I do wish you luck! I've never succeeded with this, but I have friends who have.

Jeri

Much good luck to you.
kay

It's very exciting and fun. I plant at least a few seeds every year. Some of my roses are really nice. It's amazing what you may end up with.
Good luck.

Good luck, Rick!
Just one question, given your climate: you did harvest the seeds long before they were exposed to any hard freezes, yes? This is an important point when dealing with rose seed generated in harsh winter zones.

Paul, thanks for the response, actually, you raised the one question I was unsure of. Some of the hips I harvested late last fall, but others, I went out and picked in the past week. Last winter was relatively warm with pretty good snow cover for most of the season. So the spring collected hips I used were mostly from branches that had been under snow and/or mulch for the winter.

The coldest night on my home weather station that I noted was
-26 C. I expect that your point is that the hips that wintered out doors are likely not viable. If that is the case, then I guess I will need to harvest hips this fall and have another go next spring.

Cheers, Rick

Do keep us updated in your project. So far I have no interest in doing this myself, but it is fun to follow along as you go through it.

Good luck!

Rosefolly

Best of luck to you! I'm trying this as well, and like you, hoping for just one new rose that will survive here.

You should check out the Rose Propagation and Exchange forum on Gardenweb- DarkLady has 2 posts there with gorgeous pictures of her flowering seedlings, real keepers!
Purple!

Best of luck to you! I'm trying this as well, and like you, hoping for just one new rose that will survive here.

You should check out the Rose Propagation and Exchange forum on Gardenweb- DarkLady has 2 posts there with gorgeous pictures of her flowering seedlings, real keepers!
Purple!

"The coldest night on my home weather station that I noted was
-26 C. I expect that your point is that the hips that wintered out doors are likely not viable."

Hi Rick,
In general, the seeds of roses of modern descent (as are most of those you listed) will not tolerate repeated hard freezes, and so it is likely, based on your description of conditions, germination may be very-poor-to-nonexistent. Time will tell. It is important to avoid freeze events that expose seeds to temps below 20F (with some tender types that figure would be closer to 32F); a single freeze event down to 10F will kill 100% of the seeds of many modern, China-influenced roses.

Viable seeds sown at the right time of year (meaning NOW) will start to germinate in as little as 2 weeks, given proper stratification and with allowances for pedigree influences. If you have zero germination in the first ten weeks, you can be pretty certain you aren't going to get any. Bear in mind that rose seeds don't germinate well in hot weather either, so try to keep the air/soil temps below 70 as much as possible, with night lows down close to freezing being permissible.

Good luck. You may get some germination out of these. As I say, at least ten weeks is needed to evaluate viability.

Thanks for the detailed explanation on cold tolerance of rose seed Paul. I much prefer knowing that I'm likely not going to get many seeds to germinate, and how long to wait, to the frustration of not knowing. I'll give these seeds until mid May and see what happens if anything.

I will definitely harvest hips this fall. The website I consulted said to let them mature on the mother plant for four months. That means early November here. Then clean the seeds and store in the fridge, or my root cellar until next March prior to planting, yes?

Growing most remontant roses in my 4b climate has been a challenge from which I have learned much over the past 10 years. So now I have learned another valuable lesson about cold climate rose gardening. The challenge is often frustrating, but it is also rewarding when I succeed. The rose adventure continues.

PS - I have two bands of Treasure Trail arriving in two weeks. I already have Joyce Barden, Siren's Keep, October Moon and Hettie. I love your roses and you're interest in cold hardy rose breeding is something I admire and hope you continue.

Cheers, Rick

Is it really necessary to cold-treat the seeds?

I am trying to grow roses in a sub-tropical environment- wouldn't cold-treating the seeds possibly select for the germination of roses that require chill hours? Or is that simply not true?

Good question, Avalon--- seems that roses that grow well here in Fla., China, Tea, Noisette, never grow under the cold apparently needed for germination as mentioned , why would these seeds need that degree of cold to germinate? unless I'm missing something.....sally

Some people don't put them through a cold spell but just plant them right into soil and wait for germination. I did try that at one point but didn't get much germination. I prefer to stratify them in damp paper towels in the fridge and wait for germination and then plant them into starter trays.

Thanks Seil, please can you explain 'stratification', what do you do..? I heard that the seeds needed to be 'nicked', but no details.what are the specific steps to all this?.....thanks, sally

I don't nick my seeds. Stratification is the process of cleaning and refrigerating the seeds. I shuck the hips and scrub the seeds against the sides of a fine sieve. Don't worry that you'll hurt them, they're very tough! You need to get all of the hip material off of them because there are enzymes or something in the hip material that inhibits germination. Then I put mine in damp paper towels and baggies and into the fridge. I start checking them after a month and usually start to get some germinations at about 6 weeks.

Paul, that's interesting about the freezing. I got a bunch of seeds from Cliff one year that he had forgotten in the freezer for at least a year. I know I had MANY germinations from them.

"Paul, that's interesting about the freezing. I got a bunch of seeds from Cliff one year that he had forgotten in the freezer for at least a year. I know I had MANY germinations from them."

It depends on the pedigree of the seed bearer. I once got good germination from a potful of Centifolia seeds that lay above ground all winter, enduring temps that occasionally dipped below zero F. I would not expect seeds of any China-influenced hybrids to be as resilient.

Nature provides many variables to insure perpetuation of the species. If the type has "evolved" in an arctic climate, where the seeds and plants endure weeks to months of hard freezes, it stands to reason those seeds which tend to germinate with little to no period of cold treatment have probably been pretty well weeded out. From those, you would likely have greater success from seed given cold stratification. Not that ALL would require it, but probably more will germinate with it.

As Sally suggested, for those genetically suited to areas which just don't freeze, it's likely (and has been my experience) no real cold treatment is necessary to get good germination. But, there are many variables which govern germination. I've had years where nothing should have germinated as everything was 'wrong', and the blamed things came up like rye grass. I've had others where all the stars aligned, with all "I"s dotted and "T"s crossed and germination was terrible, even from those tried and true seed setters which tend to germinate around the mothers without any assistance.

I tend to hold my seeds in the refrigerator simply to delay germination until it's cool enough to plant. I have ripe hips by July, but it won't be cool enough to handle the seeds under soil until late November to early December. Some years, that's longer because the squirrels and rats begin eating the hips/seeds earlier. Some years, it's shorter because all the other conditions cooperate. Some years, I've been able to just harvest and plant, which is actually easier for me.

Little is actually written in stone, as there are exceptions to every rule. Often, the exceptions appear to BE the rules. Banksiae is well known for requiring up to two years to germinate, yet I have a lutescens seedling which exploded from the soil in four months from planting the seed. None of the others ever germinated. You pretty much use the suggestions to see what works with what you grow, where you grow it and what makes it easier for you to grow them. Kim