The Tiniest Hulthemia

This is by far the smallest Hulthemia seedling that I have grown.  The height of the plant is not as tall as the thickness of my hand.  There are two open blooms, a third bloom opening, and a 4th bud about to open.  I cannot yet tell whether or not there will be a blotch.  Even so, just for the sake of it's novelty, I will continue to watch this one as long as it survives. At least it won't take up that much extra room!

The Hulthemia in the Striped Pajamas

This seedling, code named N210-1, sprouted last year.  It came from a batch of "OP" seeds from one of my earlier repeat blooming Hulthemias.  I have no idea what the pollen parent was, but clearly, this was not the result of a self pollination.  I had been trying for the two previous years to come up with a striped Hulthemia, and though I got a couple of them, neither was as good as this one.

It appears to have a plant habit and quantity of bloom similar to 'Ballerina'.  It has a couple of real bonuses too: it seems to be one of my cleanest Hulthemia seedlings, and it has an abundance of pollen, making it ideal for use in further breeding).  As expected, it has been put to work quite a lot this year.

P.S. This idea was inspired independently by my daughter Claire, who was 10 years old at the time, and by my favorite mentor in rose breeding, Mr. Ralph Moore (forever young at heart), who was 100 years old at the time!

A Most Remarkable Blotch

Among the new 2011 seedlings today, I had the opportunity to encounter one of the most intense blotches that I have seen thus far in the Hulthemia hybrids.  The petal color on this seedling, code named "O343", is a light cream, with a fairly large, deeply maroon blotch.

As with other very dark rose seedlings, it is possible that this blotch will burn in full sunlight.  Even so, the size and intensity of this seedling's blotch destine it to become an important parent for future generations.

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Previous experience has shown that blotch size increases with maturity.  Up until now, the Hulthemia seedling with the largest, most intense blotch has been M40-1.  In the photos below it is easy to appreciate the change of the blotch as seen in the first immature bloom to that of the more mature plant grown outside.

Of note, the seedling at the top of this post, "O343", was the result of a cross made between two new seedlings from 2010. Using superior immature Hulthemia hybrid seedlings in crosses during their first year, has helped to shorten generation time and has produced some good results.

Peak Bloom at the Sproul Rose Farm

The warmer weather has brought on the peak bloom rather quickly.  Approximately 1/3 of the 1,000 potted roses seen here are new 2010 rose seedlings that were brought outside the greenhouse for further evaluation.  They survived scrutiny in the greenhouse where more than 95% of the 2010 seedling roses were eliminated.  The rest of these are seedling roses from previous years.

My goal over the next few weeks will be to cull out 1/3 to 1/2 of these, so that only the best of the best remain.  We were fortunate to get just the right amount of downy mildew this year - not so much that the seedlings lost all their leaves, but enough to differentiate the resistant ones from the susceptible ones.  Also, keeping the pots jammed rather closely together has helped to promote blackspot.  All of this has provided a better opportunity to get a much better read on which roses are performing the best with respect to disease resistance to downy mildew, blackspot and powdery mildew.  Some of the roses are spotless.  It is from these that I would like to carry the breeding program forward.

More Hulthemia Blooms

The first 3 photos below are of more 2011 Hulthemias.  The last 2 are photos of two Hulthemias from 2010 that are blooming for the first time outside of the greenhouse.

The first seedling pictured below bloomed a few days ago, while the second one bloomed today.

The last photo of the 2011 Hulthemias, is of petals from the best striped Hulthemia to show up so far.

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Next, are photos of the 2010 Hulthemias blooming for the first time outside of the greenhouse.

The first one is of a mini single.  It stays very compact and seems to put on a good bloom display.

The last Hulthemia pictured below appears to be a spreading shrub type.  The blotch eye-zone is quite distinct and with good saturation of the blotch coloring.

