Jill Perry I just got these open pollinated hips from you! I can't believe the size of some of the Tea hips...thank you! It will be so cool to see what seedlings come from these!

Well the first bloom of my rose seedling of (Climbing Blush Noisette Seedling X Spice) is hardly impressive, but I will give it a few more chances to bloom to see if it improves.

I was so fortunate to have known her! John

http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/home-garden/debbie-arrington/article41445819.html

After trying since 2003 to establish the true ID of the mystery rose "Barfield White Climber" rose, I am now about 99% certain it is 'WHITE TAUSENDSCHON' after I had the idea to see if there was a white sport of 'TAUSENDSCHON'. There is!!! Like "Barfield" it too is thornless and grows well in mild climate regions. I am very cautious yet confident that this ID might be correct!

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40593


http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.18298&tab=1

Cool...my first ever germinations from my rose cross of (Blush Noisette Seedling X Spice)! It will be fun to see what blooms they produce.

I've long heard from California rosarians about the incredible clove fragrance of this Mystery Climber....I've heard from Fred Boutin that it might be a chance seedling between a Floribunda and some form of Rosa moschata. Well I FINALLY got one from Roses Unlimited and it is now planted in my east driveway bed I am finishing up revamping. I can hardly wait to see and SMELL the blooms!

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.5674&tab=1

A great pic from October 1999 a few minutes after my student Kathy and I found "Fairmount Proserpine" at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver!

I saw this on FaceBook....very nice. A true gentleman who has hosted me wonderfully and was a delightful guest at my homes in Denver and here. He was a blast at the Historic Roses Group Conference in Cambridge, England in 1997. I LOVE that book! John

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/20130414/bill-grant-santa-cruz-county-stories-local-rosarian-shares-love-lore-of-heritage-roses

My "Marechal Niel' climbing yellow rose is looking spectacular today.

My 'Seagull' rambling rose is my top breeder and is in bloom and I need a cigarette.....I just boinked a bunch of blooms with fresh pollen of 'Conrad Ferdinand Meyer' and Rosa laevigata, plus some very old pollen of 'Don Juan'.

One of my earliest rose fragrance loves came from visiting Malcolm Manners' collection of the Musk (Rosa moschata) Roses in the early 90s....that cinnamon/clove perfume from the anthers (vs. the petals) is simply incredible. It is even found in the very earliest Noisette roses like 'Champney's Pink' and 'Blush Noisette' and 'Jaune Desprez'. So I am VERY excited to see these seedlings coming up from hips of 'Graham Stuart Form' of "Rosa moschata that Jill Perry so kindly picked from the fabulous San Jose Garden and mailed to me. I was there some years ago with Bill Grant, and when I think of the MANY roses' pollens that bees could have brought to the blooms on those roses I levitate! And many could well be repeat bloomers.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.16943&tab=1

A few weeks ago South Carolina rosarian Michael Reisman came to visit me, gave me a large thornless strain of Rosa multiflora and what seems to be Rosa bracteata, and I gave him a bunch of cuttings of roses, including that of central Florida's "Pink Cracker Rose". On the drive back home he stopped at Pam Greenewald's lovely own root roses nursery 'Garden Angel' in Alachua, Florida where they swapped cuttings, he bought some roses including my 'Gold Blush' and he gave to her a BUNCH of cuttings of PCR. She is licensed to export roses and wants to be able to send PCR to California rosarians. Years ago it was so common in older Tampa neighborhoods like Seminole Heights and Hyde Park but for years now is rarely seen...it is so indestructible that getting it back in peoples' landscapes has become a part of my life's mission. My ONLY regret for the rose is that it is SO sterile both as Mom and Dad! It very rarely makes hips, but some years ago the huge hedge of it on Davis Island made a handful of hips, maybe as a response to years of drought. There was just a few seeds in them total, none sprouted for me. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40071&tab=1

Very fragrant but so far just five petals on my (Don Juan X Spice) seedling.

