4.12.25 Overwintering seedlings and more

 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 improve their features. 

If too many unnecesary seedlings are kept, I may run into the risk that the best seedlings (those which are really worth keeping and propagating) will be neglected and finally can get lost. From my experience I learned one important thing — it is not difficult to create a seedling of your dreams, but it is difficult to create a LASTING variety, and the difference is that a variety — is an established rose, propagated multiple times, profoundly tested in different climates and possibly registered (or being kept by many different people in their gardens or collections). This last step is propably the most difficult and the most important. Of course, this variety must represent a certain interest to collectors or/and gardeners. I will talk about that ‚interest‘ later, but I hope it is clear what I mean.

Recently I finished the harvest of my seeds of this year. They are about 1300 in number and they are stored in the fridge now. I wanted to keep the number of crosses as short as possible, but there were hips with so many achenes inside, that the overall seed number increased very quickly.  I can imagine that only about 1/3 of that amount will turn into viable seedlings, and only 1/3 (~ 140) of that third will be left afer preliminary selection. From that number I will have to choose the best ones for planting in my test field, and they must be not more than 30. That is how easy the number goes down at this step of selection.  And finally, I will have to select the best out of those 30 to graft them on rootstocks. So, this a preliminary plan for the nearest future. 

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I visited castle Schloß Hof recently and spotted Eryobotria japonica trees in the gardens. These were fresh plantings as I have never seen them before. I am really curious how they withstand our winter. They must be not too hardy, so I guess it is a bit risky to have them there, but who knows, maybe they can tolerate more cold, especially because they are big trees and not very young plants.