Brindabella Bouquet

I purchased a very young Brindabella Bouquet 2 seasons past and have not been over happy with it up until very recently. Since planting it has never shown any Blackspot, leaves are shiny, deep green and remain evergreen like the Tea's. That's enough to keep it here in our humid condittions but there is more. It grows bushier and lower down than Iceberg. The blooms are very white and remain so in hot sun. They are fuller than Iceberg with a lot more petals and seem to stay forever on the bush looking really fresh. It also makes hips and plenty of pollen due to the masses of blooms at present.

I am new to pollination though practice backyard genetics (Mendels, chromosome counts etc ) and think this rose would make a great breeder. If you like white then Brindabella Bouquet crossed with Peace 1902 seems like a good start.

It's good to get positive feedback about a rose Oz. I wish I could say the same about Brindabella Swirl, but I can't at this stage, it's a BS magnet.

Was just looking at this... I cannot find any references to Brindabella Swirl.... what's it like?

Also, Bruce, have a look at this: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

They've filled in the parentage for 'Brindabella Bouquet'.

Simon, I used it's pollen on Don Juan and unfortunatly no seeds. Did hear somewhere there was a minature in it's pedigree.

I chip budded about 10 for my own use and these grew a lot faster than the original rose .

Being an old chook breeder would think Mendles would be the way to isolate the genes for health. Unfortunatly it is possibly more complex than that. Knowing the parents now will make it easier to find blooms for the pollen.

Simon I do not know Brindabells Swirl and the the red I have is not as healthy as BB.

BB does make hips but very few so I will use it as a pollen parent. Do you happen to know it's Chromosome count?

How would Baby Love go to Gigantea as they both have yellow blooms.
Gigantea turn white but would think there is yellow masked in there also.
Great way to see if minis are dominant or recessive to giants Possibly you know this already, my minature knowledge is just about nil.

Is Baby Love in Australia, then? The pic in Botanica's Roses caught my eye a while ago - looks like Hibbertia scandens.

'Brindabella Bouquet' is most likely a tetraploid.

I think the OP 'Baby Love' seedling I have might be good with gigantea as 'Baby Love' has been recommended to me to counter problems with mildew. A lot of the Teas seem to get their fair share of mildew so putting the two together might be a good idea.

Margaret, I was sent OP 'Baby Love' seeds earlier this year. I performed an embryo extraction on the seeds and was successful in getting just one seedling. It looks pretty close to 'Baby Love' and is a miniature as well.

Should be interesting to breed from, with R davidii in the pedigree.

I love my brindabella 2 pots of them Bouquet good blooms started beginning of this month. bit of yellowing on leaves which could be all the rain in brisbane we've had and oh my Gorgeous smell.

I've just got Gorgeous Brindabella Lamour' flowered today. will take pic tomorrow.

Hi MsMW,
Welcome !!
I have Brindabella L'Amour and I'm very pleased with it. My Brindabella Swirl died which was a shame, it was a lovely colour.

I'm impressed with BB too. No BS. Other roses here have defoliated (no spray).

It hasn't accepted pollen so far, but I have good hips on Maggie from BB pollen.

A big surprise is the DA Windermere. Very clean, with leaves down to the ground. Beautiful cupped blooms too.

WoW pollinating roses....my brain intrigued

Hi Dave thanks for your comments re Windermere. Always nice to see another healthy DA added to the list of DA's that grow clean on the mid to upper east coast.

I used BB pollen on Don Juan last year which was not fertile. Good to see you have BB pollinated hips on Maggie

MsMW, you have to give pollinating a go for it doubles the joy and satisfaction from keeping roses.

Oze
If i've got bees around they will automatically pollen for me??

Yep

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Nice one Simon!!

Simon, honey bees as your picture shows are great pollinators and sources suggest over 30% of the food we eat is contributed to crops pollinated by honey bees. Some bee keepers are 100% involved in pollination by moving a truck load of bees from crop to crop.

You are fortunate to have them wild in your area. In NSW the African Small Hive Beetle has depleted 75% of the wild ferule bees. Veroa Destructor has wiped out bees in most other countries of the world and is headed our way. New Guinea and New Zealand are infected. All it takes is a shipping container left on the docks in China, shipped to Australia with an infected swarm in it and the last country in the world free from Veroa now has this problem. Australian honey is pestercide free for that reason. All the very cheap honey from China and Argentina you see on the supermarket shelves selling at give away prices may have a high percentage of pestercides due to Veroa control.

After all that I answer your question, Bees are great pollinators of all flowers they can get into like roses.
Very small flowers like on some native plants are usually pollinated by small insects or Australian Native bees which are smaller than a bush fly.
Australian Native bees are seen in great number in Queensland and we have a good population of them here. Might be a bit cold for them on Tassie though I would keep looking. They collect pollen on their back legs but apart from this they look like a skinny under sized bush fly. Some have a white stripe on each side of their head.

I agree with Orchid40 that is a great pix, I want one of those cameras.

The bee is a young one and will continue to work for another 4 to 5 weeks at which time it will have less hair and wings become frayed. They last for about 6 weeks in summer then die out in the field worked to death.

Yes after that splendid shot its reignited my search for macro lenses

It's reignited my desire for a camera on which I can put a macro lens!!

We have lots of native bees too:


(btw.. the rose here is my favourite seedling... my next registration actually.. no name yet... thinking of 'Spit 'n' Polish' because the leaves look like they have been turtle-waxed. Youy can see more of it here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A lot of people will tell you that bees play little or no part in pollinating roses as they are not overly attracted to them. Maybe this is true of some roses, especially those that offer no reward for them, but for the most part I find that bees seem to love my roses. Maybe this is also because I have a preference for nice singles and semi-doubles whose anthers have not been converted into petals and who offer some reward for the bees. This is the way I like it too. It means when I pollinate flowers I need to take extra precautions to prevent cross-contamination but it also means that things are ticking along nicely and bees are a good barometer of overall garden health. In all we get about 5 different species of bee here, both introduced and native. I have photos of them all somewhere but it would take me a very long time to sift through 1000's of photos to try and find them.

EDIT: I also have a feeling that the more fertile the pollen is the more the bees will be attracted to it... it's a good sign, IMO, if a bee wants to visit my roses.

Nice to see you have native bees which are also attracted to roses.

Bees require pollen to feed young and nectar converted to honey for winter.
Bees select pollen usually based on percentage of protein which are from 12 to 35%. Sorry I don't know what rose pollen protein is.
When the more desireable pollens like Salvation Jane ( Pattersons Curse ) 35% protein is no longer available then they will select another.

I believe that bees love roses too!

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Great photos Val

Thanks Simon, they are last year's.