I'm here, but I'm in Southern California -- so not able to help with sources in India.

But you might look on Facebook for the Viraraghavans, as they are active there.

I was wondering if you tried FB ? I won't give up hope. I would go to rose gardens and inquire around also. You never know if someone has it in private collection or even in public gardens.

I would ask Rose societies. Maybe, Vira must be away and give it some time.

Do you have HMF in India ? I tried to do a little research but cant get access to anything but here in USA.

I tumble on Rose Garden of the Rose Society of India. That is in Chanaryan Puri, New Delhi.

I am not sure which part of India you are from ?

Here is the link to FB. Hopefully, someone can help you there locally. Good luck !!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Rose-Society-of-India-183367661755454/&ved=2ahUKEwjF7dz_mqnmAhUJjq0KHdGlB2cQFjANegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw0pJ4uvyRi8zg8wJtdEOMDG

Also ask nurseries who does import and export of roses if they can get the rose you want or where. How about Amazon ? I cant get India amazon here but you can check on your side. Or similar webs like Amazon.

HMF is located in the US and accessible internationally. I agree with Jeri. Contacting the Viraraghavans through Facebook would be the fastest and easiest. Both are lovely, gracious people who have shown they will do what they can to help. If Fortuniana is available in that part of the world, I'm sure they will know where and from whom. Barring that, contacting any and all larger nurseries selling roses in India, followed by any possible larger rose societies would be my best suggestion. You might also consider trying Banksiae. It is one of the parents of Fortuniana and according to Warren Millington, an Australian roses breeder, he observed they use Banksiae whips for standard stocks there in China. If it works for tree rose trunks, it would work for bush shanks. Good luck!

I just found your question to me on my Rootstocks article at Help Me Find-Roses. As i suggested there, you should probably investigate roses such as Reve d'Or, climbing Teas, Banksiaes and even some of Mr. Viraraghavan's climbing roses bred from Gigantea or Clynophylla. All of which should perform better for you there than I would expect multiflora to.

@jerijen: I didn't know they were active in facebook, last post seen was around 2014 and I thought they might be inactive. Thank you though, I'll try to contact by facebook then

@Plumeria Girl (Florida ,9b): You've been really kind, thank you :) . I do have HMF and I'll try to put a post up there. I emailed Rose Society of India and there was no response. I'll try their facebook page. I found a picture of 'Rxfortuniana' in a 'Flora of India' page, so I suppose there are specimens here and there.

I am from Kerala, the South of India. The Viraraghavans live in Kodaikanal, some ~250kms off from my home (I've been there just 2 months ago). If they have it, I might even go fetch it in person :D.

@roseseek: I am really humbled by this community. Thanks a lot for all the suggestions.

Do you think Giganteas also make good rootstocks? There was this study

(PDF) INFLUENCE OF ROOTSTOCK AND TIME OF T-BUDDING IN ROSE

where they found Gigantea to be vigorous for at least the graft and bud pushing stage (long term I think Giganteas might be hard to handle).

I'm delighted you've joined us, Flame_master. You will find many knowledgeable, gracious people here. From what you linked, I would think Gigantea, or any close relative, would be a great stock for you...as long as Gigantea flourishes there. The Viraraghavans have used it extensively, along with Clinophylla, Teas, a few Chinas and more modern roses to create roses suited to that tropical, wet type of climate. A fellow rose breeder friend out in the California desert used my Nessie on Help Me Find-Roses as a stock for his and Viru's Gigantea seedlings. It worked very well. Nessie is (Gigantea X Brunonii) X Mlle Cecile Brunner and is, herself, "a BIG girl"! Your study states that Gigantea out performed Archduke Charles and multiflora. That statement, alone, should point you in that direction. I don't think you should have difficulties with it unless you are considering growing a mother plant for stocks. Then, you may have space issues, but you can always prune it severely to keep it smaller and force long whips from it for production of stocks, IF you can use that many! Perhaps you can convince the nursery which buds to Chinas for you to grow and use it?

I think you now have a very good idea which direction to explore for suitable stocks. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some types which are more suitable than others, but until they are explored, you can't know which for sure. I will be interested learning what you discover. Good luck!

