Monday, July 6, 2015

Using Unknown Pollen

While on a recent trip I came across a most beautiful and floriferous rose.  It was labeled as the species rose, Rosa arvensis.  A fellow rose breeder from France, Pascal Heitzler, who had used Rosa arvensis extensively, was able to definitively say that the rose was mislabeled, and was definitely not R. arvensis.  Unfortunately, he was not able to identify this amazing rose. 

As seen below, it is a small flowered rose, blooming in very large clusters on a vigorous plant.  The flower buds are light yellow, though the blooms fade to nearly white a few hours after opening.  The foliage is medium green, semi-glossy and appears to be very clean since I did not see any disease on this specimen although there were many other roses in the garden infected with powdery mildew, black spot, and some even had downy mildew on them.


So, being the rose breeder that I am, I needed to see if this rose could be crossed with some of my own seedlings.  I wondered whether the rose was fertile and whether I could manage to get some of it's pollen home with me.

I collected 10 unopened flower buds, in various stages of development (1-2 days from opening).  These were gently wrapped in a moistened paper towel and placed in a zip-lock bag.  Upon arriving home, the zip-lock bag was put in the refrigerator and 2-3 buds were removed each day to gather pollen for drying.  Over the course of the next 4 days I was able to make over 100 crosses onto some of my better seed parents.  Below is the pollen cup that was used (the pollen was labeled with "R. arv" even though it is not the correct name). The three buds in the photos below were the last of the 10 that had been collected.


Five or 6 days after the buds were collected, there was still some apparently viable pollen on the last 3 buds as seen below.



The last photo was taken to demonstrate how small the flower buds were.


Now, one month later, it appears that the pollen was fertile since hips are beginning to form on the selected seed parents.  Although I hope that someone will one day be able to identify this rose, more importantly, I am hopeful that I will have some seedlings from it sprouting in my greenhouse next year.  I wonder whether this rose is remontant, or if it is a once-blooming rose, will I have to wait 2 or 3 years to see the first blooms on it's seedlings?  That is a question that will be answered next year.

11 comments:

  1. I always wanted to play with Arvensis. I have Porcelain du Chine, a rather healthy, compact and vigorous f1. Want some pollen?

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    1. Hi Jakub, I would be very interested. Thank you! Would it be possible to get some unopened buds next Spring? Have you used 'Porcelain du Chine' in your own breeding? If so, do some of its seedlings repeat bloom?

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    2. Next spring for sure! I have not used it seriously, but it itself has the odd bloom in summer and fall. I just recently expanded my "breeding collection" so 2017 will be when "real results" will come in. It is pretty much thornless, roots easily and quite healthy.

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  2. Tried posting a few times but does not show in mycket display... plast edit if double
    Could be a hybrid of helenae like "starkodder" "hybrida" or "lykkefund"

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    1. Hi Paul, thank you for your comments. What were you trying to paste? Is there a photo on the internet of the rose you think this might be? Thank you.

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    2. See
      http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.137723
      For The rose called rosa helenae "hybrida"

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  3. The mystery rose looks a lot like Rosa multiflora. The normal plant has fewer petals per flower, but the color/shape/size/etc. seems to be right.

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    1. Thank you Darren. It certainly must have some of that group in it's background. I am looking forward to seeing how the seedlings from it perform next year.

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  4. Came across this post recently, and it started me looking for doubled R. arvensis cultivars or hybrids. Could your mystery rose possibly have been this, which some think might be an arvensis hybrid: R. ‘Banksiaeflora’ https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.29001.0&tab=1

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    1. Hi ENKI, thank you for your link. The photos from “Amirose” look something like it with larger clusters, but the buds of the rose that I used were distinctly creamy colored without any hint of pink. It’s possible that different climatic conditions caused this. I would love to go back and get cuttings of this pollen parent..

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