'Test Tube Baby Love'

"Test Tube Baby Love' is a nick name for a seedling I have that is from OP 'Baby Love' seeds sent from the U.S. that underwent embryo extraction here and grew up in a test tube-like container under aspectic conditions. I kind of like the name

Anyway, this is her now... growing up nicely. Third flush of flowers since it germinated a few months back and clean as a whistle. It hasn't had a dose of fungicide since leaving the 'test tube' and is growing outside in full sun now. I will make this seedling freely available to any breeders in Australia once it is big enough to propagate from.


Pot is a 20cm pot. Won't be long before it is large enough to propagate. Flowers are, so far, single yellows. OP hips have aborted on the plant so far but maternal instincts can take a while to kick in. This seedling is very much a miniature, however, I see this little one playing a part similar to how its parent 'Baby Love' was used to make the Brindabella series.

TTBL is all grown up. She's still a mini. She's still pretty healthy but not totally clean (she gets downy mildew still) but her flowers seem to be maturing nicely

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I'd like one Simon, don't forget me.

There's only two plants in existence, Bruce. It strikes easily but is a bear to get pollen out of for no good reason.

Further to our older discussions on seed Embryo extraction I had a go at it today. I was following Simons information, successes and comments with great interest. We discussed a tool to do the job. My thoughts were useing a wire stripper with 2 V crushers or opposed blades and a screw to keep the correct distance between the blades.
Well, today the wire strippers were lying on the bench left over from a previous use. Went out and picked a ripe Altissimo hip which produced various size seeds of irregular shape. The first seed broke in half and out came the embryo easy as could be. The others were more difficult but the stripper worked well. Hopefully this will make embryo extraction more attractive in the future. To be continued.