This is one reason that rose breeders don't take too much stock of their seedlings' first simple blooms...early blooms on my early 90s hybrid of (Rosa moschata X Abraham Darby) that I bred under glass in Denver were few petaled, pale, flat, poor form, but it matured in Denver then in Tampa into a very nice rose, long sold by the Antique Rose Emporium. I love this rose's scent of cinnamon and clove from the mother, Rosa moschata.

Maybe within a week this first ever bud from a seedling of (Don Juan X Spice) will open.

One of the things I love about spring here is seeing first buds on TEENSY rose seedlings of mine.....this one is (Don Juan X Spice)...I'm guessing it will be pink.

I probably wasted time again using Rosa laevigata as a parent, but I just used its pollen in my climbing Tea Noisette 'Elie Beauvillain'.

I just checked all my roses seedlings after taking my back yard shower on this lovely day.....they are 100% FREE of aphids just a few days after I gave them that drench of strong Neem leaf tea! A week ago they were COVERED with them, something I've dealt with annually since I started breeding roses in Denver in 1993. Thank you so much Vicki Nettles Parsons for giving me that baby Neem tree years ago when you and your employees came here to take a class. FINALLY a solution! I was going to spray but gave a drench as you suggested since you grow a large scale Neem tree farm east of Tampa....it worked! John

I was wondering if this open pollinated seedling of my 'Seagull' rambling rose might open today....tomorrow? Sunday morning?

Mike Reisman I just potted up that radical thornless form of climbing Rosa multiflora you gave me while here....it is in a decorative Water Wise Container Garden. I would SO love it if it could actually grow and BLOOM here in Zone 9B so that I can cross it with Teas!

There are SO many petals in each opening bud of 'Teasing Georgia' bred by David Austin, SO few anthers BUT a nice column of pistils in the center, that I did these pollinations a new way for me...I leave many of the petals until the pistils are exposed, apply the pollen, then put on the shroud and label each cross. I did this because I ruined a few perfectly good blooms by trying to remove every petal. The pollen parents here are: Mme. Antoine Mari, "Barfield White Climber" and my 12 year old climbing open pollinated seedling of 'Blush Noisette'.

Today I got this very special envelope in the mail from California rosarian Jill Perry.....inside was a LOT of hips from the Rosa moschata at the San Jose Rose Garden, plus seeds from Rosa gigantea, Fortune's Double Yellow, and "Moser House Musk"! Why would a breeder like me who relies primarily on my own controlled crosses get SO excited about people sending me open pollinated rose hips (ESPECIALLY those from Rosa moschata!!!)? Well, since the early 90s I've realized that entire CLASSES of roses, such as the Bourbons and the Noisettes, came about DUE to open pollinated roses! Plus before rose breeding was actually discovered, people just relied on bees and the wind to create new varieties. I really want to thank Jill Perry, Lee Sherman in Albuquerque, Anne Belovich in Washington, Jamie Jackson in Missouri, plus a rosarian in Thonotosassa, and others for so helping me in this effort! I also wish to thank Mike Shoup at the Antique Rose Emporium for not only giving me many roses over the years to test in both Denver and Tampa, but for selling a few of my hybrids through his catalogs! And lastly, I am grateful to Brent Dickerson, for it was his seminal book The Old Rose Adviser that years ago GAVE me the idea of taking up rose breeding right after I read it.

My 11 year old self sown climbing seedling of 'Blush Noisette' is blooming like crazy here, so I've been boinking it with the likes of 'Cramoisi Superieur', 'Baronne Prevost', 'Mme. Antoine Mari', 'Eugene de Beauharnais' and today with 'Marechal Niel'. Next I will try pollen from "Pink Cracker Rose" and "Barfield White Climber" on it.

I just used the drought resistant Tea Rose 'Mme. Antoine Mari' on my Blush Noisette Climbing Seedling....first time I've ever used her that way as she never ever sets hips. Time will tell!

So far just one pollination today, my (Blush Noisette Seedling Climber X Baronne Prevost). Tomorrow there should be a few more pollinations on that same seed parent, which generally has about twelve blooms per stalk. Since both are repeat blooming and fragrant I hope one of the seedlings turns out to be a fine climber.