Hulthemia Petals - New and Old

Today, there were many new seedlings blooming for the first time necessitating much culling.  There were many Hulthemias that had to be culled today, and many more that will be culled in the next few weeks as the seedling greenhouse explodes in color with new blooms on new seedlings.  In the first photo below, you can see the Hulthemia seedlings that didn't make the cut.  Each petal represents an individual seedling.  As can be seen, many of the petals are similar.  If plants and blooms were seen, the differences between seedlings would be easier to appreciate.  The petal/blotch represent just one trait of interest in determining which seedlings to discard, and which to keep.

The next photo represents petal for petal, surviving Hulthemia seedlings that bloomed today.  Of course it remains to be seen which will be more floriferous and which will have greater cleanliness, so it is possible that ultimately none of these will survive.  For now however, they continue to grow in the greenhouse seedling beds.

The final photo in this post is of petals of Hulthemias that have survived the test of time.  These represent some of the best that have grown in our greenhouse over the last 5 years.  From these, pollen was harvested that will be used tomorrow in crosses with the objective of developing still better Hulthemias.  One of the petals below comes from a new Hulthemia that is being introduced by Star Roses that is being named 'Eyeconic™ Lemonade'.  Some of the others are still under evaluation.

Two Better 2011 Hulthemias

The two Hulthemia seedlings that I will highlight in this post are more interesting to me than the previous two seedlings that I have been writing about.  These two, exhibit very good blotches despite this being their first blooms.  As mentioned earlier, with maturity blotches increase both in size and in intensity

The first one, code name "O225" appears to be a smaller shrub type.  It's pollen parent is one of my favorite earlier Hulthemias carrying the code name "M62-1".  It was one of the best Hulthemias that germinated in 2009.  Unfortunately, it has very low fertility, therefore I was quite pleased to get a few hips from crosses done with it last year (most of the crosses failed).  The seed parent was 'Pearl Sanford'.  This new seedling shows more evidence that when a repeat blooming (presumably tetraploid) Hulthemia that has an excellent blotch (presumably having more than one copy of the blotch gene(s)), is crossed with a non-Hulthemia, it is still possible to get a good blotch.

As seen in this seedling, I prefer Hulthemias that have a lighter area around the blotch because it sets off the blotch very nicely.  It is harder to appreciate the blotch in seedlings that do not do this - as will be seen in the next seedling.

The next seedling is very unusual, and it appears to be a micromini.  This is the first time that I have had such a small Hulthemia seedling showing such a dark blotch on it's first bloom.  It comes from a complex line, where the seed parent has 'Persian Sunset' in it's background, while the specific pollen parent is unknown (I used mixed pollen from seedlings coming from a cross of 'Cal Poly' X "L83-4").  L83-4 is a cream colored Hulthemia having a fairly larger purple/red blotch.

In the above photo, it is difficult to appreciate the size of the blotch, or even the size of the seedling bloom.  The blotch is even more difficult to appreciate due to the color of the anthers.  They are unusual in that they are a deep red.  For that reason, in the following photo, I removed the anthers and used a centimeter measuring stick to provide better clarity.

As you can see, the bloom is very small, and with the anthers removed, it is much easier to appreciate the blotch.

To be complete, I also removed the anthers from the first seedling and present a photo of it below:

Not knowing whether either of these will be fertile, I have collected the anthers of both and will use their mixed pollen in crosses onto some of my Hulthemia seed parents over the next two days.  I have learned from experience that many of the Hulthemias with the best blotches seem to have lower fertility - that is why I like to mix their pollen.  Curiously, although the bloom size difference between these two seedlings is quite large, the anthers appear to be approximately the same size.

2011 Seedling Update - Seedlings Blooming!

Well the two seedlings that we have been watching have bloomed!  Neither one is very impressive.  The first seedling does turn out to be a Hulthemia, although you cannot tell readily by just looking at the bloom.  If you do look carefully though, you may notice a small blotch at the base of the petals. 

It is much easier however, to distinguish the blotch after the petals have been removed.  Smaller blotches tend to get hidden by the anthers.

The lighter petal reverse seen on this seedling is characteristic of most of the Hulthemias.  In my experience, the blotch has always been present only on the upper surface of the petals.  This is different from the "Halo" roses produced by Mr. Ralph Moore, where the darker coloring of the halo often shows through to the reverse side of the petals.

