F1 Rosa moschata X wichuraiana

Here are some pictures of one of the F1 hybrids of the single-flowered form of Rosa moschata pollinated by Rosa wichuraiana var. poterifolia. The first picture shows the growth habit. It's been increasing in size in spite of the grass and weed competition - it's out in a field. The habit is similar to wichuraiana except maybe a little bit more upright. It makes very long, floppy canes. The second picture shows the foliage. The third picture shows a fruiting cluster and the fourth picture a bunch of harvested hips. I'm hoping that among the open-pollinated seedlings will be one that reverts to the moschata repeating type of bloom (that scent would be nice too), while maintaining the increased cold-hardiness and disease resistance from wichuraiana.
This is the parent of the seedling I posted recently that has short internodes and overlapping leaflets.

"White Clubhouse" strawberry

Still fruiting (in October) and spreading like wildfire. Perfect!!!

This is that white/yellow fruited, everbearing, runner-forming version of the woodland (Fragaria vesca) strawberry. I've harvested a bunch of seeds from pollen of this one on 'Red Wonder' alpine strawberry, so hopefully I'll have RED, everbearing, runner-forming type by Spring 2012.

1/4 Habanero Milds

Years ago I crossed a bell pepper with a variegated hot pepper (bought unlabeled). Among the F2 (grandchildren) I found a few mild offspring which became the foundation for all of my mild lines of pepper.
Along the way, I've selected for purplish foliage and general productiveness. In recent years, I've started outcrossing to various hot peppers to bring certain traits into my lines. I wanted the fuzzy stems and foliage of 'Serrano', and the general vigor and growth habit of 'Habanero'. Both of these could add some interesting fruit characteristics also.
These peppers are from: one of my mild peppers crossed with 'Habanero' pollen and then the resulting hot F1 were backcrossed using pollen of my milds. The ones pictured are a few of milds (2 yellows and a red). They are 1/4 'Habanero'. Since 'Habanero' is Capsicum chinense, the original cross with my Capsicum anuum milds was not especially easy, and there are still some lingering issues with fertility. Many of these backcross offspring have a reduced number of seeds inside - sometimes only 2 or 3. So I'm hoping to keep all the milds alive over the winter (indoors) and plant them out next year for seed production (with no hots around to pollinate them). There's so much to select for with these guys that it's not easy to make progress. In addition to growth and production characteristics, there's flavor, size of fruit and thickness of fruit wall. I'll need to have a lot of seeds in order to be able to grow a big enough population to get what I want all combined into one plant.

F2 Rosa moschata X wichuraiana

I didn't take good care of the batch of seedlings that this came from [you might have noticed by now that this is a common theme for me]. But lucky for this one, I liked its short internode growth habit and dug it out of the community pot and put it in the ground. The rest of the batch dried up during a dry spell when I forgot to water it.
I want to plant another batch of seed for these F2 (in the ground this time instead of in a pot) and keep an eye out to see if any of them will bloom the first year. My goal is to get the health and cold-hardiness of wichuraiana combined with the remontancy and great scent of moschata. This one seems to be a once-bloomer, since it hasn't bloomed at all in two growing seasons, but it IS healthy. Maybe next year it'll bloom so I can see what kind of scent it has.

'Home Run'

Here in Maryland we usually don't have to worry much about rose rust, but the infamous humidity makes for very high blackspot and mildew pressure. In spite of this, and without any spraying, 'Home Run' has been really impressive for it's health and continuous bloom. The first picture is the ugliest foliage I could find on it. This time of year most roses here will have been reduced to a bunch of sticks with foliage only at the tips. The second picture shows the overall state of the whole 'Home Run' bush. I didn't prune at all this past Spring, so it's kind of gotten a little overgrown. But just look at all the spent flowers all over it.

Sternbergia lutea

I dug and moved these Fall blooming bulbs a few weeks ago when I moved the red spider lilies. They don't seem to have minded the move (they were dormant at the time). I'm surprised these aren't more widely grown - they look like a big yellow Crocus.

Reblooming OP seedling from "MR1"

This is the only seedling I've raised to bloom from "MR1" - which is ('Fragrant Cloud' x Rosa carolina) X 'Carefree Sunshine'. I should have had a lot more by now but haven't done a great job of it. Anyway, this lone seedling isn't any healthier around here than the average Hybrid Tea or Floribunda, but it does repeat bloom and isn't too many generations away from Rosa carolina.