NOTES ON HYBRIDIZING

 Visited my test field once more before the new year holidays; I do not know when I will be able to be there again, our weather forecast looks very “frosty”. Probably, I will have to wait a couple of weeks. Snow cover was very thin, not too much protection for roses. This brings again to mind, how we define the winter hardiness of our roses. In some northern regions with a lot of snow they may say a rose was definitely very hardy. However, they do not consider a snow cover which might be be even 1-2 m strong. And this cover lasts for months. Now, bring this “very hardy” rose to my conditions, where it is warmer, like plus 2-3 climatic zones, and this rose will freeze to death. We just do not have this snow cover, never mind the spring freeze, when we get about +20 C for two weeks, and then we get a frosty night, just one night (-5 C), but it is certainly enough to destroy all the new growth. So… After all, I still have conifers which are more resilient. Here are a couple of color c...

 There are some seedlings of this year left to overwinter in my rooftop garden. They are all late–germinants, many haven‘t bloomed yet… So I wasn‘t able to do any selection here. Even now it is clear how different they are, some retain foliage fully, some only partially and some not at all.  I am often asked did it get easier to cull seedlings, and the anwer was — no. It does not get any ‚easier‘ in a way of a spiritual burden, BUT it is inevitable to cull most of them. Now, as I got about hundred of pre–selected seedlings (after some years), it takes more and more effort to care for them, to propagate and to keep them going. Even though, many of them will be culled at the final stage. I will decide that after I see them grown on rootstocks. Actually, this is another (important!) part of selection: to evaluate a propagation ability — how well they are accepted by a rootstock (or rootstocks, as they may be of different types), and how good they are on that roostock, do they im...