Hello! I hybridize roses and daylilies, trying to produce new varieties of a gardener‘s interest. Here I give an insight into my routine work with plants, mainly with hybridization, nursering young plants, selection process and all my ups and downs during this exciting journey. I started my hybridization experiments about 10 years ago, and since then I managed to produce some varieties which are still in testing. Hybridization of roses and daylilies is done in Vienna, Austria, in my rooftop garden, where I keep my parent plants (mostly, pollen parents, as I can collect pollen elsewhere). It is very important to have them within reach for a swift handling and for statistics. The young seedlings are kept there as well. Hence, the first step of selection is made in my rooftop garden. Those seedlings who performed well, are taken to my test field, which is about 120 km away to the north-west of the country. My test field is an untamed area, with a different climate, where only t...
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...
Yesterday we cleaned the hem beds and a big rose seedling bed, despite terrible heat. I started rearranging my earlier hem seedlings in the big bed to make space for hems propagation. I took some photos of my rose seedlings: Latein (Penny Lane x Novalis), in propagation Signum (Olivia x GroĆherzogin Luise) Claire Marshall x Zeitgeist (my own seedling) Druide (Ashley x Blue for You) Startklar (Chateau de Cheverny x Arethusa) Penny Lane x Bright Eyes
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