Tuesday, April 8, 2014

I wonder if this is the same seedling?

I've been using pollen from my 1-72-1Hugonis seedling all over the garden both last year and this. One of the most successful crosses resulted from putting its pollen on a rose Jim Sproul shared with me he calls L56. It's an involved cross containing his Thrive!, so it contains "good genes" for health. L56 has quite healthy, glossy, dark foliage with a deeply saturated, bright red single flower.

1-72-1Hugonis has single yellow flowers with heavily embossed, matte, medium green foliage. It's also completely disease free in my garden.

Only one seedling from this cross flowered its first year. It battled very adverse conditions but survived. I was thrilled and amazed to see it flower so quickly after germination. 

 Now, I'm wondering if this seedling, which I found in flower today, is the early flowering seedling from last year.





I believe it shows signs of hybridity in the foliage. It's definitely one of the least vigorous of the batch. L56's foliage is quite glossy and traditionally produces five leaflets. 

1-72-1Hugonis has heavily embossed, matte foliage and expresses nine to thirteen leaflets. 

Notice this seedling produces both seven and five leaflets, is more matte and quite embossed.


I don't know if it will increase in vigor with maturity, but it will definitely be interesting to watch.