NOTES ON HYBRIDIZING

 Currently, two biggest roses in my field are: ‘Erinnerung an Brod’ and ‘Aennchen von Tharau’ (Geschwind). Well, they were planted about 4 or 5 years ago, however they can’t be named optimal growers since they also suffered from different malconditions (of course, it’s not their fault). Nevertheless, they are doing quite ok, in my view, if compared to many other varieties. Further, I’ve got these two once-blooming seedlings which I decided to keep.  This one is a gallica hybrid (Capri x Soleil Brilliant). Overwintered with no protection at all. Survived and bloomed. Wonderful flowers, very full, heavy petals texture, resistant to heat, great scent, beaming color. Another one is Blue for You x Zigeunerknabe. Survived with no winter protection at all. Not too many blooms, but the plant looks good and promises to be a bigger shrub. I loved the bloom color. Darker shade, with even darker petal rims, with bright yellow stamens, they seem to be lit from the middle. Scented! The bloo...

 There are some once-blooming (non-recurrent) seedlings which overwintered well, and I managed to save some old wood, so they could be able to bloom on it.  Images (above -> bottom): Chateau de Cheverny x Soleil Brilliant, Chateau de Cheverny x Soleil Brilliant (full sibling to previous), Blue for You x Zigeunerknabe, Paco Rabanne x Prairie Peace, Blue For You x Ash Wednesday, Summer Song x Soleil Brilliant, Capri x Soleil Brilliant.  I find it amazing to be able to cross with old roses, such as gallica hybrid, Soleil Brilliant, to expand genetic backround in its decendants. It is because if we breed only within modern roses, we may be quite limited, since genetics of modern roses was shown to be narrowed down to a considerably small number of progenitors. 

 Hybridization of roses for this year is almost done. I will make a bit more crosses using pollen from my test field, but roses have to bloom there in the first place. It will take some time, I think, now they are only buds, but no blooms yet. However, things are in motion. I started hybridization in daylilies. Here are some daylilies which bloomed recently: Sir Francis Drake, Scarlet Affair, New Paradigm, Quoting Hemingway, Deep Waters, Bowtie Affair.

 Currently I’m very busy with transferring small daylily seedlings of this year from flower boxes to the test bed. There are still several hundreds to go. I will do this consequently, box by box. In parallel, some bigger seedlings of roses, also of this year, are placed into a new test bed. Many more to come during this summer. I have to water them regularily, though.  I have already performed about 65 new hybridizations in roses. This year I won’t make too many, as I have to make backups of the seedlings from previous years. I will probably make about 100, and will have to stop. However, making too few isn’t good, as the chances of getting a good seedling in that case can be reduced quite significantly. Some daylilies begin blooming. I haven’t start hybridizations here, but if I see a matching pair blooming simultaneously, I will. Here are my earliest bloomers: Big Red Wagon, South Bound Odyssey, Puma, Tasmanian Devil, Phoenician Secrets, Bowtie Affair, Cutting Loose.