Although the blotch is quite small in this brand new seedling, it will be significantly larger in the mature plant.  Generally speaking, the blotch gets about 3 times larger and with deeper coloring in the second Spring bloom.

Additionally, this seedling may have too many petals.  In the first blooms there are at least 15 petals.  I would expect 5-10 more petals in a fully mature bloom.  Blooms having 20-25 petals or more will not allow the blotch to be presented in the most attractive way.

I have decided not to discard this one yet.  I do like the vigor of the plant and so far it appears clean.  There is very little powdery mildew in the greenhouse at this time, but it will soon be here in full force to help differentiate which seedlings to keep and which seedlings to discard.  If this one gets powdery mildew, it will be culled.

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The second seedling is clearly a single like the pollen parent.  The red coloring is somewhat washed out.  It's only redeeming qualities are sturdiness, well branched habit and possible good blooming power. The buds to the left and right of the open bloom belong to this second seedling.

This seedling will most likely be discarded, however, I have decided to watch it a bit longer to see what the next bloom cycle looks like.  As with the first seedling, if this seedling gets powdery mildew, it will be culled.

2011 Seedling Update - Seedlings About to Bloom

The 2 seedlings from the last post are again pictured below.  The first bud of the first seedling turns out to be a bud where one of the sepals was trying to become a leaflet.  I usually snap these kind of buds off because the bloom is typically mishapened, making it more difficult to properly judge the bloom.  In this case however, I decided to let the bud develop to show the progression from bud to bloom.  As I mentioned in the previous post, this is from a Hulthemia cross, even so, chances are that there will not be a blotch, or if there is a blotch, it is likely to be a smaller blotch since only one of the parents is a Hulthemia.  I have noted that blotches are usually bigger and more intense when both parents are Hulthemias.

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The next photo is again of the second seedling in the previous post and is not a Hulthemia.  It will be interesting to see whether it has fully double blooms like the mother (seed parent), or is a single like the father (pollen parent).  The pollen parent has been exceptionally clean, so I hope that there will be some seedlings from this cross with better cleanliness than 'Pearl Sanford', the seed parent.  

I expect both seedlings to bloom in the upcoming week, so check back here again next week if you want to see whether they are culled!

2011 Rose Seedlings Showing First Buds

I am rather excited about this year's crop of new rose seedlings.  Among the just over 48,000 rose seeds that were planted, 60% of them were the result of at least one Hulthemia parent (see description of Hulthemia Roses).  I am hopeful that something special will show up among the seedlings this year.

Last year, I made very few entries in the blog, thinking that I really needed to come up with something profound to say before actually posting something.  This year, I have decided to be more informal and just chronicle the development of this new batch of seedlings.  In that way, this will be more of a journey that will reflect real time.  Those joining me will discover with me the new seedlings as they present themselves.  I hope that you will get the same kind of enjoyment that I do in seeing one of a kind, never before seen roses that are both novel and beautiful, blooming for the first time.

So, the very first rose bud that I observed this year occurred on 3-10-11.  You can see the small flower bud in the photo below.

The above seedling is from a cross of a 'Midnight Blue' seedling acting as the seed parent, having the parentage of 'Midnight Blue' X {[('Orangeade' X 'Abraham Darby') X 'Midnight Blue'] X [('Stainless Steel' X 'Purple Tiger') X 'Baby Love']}, crossed with a new Hulthemia seedling from last year.  From this stage of development, it usually takes new seedlings about 3 to 4 weeks for them to actually bloom for the first time.

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Over the last 10 days since the first rose bud was noticed, there are many more rose seedlings beginning to produce their first flower buds.  The next photo taken on 3-19-11 (see below), is of a non-Hulthemia seedling, coming from a cross of 'Pearl Sanford' X <{'Halo Today' X ['Geisha' X ('Tobo' X 'Singin' in the Rain')]} X 'Thrive!'>.  The seed parent, 'Pearl Sanford', a pink blend exhibition type mini rose that blooms in clusters, has been my most prolific mini seed parent for the last 5 years.  The pollen parent, presented by the parentage within the "<" and the ">", is a red single mini, that appears to be extremely clean.  I am hoping for some clean red exhibition type minis and perhaps some pink blend informal type mini bushes that have good cleanliness and blooming power.  The seedling below appears quite sturdy and at this early stage resembles the pollen parent.

