Hi Melissa, you're venturing into a fascinating, delightful area of rose growing! But, the first two seedlings don't look right for roses. Perhaps they are weeds or some other kind of seed? I've raised a ton of seedlings in the past 25+ years and none of the rose seedlings have resembled those elongated cotyledons. It'll be interesting seeing what they become. Have fun! Kim

Thanks so much for you're input Kim :) It's so weird because all the seeds from this pack looked the same? I guess I will just wait and see what these turn in to! I have asked the seller of the seeds if maybe she mixed a couple of other kinds of seeds by mistake but no answer of course!

Can I ask you in your many years experience growing roses from seed about what percentage would you consider ugly or not worth keeping?

Melissa

That all depends upon YOUR eye and expectations, Melissa. Even the ugliest baby is drop dead gorgeous to its Mamma! LOL! The first few roses I raised from seed were perfect, even with all of their flaws, they were perfect. I actually found them good homes instead of dumping them. As more and more began germinating due to the learning curve and my increased pollen pimping, I finally began learning Ralph Moore's admonition, "You can't keep them ALL!" My taste and eye began to focus and my heart "harden", so culling those which don't conform to either my expectations or which don't demonstrate improvements over their parents get pulled up to make room for others to show what they have. So, initially, a hundred percent were drop dead gorgeous. It's MUCH, MUCH less than that now! I've read that one out of ten thousand seedlings gets introduced commercially, but that was when the rose industry was good, the economy was good, and people were spending money with the multiple rose breeding and introducing houses we had. Now, with the collapse of the industry and concentration of the firms into one of questionable value and future, it's likely to be far fewer.

You'll find some parents make terrible babies while others seem to make only good ones. But, it all boils down to YOUR eye and what, if any, expectations you have from the cross. As many other have experienced, I've had a number of seedlings I've given away come back to bite me! Things Mel Hulse collected from my old garden years ago, people liked and brought back to me for identification and requests for introduction. Sunburn, Rayon Butterflies are two which come to mind. They weren't what I expected or looked for from their crosses, but he liked them, so I gave them to him. He promoted them and others took up their cause, so they got into commerce. Not that they are bad, they just weren't what I was looking to have arise from that breeding.

That's one of the downsides of this pursuit. If you are too focused, you can miss out on a lot of neat things. You need some focus to create imaginative crosses, "engineer" in good characteristics with an eye to creating improvements and things different from what already is. But, too focused prevents you from seeing something special yet outside of your desired results. Does that help (I hope!) LOL! Kim

Hi Kim - do seedlings always bloom the same or similar to the mother plant?

Kasie

No ma'am. Not always. Often, if the seeds result from self fertilization, they can be very similar. With cross pollination, they can be as different or as similar as human offspring, probably more so. Roses have more genes with many more variable characteristics.

Take a look at this example. The mother was a 1919 English HT.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=3939&tab=36

The father was a hybrid Bracteata Ralph Moore created.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=14382&tab=36

The father's parents were these two.

mother http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=5270&tab=36

father http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=3134&tab=36

All leading to this...

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.4848&tab=36

There are similarities among some of the ancestors, but you can easily see how the seedling doesn't look like its mother. There are many other examples, quite a few where the color even changes dramatically, but this one sprang to mind.

If you take my Lynnie, here is the mom.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=1.6307&tab=36

and the dad

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=1.38392&tab=36

With the daughter below. Fun, isn't it? Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Lynnie

It sure is fun growing from seeds. I will have to learn how to cross pollinate. Thank you so much for the info Kim. You are a wealth of knowledge.

Kasie

You're welcome Kasie. You're going to have a ball! Kim

Hi, I'am living in SA and are very interested in growing roses from seed, collected from the garden and not cross pollinated by me. I've had some really pretty roses as a result but very poor sprouting over the last two years. Maybe someone can advise me on this.

I am going to try and post a picture one of my babies here but are not sure that it's going to work.

Rosynut, please read the Rose Hybridizers Association Forum instructions. It costs nothing unless you want to buy a membership to receive the great newsletter. There are MANY methods of raising seedlings, MANY. Where you live, the types of roses you're trying to germinate, time of year, and several other factors can greatly affect germination rates. In 2010, my seeds sprouted like grass. In 2011, I planted 300 seed individually in peat pellets, which I have done before with great success, to keep track of each seed as they were crosses I really wanted to track. My germination rate was about 20%. 2010 was closer to 90% and I was MUCH less careful with them.

The link below will take you to the RHA site. I've done a search of the forum there for "germinating seeds". What works for me in my climate may well not work for you in yours. However, rose hips fall to the ground all over and the danged things come up by themselves. That should show you it really isn't all that hard to raise them.

You may get a dozen suggestions here and they all have worked for those making them, where they are. You have to experiment with them where you are to see which works. For specific suggestions to have any real merit, you need to be specific about what climate type you live in. I understand it's South Africa, but would it be more Mediterranean, or coastal, or full desert or? It makes a difference. I could tell you that in my climate, I generally plant around Thanksgiving, the end of November. That won't work for you because that's spring for you, later fall to early winter here.

Generally, rose seeds germinate best when temperatures don't go above the low seventies F. Though, last year, they came up strongly all the way into the eighties. Some will tell you to "stratify" them, hold them around the forty degrees F range for several weeks before planting. Some do need that. Last year, mine didn't. I did it this year and you know the germination rate.

You need a moisture retentive, well drained soil and to cover the seed with a very light soil, much less than a quarter inch deep. Too deep and they probably won't come up. Too shallow and the hot sun may burn them before they can set out enough roots.

Check out the posts on the forum below. You'll find many suggestions and the reasons behind them. You'll find some which fit your scenario just fine and give you enough knowledge to be able to modify them to suit your situation. Good luck! Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Germinating seeds