My First Ever Seedling :)

I call this seedling 'The Ugly Duckling'. This is what it looked like a year ago:

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This is it today:

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It's still ugly because it's covered in powdery mildew

...but a definite improvement! Keep it for a few more years if you've got the space, Simon, because unlike me, some of them improve with age. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

See what I mean LOL

Dave... this seedling is from 2003 seeds... it must the Penfold's Grange Hermitage of roses then and will require some serious cellaring to get the best out of it I keep this seedling purely because it was my first one... I stratified seed from an OP 'Black Velvet' hip back in 2003, it germinated in 2003, I grew it for a while and then went to Norfolk Island to teach and gave it to my grandmother who grew it in a pot until 2008. She sent it down here in the winter of 2008 and the first flower above was its first Tasmanian flower in the sumemr of 2008. The 2nd photo is it's second flush of flowers for 2009 and the best flowers it's produced yet. It's growing on its own roots though I think I am going ot graft it and send a plant back up to my Grandmother on the NSW Central Coast (where it came from) because she was particularly fond of it. Scent is light. Doesn't get much spot but is a mildew magnet (like it's mother). Grows to a little over a metre so far... growth is slow on its own roots... will be interesting to see what it does pushed along by an understock... it's still an ugly duckling though LOL

Those thorns are a lovely colour.

Sorry about the double post but I just realised that by only saying that, it sounds like it has nothing else going for it, which isnt true. Its a very pretty colour and lovely shaped bud aswell....and still has lovely coloured thorns

It certainly went from being a ugly duckling to quite a nice swan. Maybe in a diffrerent climate it would't get mildrew.

howdy simon

whats the breeding of the ugly duckling?? would be interesting to know, looks like it tolerance to mildew is pretty low, a pity though the colour is very interesting

This seedling, is about 7 years old now and has pretty ordinary mildew resistance. The only reason I keep it is for sentimental reasons as it was my first rose raised from seed. It's just an OP seedling of 'Black Velvet'. Given what's been through in the last few years I'm not surprised it has low immunity to mildew (though it seems to be pretty good against black spot)... I'm hoping that stability will now allow it to perform a little better. The plan is to try and bud it this year to see how it performs grafted but I have no plans for it except to grow old and look 'woolly'.

Nice one Simon, almost Berg berg ?

hi simon

i used black velvet in my breeding last spring, crossed it with sympathy and a dk red HT i bred called called arjuna, as you can see by the name i am a great fan of the mahabharata
cheers warren

I don't know much about the Mahābhārata Warren, except having heard of the 4 basic principles of life; purpose, liberation, pleasure and action... or something along those lines. Philosophy is something that interests me greatly at the moment and I hope to someday have more time on my hands to be able to read more about it. You need to breed four more roses as call them Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha... principles to live by

Bemo, one of our international members here, uses 'Sympathy' a fair bit in his breeding and given its 'Kordesii' background I am thinking more and more about trying to get a plant myself to use. I think it could produce some excellent plants for Australia. Have you got any photos of this cross? Did it's propensity to mildew get 'cured' by the 'Kordesii' blood?

the sympathy i have here never gets mildew or black spot, as for breeding, what i pollinated last spring, most have flowers , disease resistance is good , but most of all the vigour in the growth is unbelievable, one cross i did was with a HP archiducesse elizabeth de autrich, its first flower was bright pink very scented and had a petal count of 55, honestly i think it will produce top roses for this climate