Sunday Snapshot ... A New Seedling

Yesterday morning, while I was working in the Miniature Garden, I discovered a tiny seedling that had sprouted underneath one of the roses.  This whole plant is only three inches high, and that fat bud is the size of a pea.

Today after breakfast, I grabbed my camera and ran outside to see if the bud had opened ... I was not disappointed.  Look at this!

This tiny flower is only one-half-inch in diameter, and it's far from perfect, but it's one of the sweetest things that I have seen in a LONG time.  Yellow petals, with that fat orange edge, and a frosty white tip ... and it's a SINGLE!!  

The seedling grew underneath 'Simplex', so I will assume that it is the seed parent.  The pointy petals seem similar.

Which rose provided the pollen?  The only orange rose nearby is 'Orange Honey'  It has orange and yellow in the petals, so I think it's a good guess.

For now, I'm going to leave the seedling to grow right where it is.  I put a metal tag stand over it to protect it and to remind me that it's there.  It's going to be exciting to see how this little baby changes as it matures.

Speaking of babies ... do you remember the seedling that I found last year growing underneath 'Lilian Austin'?

This year, it has been in bloom continuously since the first flower opened in the middle of last month.  The flowers are three inches in diameter, the color glows as if they were lit from within, and they are fragrant!

Even with a year of growth and maturity so far, this plant is still small and immature (it's about a foot and a half high and it sprawls).  That's okay for now.  Watching seedlings like this grow and change as they get older is best part of raising them.

Happy Sunday, Everybody!

A Chance Seedling

Last Thursday, I was pulling weeds in the English Garden.  While working near 'Lilian Austin', I found a tiny rose.  At first, I thought that it was a sucker (since that's what these things almost always turn out to be.)  In this case, it was a seedling ... a distinctly different little rose, probably resulting from a seed in a rose hip that fell underneath the mama plant last fall ... and Seedling had a bud on it that was almost ready to open.

Just like any sort of offspring, plant seedlings are a combination of the genetics of each of their parents.  Considering the color of that bud, there is no doubt that one of Seedling's parents (the seed parent, most certainly, based on where it's growing) was 'Lilian Austin'.  The other parent has to be one of the Noisette roses in that garden, judging from the shape of the bud and the receptacle (that's the bulby part of the bud at the top of the stem).

Seedling's slim, coppery pink bud and round receptacle.

Fat, round buds on 'Lilian Austin'

Slim buds on "Frazer's Pink Musk", which grows immediately beside 'Lilian Austin'

The leaves on Seedling resemble its mama's rounded leaves.

Seedling's leaves

'Lilian Austin' leaf

"Frazer's Pink Musk" leaf

From the time I found Seedling on Thursday morning, I kept a very close eye on it ... checking on it multiple times per day and anxiously waiting for that bud to open.  

Thursday afternoon ... nothing.

Friday, morning and afternoon ... nothing

Saturday ... nothing

Sunday morning .... Eureka!!!

See it down there?

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce the newest unnamed member of the Hartwood Roses family.  It has the same coppery pink color as its mama, with a respectable set of stamens that makes my little rose-loving heart go pitter patter.

Finding this tiny plant makes me feel as if I've been given a wonderful surprise gift.  There's more to come soon, because it has already started to produce another branch.  I can't wait to see what it looks like and how it behaves as it matures.

For right now, I will leave this seedling in place underneath its mama.  Soon, though, I will carefully dig it up and give it a place in the garden to call its own.

Sunday Snapshot: One Last Seedling

Every year, I gather some ripe rose hips and plant the seeds.  Most of the time, I don't get anything special to grow ... though I do have one really nice yellow rose in the garden that I grew from seed. 

Rose seeds can germinate in as soon as six to eight weeks after planting, or it can take months (or even years).  I planted this year's batch of seeds in February.  My flats of seeds have been sitting on my kitchen counter since then.  I haven't had a sprout for months ... this morning I decided to reclaim my counter and get rid of the flats.

 

 

When I took off the lids in preparation to dump the flats, I found this last little sprout.  It's a tiny thing ... no more than a day or two old.

 

This seed came from 'Frances Ashton', a dark pink, 5-petaled Hybrid Tea rose from 1937.

 

 

I used a fork to carefully lift the sprout and transfer it to a larger pot, and I put that pot in a protected place outside on the deck.  Then, I followed through with my initial plan ... I dumped the flats and I reclaimed my counterspace. 

 

Happy Sunday, Everyone!!

Transplanting the Sprout

The little rose seedling from my last post was getting too long too fast, as if it was struggling to reach the light, so this morning I lifted it from the seed tray and transplanted it into its own little pot.

 

 

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.  I needed a tool that was small enough to lift the seedling from its small cell, but large enough to keep and hold an adequate ball of soil to protect the seedling's tender root.  A silver pickle fork looked like it would be the perfect tool for the job ...

 

 

... and it was!   Using the fork, I carefully lifted the seedling out of the corner of the cell, and it came out perfectly!  (There is another seed in this cell, so I had to lift just the seedling and not disturb the rest of the cell.)

 

 

 

Downstairs in my basement workshop, I put a small amount of potting mix into a bowl, added some water, and stirred it up (using the pickle fork for this, too)  ...

 

 

... filled a 3-inch pot with the mix, and hollowed out a hole about the size of the little seedling's root ball ...

 

 

... and used the fork to gently place the seedling into the hole.  I used the tip my finger to firm the mix lightly around the rootball, and then gently watered the pot to settle the seedling into its new home.

 

 

Now the pot is under the grow light, keeping company with some of my rose cuttings from the fall.  

 

 

More news on this as leaves form and especially (fingers crossed) when/if we get a bud and a flower.

A Sprout!!

Remember the rose seeds that I showed you in THIS post from the beginning of February?  I'm excited to tell you that the first sprout showed up this morning!

 

 

The flats holding the seeds have been sitting on my kitchen counter for seven weeks.  They're here because this is a good spot for me to keep a close eye on them.

 

 

 

I check them every day (not hard to remember to do this, since they're in the middle of the kitchen).  This morning, I saw this:

 

 

 

The seed that sprouted came from 'White Wings', a beautiful single, white Hybrid Tea rose.

 

Photo taken in October at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden.

 

 

My handful of fat hips.

 

 

 

 

The sprout is so incredibly tiny ... only about a centimeter tall.

 

 

 

As soon as the cotyledons clear the soil and open completely, I will carefully lift the sprout and plant it into its own little pot.  It will then go to live in the basement workshop under the grow light till the weather is warm enough for it to live in the greenhouse.

 

 

 

Now I'll be waiting impatiently for this baby's first flower. 

 

This is so exciting!!  More updates to come, of course, as additional seeds sprout ... or whatever else happens.