As the weeks go by, I will update photos of these two seedlings along with photos of others from this new batch of seedlings for 2011.  A warning though:  please do not get attached to either of the two seedlings above.  About 75% or more of new seedlings are discarded after their first bloom for various reasons (see Seedling Evaluation).  Whether or not these seedlings make the cut, so to speak, there will be some in the seedling benches that will be saved for further evaluation in the years to come.  Stay tuned!

Germination Update

It looks like the alteration in cold stratification (see previous post) did not adversely affect germination of the rose seeds.  Approximately 6 weeks after planting, 15% to 20% of the seeds have germinated.  Over the next month, I expect that number to double, which will result in a normal germination rate for the season.  Many of the seedlings are already working on their third true leaves.  Rose buds usually start forming after the 5th or 6th true rose leaf has developed.  Most of the new seedlings in the photos here involve Hulthemia crosses.  I will post photos of them as they start to bloom over the next 4 to 6 weeks.

Making Cold Stratification Easier

Over the last 2 years, I have been experimenting with the stratification process for rose seeds (this is where you give the seeds special treatment so that they have more uniform germination).  Some people do warm followed by cold stratification, but I have only used cold stratification, and it seems to work well for me.  The Rose Hybridizers’ Association (RHA) has more detailed information about rose seed stratification in their booklets on rose hybridizing, Rose Hybridizing for Beginners, and Rose Hybridizing - The Next Step (just google it).

During harvest time, hips are all collected into zip-lock bags together with other hips from the same cross.  The bag is then labeled with the cross.  What I always did in the past after the seeds were removed from the hips was to wrap them up in a paper towel (burrito style), then dip them in a large bowel of water *, carefully holding the wrapped paper towel in my hand.  Then I would squeeze out the excess water.  The damp paper towel containing the seeds would then be returned to the zip-lock bag that was labeled with the cross, and put into the refrigerator for 2 months.  This was done to simulate winter.  Note that rose seeds germinate much better after a cold period has been satisfied.  As you can imagine, if you have lots of seeds, coming from many crosses, the process of placing the seeds into paper towels, folding them, then moistening them and then placing them back into their zip-lock bags took a very long time to accomplish.  Also, since the paper towels tend to decompose while in the refrigerator, it was always quite an ordeal removing the seeds from the fragmented decomposing paper towels when it was time to plant the seeds.

Well last year, I decided to leave the seeds in the refrigerator after extraction from the hips, without putting them into the paper towels until the last 2 weeks of the cold stratification period.  I was very pleased to learn that germinations though delayed by 1-2 weeks, were just as good as the former method.  The advantage was that the paper towels did not have time to decompose, so that it was much easier getting the seeds out of the paper towels for planting.

This year I decided to try to make it even easier.  Instead of wrapping each group of seeds in a paper towel, I simply moistened a half sheet of paper towel, squeezed out the excess water and put the blob of moistened paper towel into the zip-lock bags making sure that it was in contact with the seeds.  This took half the time, and I used half the amount of paper towels.  Since I decided to do this with all of my seeds, I was a bit worried that it might affect germination.  Well, it is only 13 days since all of the seeds were planted and it appears that germination is beginning right on schedule.  I will be more certain in about 2 months whether or not germinations were adversely affected, but it looks like that will not be the case.  Stay tuned…..

* In case anyone has read my articles on my website about stratification, I have not been using Captan for the last several years.  Now, I just use plain water.

How to Make a Brand New Rose

A new rose from 'Gemini' X 'Sunset Celebration'

So, “how do you make new roses?”, you may ask.  New roses are made by cross-pollination.  You hybridize one rose with another by taking pollen from the one rose and applying it to the stigma of the other rose.  The seeds develop in the rose hip that forms after the pollination is accomplished.  For those who are new to this hobby, the rose hip (the fruit of the rose) is the rounded swelling that forms where the bloom used to be, kind of like an apple or peach that forms where the blooms were.

