Ralph Moore had one called Goldmoss but none of the sources listed are in business anymore

Ah darn. Thank you wirosarian for finding that.

RVR carries Golden Moss by Dot. I believe it can lean toward apricot in color but can also be quite golden. Carol

Thanks Carol, I joined the waiting list.

Michaela, you might want to go back to add Fakir's Delight to your RVR waiting list. It's still on their site, but out of stock. It's a Ralph Moore rose, and it's a beauty. It varies from cream to lemon yellow, is VERY mossed, and gets large.

FAKIR'S DELIGHT

John, thank you so much! I will do just that.

Michaela, your inquiry sparked my interest, so I popped over to HMF to read its description of Golden Moss. Apparently Golden Moss is the first yellow moss (1932). Given the age of GM and the rarity of yellow mosses, I'm guessing GM is the one that your nursery neighbor was referring to. I have...dare I say ogled?...photos Ralph Moore's roses. They are beautifu and unusual! Carol

Thank you Carol! They are so beautiful. I can see why she misses it. I hope I can track one down. I appreciate your help. :)

Moore's Goldmoss is made in the mold of 1960s Floribundas, and as such it comes with all of the inherent flaws (and some of the merits) of the class: soft wood that is prone to die-off and freeze damage, short plant with poor architecture, terrible disease problems (both Blackspot and Mildew), but the color is lovely and the mossing is respectable. Unless climate conditions favor this one, it will struggle and perform modestly at best. Pretty much all of the Moore roses using Little Darling as a genetic foundation suffer from the same problems, unfortunately.

Dot's Golden Mossis also a product of its era: tall and lanky growth that is somewhere between a climber and a shrub, loaded with prickles, shapeless architecture, sparse bloom with no repeat, but the flowers are exquisite in both color and shape, and the mossing is much better. However, it is most assuredly not "yellow" - at best it is a soft peach with hints of clear light yellow at the core.

The Dot rose grows much better in my climate and without fungicide application. It is always a coarse, unkept shrub that is probably best trained on a support to display it best. I like this rose a lot and consider it worthwhile, and not just because its an important museum piece.

There are a couple other peachy hued mosses as well, such as Robert Leopold, but it cannot be described as "yellow". Moore's mini moss Paintbrush is a lovely color, and the plant is vigorous, but lacks disease resistance whatsoever. It stays nice and compact at around 2-3 feet and repeats well. The other yellow Moore mini moss Lemon Delight is also quite pretty and similar in style to Paintbrush but less upright and presenting better architecture and large bloom panicles.

My favorite of all the peach colored Moore mosses, however, is 7-62-9 (depicted below), bred from his proprietary "Orange Moss" and once again, Little Darling. No repeat, but that's okay by me. The flower color and style are exquisite.

Oh my goodness, one look at Fakir's Delight convinces me that it truly lives up to its name. I would not have the courage to own this one.

@Ingrid: Fakir's Delight, though thorny as hades, has those unique prickles that certain breeds of Mosses do: the ends of the prickles are curved over and blunt. You can, in fact, grab the canes of that one and man-handle them all you want and they will not pierce skin easily.

But its not a great rose in any but a warm, dry climate. Its bracteata genes betray it.

*Slightly* OT-

Paul, I'm glad you joined the discussion. I would have referred Michaela to you for info, but I so rarely see you here anymore. Your website is the first place I ever saw Fakir's Delight, and the reason I grow it. But I've tried MANY times to propagate it from cuttings and have never got even one to root. Do you have any suggestions? Obviously, someone has had success in propagating it or I wouldn't have the one I do, lol.

FD is one of the few roses I still spray consistently, but I consider it worth the effort and danger. I love this rose. When I recommended FD I didn't realize it was a bracteata hybrid. But it's been (mostly) hardy for me except in the harshest winters...as in, two of the last three, lol. It's a pity, but I, too, doubt it would be hardy in zone 5 for Michaela.

John

John,

I have never had difficulty propagating 'Fakir's Delight' from cuttings. In fact, it was one of the more easy-to-root varieties I worked with years ago. Perhaps describe your technique and then I can suggest changes in technique?

Paul, I've actually tried several different ways, but always using semi-ripe wood, taken after bloom. I don't have a greenhouse, but I've tried rooting them under cover, open-air, in semi shade, full shade, damper, drier. I've even tried cleaning the cuttings with dilute H2O2, thinking the thorns might harbor nasty fungi among them. On other roses, I use a rooting hormone gel, but it globs up on FD (again, because of the thorns) so I use dry Rootone powder on them. I have great success with most roses using a 50/50 potting soil/perlite mix. But the cuttings of FD always seem to rot before they begin to root. Any suggestions?

John

John,

I have never had the ziplock bag method fail me. I suggest you try that and instead of soil, use the wet style oasis cubes, pre-soaked, of course. The thorns should all be stripped off a cutting of any moss variety for the bottom 1 to 1.5 inches of the cutting. Do not leave the thorns on that first inch of the cutting that is under the soil. These types won't form roots if all those masses of thorns remain in place.

I had excellent success with both the gel hormone and the "Dip-N-Grow" liquid, but terrible success rates with the traditional powders: they tend to form a waterproof barrier at the place where water has to be present to encourage callus formation.

I hope these tips get you going in the right direction.

Thanks Paul. I'll try *yet again* this year when I have some new growth mature enough. I'll let you know how it goes, lol.

John

John, it was precisely those hooked prickles that made be start referring to that seedling as "Fakir's Delight". They are so dense and the tips hooked, they're like a bed of nails. You can grab a very thick, old can paved with them, moving it around and not get stuck or scratched. Mr. Moore initially hated the name, but when we finally convinced him to release it, the name had stuck. When he was in the hospital at age 99, his FIRST hospitalization, they were not allowing more than two people to visit at a time, so several of us hung around Sequoia, waiting for our turns. Carolyn put us to work harvesting cuttings. Yup, she handed me a bucket and clippers and demanded 150 cuttings of that monster. She said it was my "fault" it had been released and I had named it, so it was up to ME to provide her the cuttings. Don't you love that peach scent?

Kim, that sounds so like Carolyn! She could be very "well, YOU asked for this, and so now this is what you get" in that way :-)

lol...Kim, I love everything about the rose (other than it's gangly habit), including the fakeout thorns. It's why I want so badly to propagate it; I nearly lost it two of the last three winters, so I don't want to take a chance on having just ONE. And if I can pass it around to some friends, I could maybe get one back if I lose mine, lol.

I so wish I could have met Ralph, and Carolyn, too.

Oh, and by the way, thank you, since this was all YOUR FAULT, lol.

Yes sir, Paul, that IS Carolyn! I bet she's making a whale of a nursing supervisor! That's the perfect idea, John. Pass things around you love, as far ans as wide as possible. Paul, a few others and I replaced things for Mr. Moore when he experienced mishaps at the nursery, because he shared. He'd lost several older things years before he decided it was better to let some things go so they were "seeded" elsewhere. Something I have done since the beginning of my "obsession". It works and it's FUN.

I understand completely, Kim. I am so grateful to you for several of the treasures I now grow, especially 7-62-9, which has recovered nicely from the 2014 Arctic Vortex that destroyed so many of my plants. This year I must propagate it. I am guessing there aren't many plants of that one around...

You're welcome, Paul, but that's what we have all done for each other all these years. I had lost 1-72-1Hugonis and you budded it for me from the plant you propagated from my cuttings. Had you not been such a great steward of that plant, none of the Hugonis hybrids I've been fortunate to have raised from it would exist. Yes, you definitely do need to propagate 7-62-9, please?