Nessie's a child of some famous parents alright :) (Infact, I like to imagine Nessie as a fix to Mlle Cecile Brunner's graft shyness which you mentioned in HMF, now that it's been used as successful rootstock). I am not really looking for a large scale rootstock production, although if Gigantea performs really well, I'll probably use it to replace the rootstocks of most of my Hybrid Teas. In that case, I have a very large tree at the edge of the property that might make a cozy home for her.

[quote]Perhaps you can convince the nursery which buds to Chinas for you to grow and use it? [/quote]

LOL! If this works out I certainly will.

I searched around and Banksiae seems to be available online in my area. For Gigantea I need to contact the Viraraghavans and despite all my attempts I still haven't received a response. So far Banksiae, Gigantea and Reve D'Or are my top three candidates for study. I'll post if I have more questions. Thank you all again :) .

That is so cool that you are going there Dr. Manners. I hope to hear from you the details when i see you in Feb :)

Flame master, you should go and you learned a lot and meet everyone. You might even get to know where you can get roses that you like and rootstock :)

@malcolm_manners: Wow that is great news. Thank you :)

@Plumeria Girl (Florida ,9b): It is quite far away though. I'll see if I can make it.

Assuming you get some 'Fortuniana' to work with, it can be a bit more picky than most rootstocks about rooting and budding it. I've posted a series of videos on the subject, starting with this one, that you might find useful and interesting: Fortuniana Videos . There are links to the other videos in the series on the description of this video.

1) Thank you so much. Actually, before I thought of experimenting, I watched most of your videos to get an idea of what I was getting myself into. :)

2) Viru wrote back and he said he has Fortuniana, he said he can help by sending me some cuttings :D

Fantastic!

Wonderful news !!

I am so happy for you :))

Good news!

I got to meet Mr and Mrs Viraraghavan, they were very kind. I also got rooted plant specimens from them (Not cuttings but fairly large plant specimens). I got Fortuneana, Banksiae, Clinophylla (which he thought might be a candidate to experiment on) and Indica Odrata (he thinks it'll work better than Gigantea as it already is an offspring of Gigantea). I am waiting for the plants to acclimatize a bit and then when I get sturdy growth I'll experiment on them.

Now this is some dream new year :D

That is so great and it's wonderful to hear that icons are as nice as they are knowledgeable! Contratulations! That's really unbelievably good news. Looking forward to hearing about your experiments. Thank you for the follow-up.

Flame -- I'm not in the least surprised. Girija and Viru are some of the nicest folks I know.

Congrats !!

I totally agree with Vap and Jeri. Yes, pls keep us updated.

Nice, you got a number of OGR's :))

Happy New Year !!

So glad this worked out for you.

Like others here, I'm not surprised you got the help you needed. The Viraraghavans impress everyone they meet with their generous natures.

@malcolm_manners:

I tried to contact you through HMF private mail, but I didn't get a response. I watched the Kolkata presentation and I really liked what I saw. I wanted to ask about Fortuniana and Banksiae, do they flower at all in your climate (if so, is it during spring or autumn)? The Fortuniana I got just started to go on a blooming frenzy (it did come down from a cooler 23*C-8*C hill station to my scorching 35*C-18*C low land). It was pruned by Viru just as he gave me the specimen and it is the older canes making the buds. Was it the temperature difference? Day length change maybe? Meanwhile the Banksiae is growing taller day by day, but no flowering response (lack of older canes? won't flower in my climate maybe?). I wanted to know about this odd behaviour(s).

Hi Flame_master. You're welcome to email me at malcolmmanners@me.com

For us, 'Fortuniana' flowers heavily in the spring. I noticed today that they've started, and they may still have a few flowers as late as May, then they'll stop. It is when they stop flowering that they send up the huge, nearly unarmed canes that make the best rootstock cuttings.

We've grown all four Banksiaes, and while they all do flower for a very short period in the spring, it's never a heavy bloom, so I don't currently have any of them in the garden. The effect is a huge green plant with a tiny cluster of flowers here and there. But the 'Fortuniana' really loads up with flowers for a considerable period. Malcolm

Thank you :) . I'll email you if I have any more questions.

@flame_master if possible please share how did it go. I am in India and just started with the path you took a couple of years back. Thank you.