Now that they've started blooming, and disease pressure is also currently pretty high, it's easy to see that this seedling is the best of the bunch. It's showing some black-spotting on the leaves closest to the ground, but in general is still fairly dense with healthy foliage. The flowers tend to be a little "crumpled" (sort of how 'Mutabilis' blooms usually look) but are still full enough to be pretty. And they've got a warm pink color with a light yellow eye in the center. Sadly, not much if any fragrance. And it's unlikely that there will be any repeat. But hopefully it'll be fertile enough to move this line forward.
Tom, it doesn't look overly thorny either. Is it thornless (or almost so)?
ReplyDeleteHi Simon,
ReplyDeleteI had to just go out and check. It's not prickled like a rugosa, but it definitely has plenty of "armature". It looks like all of the earlier flowers are dropping off without setting any hips, so I just tried some 'Home Run' [backcross] pollen on a few current flowers to see if I can get it to set any hips.
Next year I'll have to try some different pollens on it.
Not a single hip set and a lot of foliage dropped later in the season, but this one is still the best of the bunch. I sure hope it gets over this fertility issue next season.
ReplyDelete