Wherever you live, springtime is the best time to hybridize roses, and where I live, in Bakersfield, California, the best months are in April and May. Hybridizing must be done sufficiently early to allow time (3 1/2 to 4 months) for the developing rose seeds within the hip to mature before the weather turns cold.

In order to maximize success it is important to select reliable parents for your rose hybridizing project. If you have a particular rose or two that produces lots of hips, try them for use as the seed parents (the hip bearing parent). Among the larger flowered roses, good seed parents to try are: ‘Gemini’, ‘Stainless Steel’, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, ‘Fabulous’, ‘Queen Elizabeth’, ‘Sheer Bliss’, ‘Lynn Anderson’ and ‘Livin’ Easy’.  For the minis, try  ‘Rise 'n' Shine’, ‘Fairhope’, ‘Halo Today’, ‘Black Jade’, or ‘Pearl Sanford’.   In my experience, all of these roses reliably produce hips with lots of seeds, and ultimately they all have high germination rates.

Most modern roses produce at least some pollen and can be used successfully as pollen parents. One strategy in selecting a pollen parent for a particular cross is to choose one that has some good qualities that may be lacking in the seed parent.

Before proceeding, a brief review of rose anatomy is in order. Roses are monoecious, meaning that both male (pollen) and female (seed) reproductive cells are present on flowers of the same plant. Pollen is produced in the anthers (yellow sacks at the tops of filaments surrounding the stigmas). The stigmas atop thread-like projections come out of the very center of the bloom. The stigmas produce a sticky substance to receive pollen, which after applied to the stigma, the pollen germinates and migrates down the threads to unite with the ovules to produce seeds. For more detailed information on rose anatomy please do a search on Google or any other internet search engine.

In order to prevent self-pollination of the selected seed parent, the anthers (pollen sacks) must be removed from the blooms before any of it’s own pollen is released. This is best accomplished at sunrise when blooms are in the 1/3 to 1/2 open stage (blooms that would normally open that day). First, all of the petals are removed. This procedure allows better access to the center of the flower. Next, with curved tweezers or small scissors, the anthers are removed. If the variety selected as a seed parent will also be used as a pollen parent with other roses, the anthers may be collected into a cup and placed uncovered in a dry place where they will release pollen by the next day.

Blooms that have been appropriately emasculated of their anthers are immediately ready to receive pollen from another variety. Pollen has the appearance of yellow or tan powder and may be applied with either a finger or paintbrush to the stigma of the seed parent. In order to remember what pollen parent was used for the pollination, a label (paper tags with a string attached, available at stationery stores work well) should be gently attached to the stem below the bloom, which has just been pollinated. Information written on the tag may include the cross and the date, but I just note the pollen parent (it’s easier that way).  Later, when the rose hips mature and are harvested, both parents should be written on the zip-lock bag used to store the hips in order to document the cross.  Proper notation for a cross always lists the seed parent first followed by the pollen parent. For example, in a cross where ‘Gemini’ is used as the seed parent and ‘Sunset Celebration’ is used as the pollen parent, the notation would be: ‘Gemini’ X ‘Sunset Celebration’ (or just GEM X SUN for short).

After hybridizing, it is not necessary to cover the pollinated blooms since bees and butterflies will usually ignore roses without any petals. For approximately the next 6-12 hours, care should be taken not to wash off the pollen from your crosses (by rain or overhead sprinkling). If the cross is successful, a rose hip will begin to form in 2-3 weeks. One should not expect more than about 30% of their crosses to be successful. To improve success, some rose hybridizers recommend that the rose bushes selected to be seed parents should not receive fertilizer or be watered excessively.  I used to think that too, but have found that most rose seed parents still do better with some fertilizer and normal watering.

Later on, assuming that some of your crosses are successful and you have plump rose hips forming, you can sit back and contemplate what characteristics your future rose seedlings may have, knowing that each will be one of a kind, and completely unique!

