Warm climate rose breeding

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Tasv, thanks for posting this site, have heard some good things about breeding new roses in India. Their climate is a wonderful testing area for the sort of roses we need to develope here. I have sourced some of Alister Clarks Gigantea crosses and am looking at some of the Tea's to breed to them. It's very hard to improve on the Tea's but with Gigantea cross two or three genaration roses to use as breeders with them could produce something special. I would not sacrafice any of the Tea characteristics to breed in deeper colours or high centred HT looking blooms. Will also try crossing the Tea's amoungst themselves to try for thornless varieties.

The Tea ladies are to be congratulated for the work they have done and I forsee more hot climate roses being bred. I think it was Deb Kelly who said " Alister Clark was ahead of his time ".

You may have to move back to a hotter climate if you wish to enjoy Tea roses and try propagating them for your nursery. The minatures seem to have gone from most retail outlets and I don't know anyone propagating them now. Twenty years past there were acres of them growing along Old Northern Road to cope with the demand.

Yes... the disappearance of miniatures is a catch-22 situation. On one hand it paves the way for new, more suitable ones to fill the niche. On the other hand it has removed a lot of the genetic material to work with and much of it will need to be started from scratch. I did a cross yesterday between 'Scabrosa' and 'Black Jade' in the hope of introducing the rugosa hardiness into the minis... have two more planned crosses to make tomorrow when the pollen I collected today bursts, between 'Scabrosa' and 'Sundust', 'Gold Coin' and 'Othello' (standard sized.. trying for more big double rugosa type). Will be putting Rise n Shine on it when I get flowers.

I think the Teas will grow ok here. It's 35 degrees outside here today, 33 yesterday, so with any luck they'll get there dose of heat to do well... I am hoping to try use the Teas in breeding too so expect me to contact you at some point asking you to trial a rose up there