedling was a sturdy grower of Miniature habit, bearing clusters of peachy colored HT shaped blooms with about 15 petals. While I think this is an unremarkable seedling, I kept it with the knowledge that it had genes for greatly improved hardiness in it. I did not dead-head the second set of blooms and the plant readily set seed, so it will be included in breeding starting in 2005. Perhaps this could offer some unique opportunities when combined with my Gallica seedlings, or with Rugosas? One of the Rugosa hybrids I have had the good fortune to work with was given to me by Ralph Moore. It is a sibling from the cross that produced 'Linda Campbell': 'Anytime' X 'Rugosa Magnifica'. Like its sister, it is a red blooming shrub, but a more blue-red hue than 'Linda Campbell'. It has about fifteen petals and blooms in large clusters, having a moderate Rugosa fragrance. Ralph calls it simply “Magseed”, and it works occasionally as a seed parent, but is highly fertile as a pollen parent. So far it has shown to have one drawback in breeding: a percentage of its progeny are not free bloomers, and some seedlings never flower at all. However, like any line of breeding, I remind myself that the thing is to select to avoid this problem. All you need is one seedling that blooms freely to hit the mark. Since this 'Penny Ante' X 'William Baffin' seedling has some Rugosa genes in it (through R. kordesii), I will attempt to cross it with “Magseed” next year with the idea that the Rugosa hardiness and shrub influence will be reinforced, and some highly remontant progeny will result.
One of my loftier pursuits has been the breeding of a new, fully remontant spotted rose. There are but a few survivors from the 1800's of this type, the best known is perhaps 'Alain Blanchard', a Gallica hybrid. I wish there had been some documentation of its breeding so that I had a clue as to where this spotting trait came from, but alas, breeders of that era were loathe to give away their secrets. (To be fair, some modern hybridizers are no less secretive!) Years ago I vividly recall seeing several of Cheryl Netter's 'Alain Blanchard' seedlings published on her web site and was wowed by their beauty. A few years ago I grew a few open pollinated seeds from 'Alain Blanchard' myself and planted them out into the test garden. After five years of watching these grow and develop, I selected one to introduce. It has been named 'Song of the Stars' and will be available in limited quantities from The Uncommon Rose beginning in 2005. 'Song of the Stars' is a richly colored rose with a very similar growth to its parent, but the blooms are a darker, more “grapey” color and with more pronounced spotting. It makes a shrub of about 5 X 5 feet and is, of course, a Spring-bloomer only. Unfortunately it has proven very difficult to propagate from cuttings, so availability will likely always be limited. Click Here to Continue to Part 3
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