Request for School Project - Laevigata Cuttings

I have a young girl in a special class of mine that has begun to do some genetics work on Rosa laevigata. At 15 years old she is a brilliant science student and I can guarantee you will be hearing about her one day when she discovers a cure for cancer or one of the other many maladies contributing to the human condition. We are in need of a larger number of cuttings of Rosa Laevigata as my two plants are still young and I've only managed to get four plants from the little material I had available. If anyone can get their hands on up to 50 laevigata cuttings for her I would love to hear from you. The cuttings should be about 15-20cm long and be leafless and clean for postage to Tasmania. I will send a pre-paid, self-addressed postage bag for them and will send a plant of 'Slater's Crimson China' by way of thanks for the cuttings. We can proceed without them but a larger number will greatly increase the chances of success.

Cheers,

Simon

How old does the wood have to be Simon ? mine certainly needs a tamin' and a good cut back won't hurt it.

cheers. Rosalie

ps. can she use the couple of spare seed hips that I have here too ?

That's very generous and a very good idea Roslie!!! The wood should be on last season's growth somewhere between a pencil thick and half a pencil thick. The hips/seeds are an excellent idea as we can apply the same chemical to them and see what happens as well. You know I can't send a plant of SCC to WA though - quarantine would have a cow

Simon, if OzRose runs into trouble then I do know where there is a large plant of R. Laevigata. Haven't seen it for a few years but am pretty certain it would still be alive.

I'll see what I can do for you this week-end then. Approximately how many pieces does she need ?

I can handle anything up to 50, Rosalie. This will give us plenty of material to work with. We would be very greatful for any up to 50 you could spare.

Thanks again,

Simon

P.S. Rosalie.. I was out checking things this morning and the little 'China Doll' cutting is starting to shoot again already. It's still only tiny so I'm going to find a big nice pot for it soon and give it some more targetted TLC to see what it can do.

As I have only come back from Carole's(wife) hip op and catching up on things, how did the Laevigata cuttings go. If you have not enough Rosalie, I can get truck load of it Simon

I hope Carole is recovering well... I'm sure she'll be back up and into it in no time. Please give her a (gentle) hug for us all

Rosalie, can I send over a pre-paid post-pak for things? If so, I can send over those 'Temple Bells' cuttings at the same time. The last lot of cuttings I sent through to WA went through with a quarantine inspection ok so I guess they approved of what I did If you could PM me your address I'll see to it quickly.

I have sent you about 30 cuttings Simon and seed from seven hips [I found some more tucked down deep inside the bush]
In fact all the hips were tucked down deep ; this says to me that the flowers that set hips were amongst the first to open on the bush . Now I'm assuming that the canes start flowering from base to tip and not visa versa because to be quite honest I have never paid that much attention.
But for someone looking to do what you want to do with your crossbreeding , it could be of signifigance as it could be a pointer as to which flowers you should be paying attention to when doing your cross pollinations.
Does that make sense ? Perhaps what I mean is that I think you might get a better hip set with the first early flowers rather than wait for the plant to be right out in full spring bloom.

As to the other , just send us a replacement satchel once you get the cuttings , that way I always have a spare one in the cupboard when I need one. If you have any spare multi flora seed I would love to give it a try and see how it fares up in the hills here on the heavier soil rather than the Perth sand plain , which has been my only experience of it .

Good luck with the laevigata experiment ; jeez I wish I'd had a science teacher like you when I was in school . I might have even been willing to finish highschool lol.

Rosalie, if Simon has no multiflara seed I can send some from my plants, or send wood, if they quarrintine allow it, let me know and job done.
Rosalie, I wish I had a teacher in science like Simon, I would have listened more and studied it better

Awesome Rosalie!!! We potted up four struck laevigata cuttings today and I got her to cut off the emerging buds to force the newer buds to grow. These are what we need to carry out a successful treatment. We are set to start with these four in about a week. The others from you will be struck and prepared to add numbers to our experiment to increase her chances of success and by the time they are ready she should be an expert. The seeds provide an amazing opportunity to try it using newly germinated seedlings.

About the multiflora, I will look on the bush to see if there are any seeds, but if not I will send you some cuttings of my seedling multiflora plant as I know it will be RMV-free.

Thanks again. I'll be sure to explain what it's all about once we get some data and our procedure finalised.

hey bloke you need to start a new forum board thingo here on R.T
We'll call it "Simon's Science Lessons" and all of us kids that missed out in highschool can do some catch up

Even better , go national on telly. was originally a tongue in cheek suggestion but upon reflection , not as silly as it sounds and I really mean it.
I used to love Prof. Julius Sumner Miller , and all of my memories of him are of watching his shows on black and white telly . That was back in the 60's early 70's .... just goes to show what a long lasting effect he had . [considering if you asked me what I did on Tuesday last week ...... I wouldn't have a clue ]

I could see me tuning in to watch "Simon's Science Shows" , with notebook in hand , without too much drama

"Simon's Science Lessons" could be it's name or how about "Simon Says", we all can play that game.
Simon, without giving to many details can you tell us about the young girl protage, or budding proffesor

I have read this thread all the way through and answered my own question.

Rosalie do you want seed or plant material of 'multiflora', just let me know

We do have a section here called 'The Lab'. Am happy to field any queries people might have in there and if I don't know I'll call in an expert or five to bail me out Rosalie... I love photography because I'm on the other side of the camera

Damn, I'll never finish highschool science now

roseman wrote:"Simon's Science Lessons" could be it's name or how about "Simon Says", we all can play that game.

We could all play David, but I think Simon is serious about his sciences. Learning would have been so much fun & far more interesting with him as the Science Master in my youth rather than having Mr Young and his lessons on the 'characteristics of cockroaches' - oh to have been in Simon's class instead!

Still, its never too late to learn, and with Simon's explanations here, it makes the science of growing roses a bit more simple to follow.

I too loved Julius Sumner Miller OzRose!

The cuttings arrived today and have far exceeded my expectations. They, and the seeds, are EXCELLENT. The cuttings are nice and long and I reckon we can cut each one in half and get double that amount of plants going! The chances of our success just went up enormously!

I'll get those cuttings and a replacement post pak sent over asap

Cheers,

Simon