Saturday, February 28, 2009

Seedlings!!

What do gardeners do in the winter? Plant seeds, of course. What do rose gardeners do? Plant rose seeds!

Here are some photos of the first germinations of seeds that I planted about a month and a half ago. All are open pollinated, meaning that the wind or bees fertilized the flower to cause the seeds to form. Many hybridizers don’t bother with open-pollinated seeds, preferring to plant only those seeds that result from their own planned breeding program. I, on the other hand, have a really wide ‘mad scientist’ streak. I plant OP seeds just to see what happens.

Maid Marion, a white noisette rose, produced tiny hips full of equally tiny seeds. These seeds germinated about two weeks after they were planted. Here they are two weeks ago:

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This is what they look like now. I think they’re starting to look a lot more like roses.

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It’s really exciting when these little guys bloom for the first time. Here are a couple of photos of my best seedlings from last year.

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This is a seedling of an unknown yellow rose in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. This is Mama … any idea what it is?

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This one is a seedling of Souvenir du Dr. Jamain, a dark red hybrid perpetual. The seedling is very, very fragrant. I can’t wait to see how it does as it matures.

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