Figured it was worth a try to ask :) Thanks, Heidi S~

Some roses are better male parents (having fertile pollen) and some are better mother plants (capable of producing seeds that will germinate), with varying ability to pass on desireable traits. But this primarily depends on the variety, not the type.

It takes 3 or more months to ripen hips (heps), the seedpods. So, if you are interested in learning to hybridize, plan on studying up during the winter months and be ready to go when the roses bloom again.

Do some browsing and ask questions in the Garden Web rose forum on propagation, check out the American Rose Society site, and go to www.olyrose.org, where you will find some interesting articles.

I will be glad to answer any further questions you might have.

glenda

In fact, it's not a bad idea to use Minis for breeding non-Minis -- since you can keep more varieties in a smaller place. 'Winter Magic' would be very nice for breeding fragrant mauve varieties, for example.

I crossed 'Blush Noisette' x 'Popcorn' (very Mini) and got a very nice, and very fragrant non-Mini variety. The leaves are glossy and dark, and the flowers are white, like 'Popcorn'. But the plant is similar to 'Blush Noisette' in size, but hardier (it's thriving in Iowa, I'm told). The fragrance is better than either parent.

http://www.geocities.com/kingke.geo/Roses/SWEETIME.JPG

Karl

Anyone have any idea if this will continue next year or just a fluke of nature this year?

Allison

"Would it be possible (feasable?) then, for a rose with mini flowers to produce a sport which had larger flowers?"

Sure! 'Popcorn' (Mini) sported to the much larger 'Gourmet Popcorn' (Polyantha).

As for GloryBee's original question, it may be possible to breed for a large bloom surrounded by smaller blooms. 'Tropicana', for example, sometimes produces a few smaller buds around the large central bloom. And some Floribundas produce a central bloom that is distinctly larger than the rest of the blooms in the cluster. By removing the smaller buds, gardeners can persuade such plants to produce larger flowers than usual. Or, if the central bud is nipped out the cluster can be made more uniform.

It would not be a simple matter of crossing this with that and getting the perfect variety you want. But if you start with several varieties that already show the tendency, cross among them and select the offspring that give the neatest seperation of large and small blooms, you might get what you have in mind after a few generations of selection.

Karl

If you could clarify your objections I might be able to explain where your biology teacher went wrong. For one thing, Mendel did not provide the final answer to all aspects of heredity. He had no opportunity to study the inheritance of phenotypic plasticity, which is what I was discussing.

How do you suppose flower size and cluster formation are inherited? The synstyle species (R. multiflora, wichuraiana, setigera, moschata, etc.) have large clusters of small flowers -- all the flowers are roughly the same size. Tea roses and some of the Tea-Noisettes have one or a few large flowers. So, how does it happen that some of the Hybrid Teas, Tropicana is a well-known example, produce one large flower surrounded by a few smaller ones?

Dominance is not as simple as textbook writers would have us believe. A given "gene" may have a dominant effect in one part of an organism, or at one stage of development, and yet be suppressed in other parts or stages. That is to say, the tendency to produce large blooms may be dominant in the center of the cluster, but recessive otherwise.

Have you ever seen a yellow Tea or Hybrid Tea with red leaves? The "gene for red" is dominant as the shoot develops, but becomes recessive as the flower forms. Other roses have red flowers with little or no visible red pigment in the leaves and cane. In these cases the "gene for red" is recessive until the flowers start to form.

Close the textbook for a while, and open your eyes. Heredity is far more interesting than Mendel imagined.

Karl