The
F1 hybrid Rosa davidii X virginiana bloomed well for the first time back in
early summer, but although some hips looked promising for a while, all but one
dropped well before maturity. Here's that lone ripe hip and the only seed it
contained (inset). I would have expected this hybrid to be more fertile than
this considering that both parent species are tetraploids. I even tried Rosa fedtschenkoana
pollen on some flowers and none of those worked either. This year Rosa fedtschenkoana
set hips on Rosa davidii itself, so all I can figure is that this F1 is taking after
its pollen parent (Rosa virginiana) in being so reluctant to set hips from foreign
pollens - and in this case even its own pollen! I wonder who the lucky papa of this lone seed was. Hopefully it'll germinate so I can get some idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment