ROSEGASMS

Oh, how roses can stir our souls.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Today I harvested a plump hip of (Don Juan X "Spice") and will extract and sow the seeds shortly. All the 4 inch pots of hybrids are now soaked, drained, each tucked into a clear produce bag and are back in a tray at the bottom of my fridge. Hopefully I'll see many germinations this fall.

Posted by John A Starnes at 11:52 AM No comments:

Monday, June 23, 2014

I got approx. 15 big fat seeds from the hip of my dream cross (Don Juan X Rosa gigantea) now sown in a 4 inch pot, soaking in rain water to then drain, go into a clear produce bag then 2-3 months in the fridge for germination!!! My hope is vigorous, Florida-friendly climbers, repeat bloom unlikely but would be nice!


Posted by John A Starnes at 1:47 PM No comments:

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

I need a cigarette....just did an unplanned rose pollination that might yield some very interesting hybrids: (Teasing Georgia X Rosa multiflora)!

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.18152&tab=1


http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.5366.5&tab=1
Posted by John A Starnes at 8:35 AM No comments:

Monday, June 2, 2014

TOTAL RAGE here....the damned Lubber grasshoppers crawled up my 'Teasing Georgia' climbing rose, ignored all the open pollinated hips and chewed off one of just two hybrid hips of (Teasing Georgia X Rosa gigantea)!!!! I massaged SUPER hot sauce onto the surviving hip and all the hybrid hips on 'Don Juan' in hopes of saving them. Rough Lubbers year for many and the application of Nolo Bait I did 12 years ago finally stopped working this season, likely due the protozoa Nosema locustae no having host grasshoppers to replicate in. What makes me SO ANGRY is that Rosa gigantea pollen is NOT easy to get and available just once a year each spring, so I can't repeat the pollination until NEXT spring! Why couldn't they have eaten any of the many open pollinated hips?




Posted by John A Starnes at 2:08 PM No comments:

Friday, May 16, 2014

I did not get into Old Roses until 1989 in Denver, but I've loved central Florida's iconic "Pink Cracker Rose" since my college days in the mid 70s when it was a common sight in older Tampa neighborhoods, like Hyde Park, or Seminole Heights where I rented....less than a block from me was a HUGE one trained into a small, mushroom-shaped tree. It rarely stops blooming, is obviously unaffected by root knot nematodes, bugs, or foliar diseases, and thrives in both drought and wet hurricaney summers. My ONLY complaint is its sterility...it has NEVER set a hybrid hip for me, and just twice has its pollen been accepted...once by 'Graham Thomas' in Denver, and by 'Seagull' last year. And in all these years I've seen it set maybe a dozen open-pollinated hips, and all on the massive hedge of it on Davis Islands by a hotel on Adalia Street. My plant dates to 1999 and has never set hips, so I was stunned to see this today! Over the years I've bought every pink China Rose I could find, and after obsessing all this time my best guess remains 'Burbank', which was the immediate reaction of Joyce Demits when I showed her one some years ago.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40071&tab=1
Posted by John A Starnes at 2:55 PM No comments:

Thursday, May 8, 2014

For the first time ever I gave my "JoAn's Pink Perpetual" from Denver's Fairmount Cemetery it's first ever hard cut back and feeding some weeks ago and it has begun re-blooming. I picked one bloom and later today will be using the pollen on 'Seagull'. The fragrance is incredible. During one of Fred Boutin's visits to me in Denver the original plant at the cemetery was in bloom and he agreed with my best guess as to the real ID: 'Champion of the World'. It re-blooms quite well here in Tampa, grown organically and own root in an 18 gallon Water Wise Container Garden.


Posted by John A Starnes at 8:26 AM No comments:

Friday, May 2, 2014

Rain eased up enough for me to use my torso as an umbrella so I could do a very exciting but unplanned rose pollination: (Champney's Pink Cluster X Rose de Rescht). I need a cigarette! Imagine if the luscious scents blend in some of the seedlings!

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.1063&tab=1

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.5467&tab=1
Posted by John A Starnes at 4:08 PM No comments:
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John A Starnes
Tampa, Florida, United States
I am a happily single homosexual male who feels wedded to curiosity about the Universe around me, and to my many passionate avocations.
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