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Part two

Another of the seedlings from my own breeding program is this one, a Gallica Hybrid from 1998. I have been evaluating thise rose for 4 years now, and have decided to name and register it, as I am satisfied that it is a quality rose. When I have completed the registration for it, I will announce it here on my web site.

This hybrid came out of a cross using 'Tuscany Superb' as the seed parent. Some labels were mixed up during seed harvest, so I am uncertain what the pollen parent was, but I suspect it was 'Othello'. Whenever a Gallica is used as a parent, the offspring are almost always once-bloomers. This rose is no exception, however, it blooms over a VERY long period. It started blooming before many other Gallicas this spring, and it was still blooming long after the others finished. I can't quote you exact times, but I believe it was in bloom for nearly 6 weeks!

In my attempts to breed new Moss Roses, I have chosen the rather challenging route of returning to the once-blooming OGR type Mosses to infuse some of their unique colors. Specifically, I am looking to create a purple Moss Hybrid with the color of 'Nuits de Young', but on a shrubbier plant that repeats all season long. A few years ago I came up with a hybrid using 'Nuits de Young' as a parent. This new hybrid is called 'Nightmoss', and has proven to be quite fertile as a seed parent. Last year I crossed it with 'Scarlet Moss' and obtained about 15 seedlings. Several of these bloomed this spring, and the best of them is the rose illustrated here, at right.

As it is a cross of a once-bloomer and a remontant moss, it blooms only once, yet it carries one set of genes for repeat bloom. It appears that it will set seed, and its pollen is fertile, so I am proceeding to the next generation to regain the repeat blooming habit. The color is not as rich as I had hoped, but it may come out in the next generation when crossed with the right parent. The bloom you see here is about 2.5 inches across, and the buds are VERY mossy. There is no fragrance however. Perhaps that can be obtained in further breeding.

Another of the more successful Moss Hybrids I have bred is this purple Moss you see here at left. I don't always hybridize with the idea of creating repeat blooming roses......some of my very favorite roses are once bloomers. In a way, I value these even more than the repeat bloomers, because their blooms are more rare, and I treasure their fleeting display more.

Some of the nicest Moss roses are once bloomers, including 'William Lobb', a very large climbing Centifolia Moss. 'William Lobb' was one of the roses that contributed genes to Ralph Moore's early work on the Miniature Moss Roses, and so I turned to it also for breeding. Something I wanted to create was a dark purple Moss Hybrid on a large, vigorous plant. A reliable parent for rich color and vigor I have used often is 'Tuscany Superb', a fine old Gallica hybrid. Matching it up with 'William Lobb' seemed like a good idea, and at least one of the offspring has bloomed with rich color and good mossing on the buds. (At left)

This plant has excellent vigor with healthy disease resistant foliage, and it appears that it will make a very densely branched shrub. As its pollen parent is a climber, I suspect this seedling may end up being a climber when it matures.

On a spring trip to California this spring, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden in San Jose. My host, Mel Hulse gave me the royal tour of the enormous collection, and I had only time enough to get an overall impression of this fantastic garden. During the tour, Mel showed me one of his favorite roses, the recently acquired 'Secret Garden Musk Climber'. This rose, presumed to be a R. moschata hybrid, was discovered in California by Joyce Demits a few years ago. I will quote Jeri Jennings from the ARS article about the rose:

"Joyce Demits, of Fort Bragg, found this rose, along with another, equally-unknown rose of Noisette-type, in an old garden near Sonora, California. She tells us that it will reach twenty feet or more, in maturity. It is, she says, not reliably cold-hardy below Zero, but in a mild climate, it blooms continuously, and appears to be completely disease free. Not surprisingly, Joyce notes that the rose is very Musk-like in its botanical characteristics (and, of course, in its scent). "

Mel hopes that the 'Secret Garden Musk' will gradually make its way into commerce over the years, as it is a wonderful shrub that has excellent qualities in the right climate. I am looking forward to seeing it perform in my own collection, as I was very impressed with it when I saw it in San Jose. In the future when my plant is big enough to propagate, I will share cuttings with interested Rosarians.

Well, although I could go on for pages to show you the new roses I have obtained or hybridized this year, I have to end this article before it gets unmanageably long! My final entry today is another of my own hybrids, a seedling from a cross I made 2 years ago. One of my most beloved roses is 'Gloire de Dijon', the climbing Tea/Noisette. Although I found it to be VERY difficult to hybridize with, I was determined to make at least a few crosses with it a couple years ago. One of the only roses it would accept pollen from was the Austin rose, 'Abraham Darby'. I got a couple dozen seeds from several hips, and the following spring, a few of them germinated. Most of them were weak and disease prone, and were eventually discarded. This seedling (at left) was one of 3 that were kept for further evaluation. (The other 2 are warm pinks that are still struggling to build up some size)

This rose is a very soft, clear lemon yellow, paling to cream-white at the perimeter. Blooms form is very much like the seed parent, 'Gloire de Dijon', but the blooms are rarely as big as that. I suspect this rose will grow better if grafted onto a strong rootstock, which is what I will experiment with this year. It doesn't like cool wet weather, and blooms don't open properly if it is dull weather. However, when it does bloom well, it is gloriously beautiful! I doubt this will ever be seen outside of my own garden, but it has been a pleasure watching it grow and bloom.

For me, the magic of growing and hybridizing roses lies not in the beauty of the individual bloom, rather, it is the vast variety of form, habit and fragrance the genus has to offer. No other genus of plant has engaged so many people with such intensity, and none other has enjoyed the efforts of so many talented and creative hybridizers over the centuries. We should be grateful to the people who have worked tirelessly to create fantastic roses for us to enjoy, both old and new. I am glad to be living in an era when no longer is the Hybrid Tea the only type of rose grown in our gardens, as it seemed to be when I was a teenager. Do yourself a favor, and adopt a rose you might otherwise pass by......there are thousands of fascinating roses to discover.

Return to part one of this article

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