New 2010 rose seedlings growing in raised seedling benches.  Please note, roses can be grown in regular plastic pots and then later planted in the ground so that they can fully mature.

Acknowledgement of Others

Whatever special roses that I find along this path, I know that it will only have been through the guidance of others.  Although this is not a complete list, there have been several important guides for me on this journey that I would like to acknowledge in this first "Rose Hybridizing" blog post.

• Betty Jacobs was the first rose hybridizer that I had the privilege to meet.  Living in the same town as Betty made it easy for me to meet her.  She enjoyed breeding miniature roses.  She gave me my first pointers about how to cross roses.  Following her advice allowed me increased success with my own cross pollinations.  She also encouraged me to meet her mentor in rose breeding, the world famous, Mr. Ralph Moore.

• Sam Trivitt, a neighbor just around the corner, down our street, was the first "rose nut" that I met.  He was instrumental in introducing me to other rose hybridizers, most importantly to Joe Winchel and Tom Carruth.  Over the years, Sam has also been an invaluable friend to me by helping me to define my goals by being my sounding board.  He also led the group of rose friends from our local rose society that planted all of my rose seeds in 2003 when I wasn't able to due to a fractured leg.  It turns out that several seedling roses from that year have been important intermediate roses along the path, including my first repeat blooming Hulthemia rose.  There will be much more discussion about Hulthemias on this blog - stayed tuned!

• Joe Winchel, breeder of many well known exhibition roses, was an innovator.  I visited him on several occasions and each time I learned something new from him about rose breeding.  He showed me how to extract rose seeds from the rose hips by using a blender and strainers.  He also proved to me that success was possible without keeping meticulous records (I still prefer keeping records!)  He showed me how to whip bud graft and how to propagate roses from cuttings under mist conditions.  What I liked most about him was his no nonsense, kind attitude and the way that he treated his wife Agnes.  Joe and Agnes loved roses together.

• Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses taught me to look at roses critically.  From him I learned that roses were not just the flower on top.  I learned that roses had many heritable traits besides the flower that were also important - including plant structure, foliage appearance, health and floriferousness.  He also taught me the importance of not spraying seedling roses to protect them against diseases.  That has been one of the most important lessons that I have learned along this journey.  Tom also gave me my first "break" in roses by helping me to get one of my own seedling roses, 'Honey Dijon', onto the international market.

• Chris Warner, a very successful rose breeder from England, has helped me tremendously to achieve many of my goals in breeding Hulthemia roses.  With his permission, I was able to use one of his hybrids, 'CHEWtiggle', a non-remontant Hulthemia to produce my first remontant (fully repeat blooming) Hulthemia rose.  That seedling, code named "G34", has been important in the lineage of the generations of Hulthemias that have followed.  Chris, together with his friend Peter James, also allowed me to use a remontant Hulthemia coming from Peter James' breeding, nicknamed "JAMore" to improve the repeat blooming line of Hulthemia roses.

• Kim Rupert, a fellow amateur rose breeder, provided an important link for me in breeding Hulthemia roses by sending me cuttings of 'Tigris', 'Euphrates', and 'Nigel Hawthorne'.  Unfortunately, the 'Euphrates' cuttings did not "take", however, the uniquely fertile 'Tigris' cuttings did.  Through 'Tigris' I was able to develop another line of repeat blooming Hulthemia roses.

• My most important acknowledgement is to Mr. Ralph Moore.  Over the years, since first meeting him on Betty Jacobs recommendation, I have spent many days with him in and among his roses, listening to him and learning from him.  He is probably the most visionary rose person that I have ever met.  Mr. Moore developed the first striped roses and the first miniature moss roses, among many other novel type roses.  Mr. Moore was the one who got me hooked on the Hulthemias by showing me his early hybrids.  He was also responsible for giving me the opportunity to produce a second line of remontant Hulthemias through his 'Persian Sunset'.  He had a way of imparting his vision to others.  There are new rose seedlings in my greenhouse even now that were a result of crosses that I made that were inspired through conversations with him.