Hi Karen, welcome! You're going to have a ball! Your questions... 1. Is it Ok to use an unknown as a parent? Is this often done, or frowned upon? Of course! If the unknown has traits you're interested in, go for it. That's something which is done (or at least reported as having been done) all the time. 2. Interested in other's experiences - what was your initial success/failure ration. Is it possible to get a success in your first group, or can you expect to try hundreds of times before having your first success? That's hit and miss. Some get great results right away. Others of us take forever but eventually get interesting things. Forty years go, it was reported only one out of ten-thousand seedlings was worth introducing by J&P, but they were traditionally raising HT X HT which resulted in a lot of inbreeding of a very limited gene pool. If you're repeating that trend, those could easily be your expected results. If you're mixing things up, using modern roses with species or some other "out there" direction, you may hit something worth spreading around in your first batch. As I said, it's hit and miss. 3. What makes a good hybridizer. Is it an exercise in patience and persistence, or is there some special artistic "magic" that must be within the individual hybridizer? "Hybridizer" would be patience, persistence and research. A good "Selector" is someone with a good eye, "artistic magic". You might breed some very good things, but if you're not seeing the good in them, you'll throw away some pretty interesting things. Joe Winchell had some very interesting results, some of which were suitable for florist production, a few for landscape and garden. Ralph Moore offered to put him in touch with people who could promote and market those types, but Joe was so narrowly focused on his exhibition HT, insulin needle, high centered form, he wasn't interested. He probably tossed some decent roses as a result. Even Ralph had to rely upon other peoples' visions for some of his creations. He was so focused on his minis, when he created Pink Powderpuff, his Hulthemias and other larger roses, his most frequent question was, "think someone would buy it?" 4. I have heard that if you plant seeds from a self-pollinated rose, that you won't get children like the parent. Why is that? Because you can't "know" for certain who the father is? or other? Both. Roses have more genes than humans. The possible traits expressed are much greater than what is possible between two people. Some of the lines imprint themselves heavily on the seedlings and have such characteristic traits, you can often look at the seedling and make a good educated guess who one parent was. Others, give such way out results, who could have guessed? Breed with Little Artist. 99% of its seedlings look very much like it, no matter what you crossed with it. Some roses are chameleons. They take on the other parent's characteristics so readily, they are very useful in getting other traits into "better" lines. Better being healthier, more vigorous, etc. Probably the best answer to that question is, when you raise a seed, it is sexual reproduction, which is never an identical genetic copy of the parent. With all those genetic possibilities behind the seed parent, even if it isn't a cross between two varieties, there are so many possibilities, the seeds can, or might not, look anything like the parent. But, some will. That's something you'll learn as you raise more seedlings. If you keep using some of the same roses each year, you develop a feel for what is possible from that rose and can eventually see it in its offspring. 5. I have read that each seed from a single hybridized hip will produce a different child. So should you plant as seeds from the same hip as possible, then try to find the "best" result. Then - do you just have that single plant to propogate from? Or might you be able to get multiple of a relatively "same" result from the same cross in the same hip? Different hips? Nope. Each seed is genetically distinct. There are only two instances I've ever read of where two, different roses, raised by different breeders, in different parts of the world have been deemed so similar, they were considered synonymous. That's two out of probably millions of seedlings, many thousands of introduced roses. When you raise a seedling you wish to replicate, you have to go back to that precise seedling to propagate from it. All of its siblings are going to differ from it enough to not be interchangeable. Once you begin researching the breeding lines on HMF, you will see that. 6. Can more than one rose be patented having the same parents? (Like 2 with Father = rose 1 and mother = rose 2) Absolutely! Each one is distinct, different. There are many instances of that. Oklahoma, Mr. Lincoln, Papa Meilland all have the same parents and all were patented. Each one is different. You're patenting that specific genetic combination, not all the possible combinations from those parents. 7. Rose pedigree research - are there resources that give access to see what children a particular rose has fathered or mothered ? Finding "magic" crosses? Yes. The laborious route is buying all the Modern Rose editions and then reading them. The fastest, easiest, most fun way is to buy a premium membership for HMF for $24 a year which gives you full access to all of that information on the site. It is INVALUABLE! Not only can you search for all the offspring of a particular rose, but you can easily follow breeding lines and often SEE color images of the results...at the click of a button. All for $2 a month! You'll love it! Reading what created what is fine, but SEEING what created what is so much more educational. 8. Any related advice would be greatly appreciated. Browse the Rose Hybridizers Association. Read the linked articles. Ask questions there and here. Research the roses which are really good where you are. Research their offspring. Research what is really bad where you are and look for common ancestors. Playboy is an extremely popular breeder. Playboy is addicted to rust in this climate. MOST of its offspring are, too. I avoid Playboy. I don't want to engineer rust into my line. It's virtually identical to breeding animals. If you know a particular 'stud' has health or behavioral issues, you avoid using it or its progeny. If you know strongly multiflora types are going to either be prone to mildew, RRD or chlorosis and any (or all) of those are issues where you are, avoid using those types. Pay attention to those roses which set their own hips without you. They are likely to be good seed parents. If a rose usually doesn't set seed, it may not be useful for you where you are as a seed parent. Iceberg doesn't set hips at all in the inland hot valleys. It sets hips like a bloody fruit tree where it's cooler and damper. Raise self set seed from the roses in your garden. What benefit is it to you to create seeds if you haven't learned to germinate them where you are? Practice on the freebies your roses provide you. They cost you virtually nothing. That will also help show you which of the hip setters also makes viable seed. Why waste resources pollinating a rose which won't set seed? Creating your own seed before learning how to germinate and grow them is like waiting to learn how to root or bud when you've finally gotten the material you've really wanted and waited for. Both are very much like waiting until the day of your huge vacation to finally buy the expensive, involved camera you've always wanted. None of them are going to do you much good because you haven't learned how to make them work, nor have you overcome the fear causing you to permit the situations to overwhelm you. Sure, if the stars align perfectly, you might have success, but how much more fun to stack the deck in your favor, learn how to make it all work then succeed in your early attempts? Initial failures can be overwhelming to many people. Fail at what doesn't matter first. Save your "creations" for when you KNOW how to make it work. Don't give up. Don't let it overwhelm you. Keep it simple, inexpensive and streamlined, unless you're the type of person who loves making the simple, complicated. That's totally valid, but the harder, more complicated and time consuming you make it, the less likely you will be to actually DO it. If it helps, I put together this entry on pollinating roses to answer questions several friends sent me. I hope the photos help. Please feel free to make use of any of it you desire, or not, your choice. There are many roads to success with this, just as there are in growing roses. Not all are suitable for each climate, nor individual. Keeping it simple, fun, inexpensive, makes it possible for me to pollinate a ton of things quickly all summer long. Of course, it resulted in far more seed than I can raise, but that affords the luxury of selecting those most important to me. I couldn't have done it had my process taken a lot of prep time. Find what works best with your habits, your logic, your mind and then just explore. You're going to love it! Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Pollinating roses

Yeah, my neigbhors asked me how I was able to achieve that many plants. They saw me working on the garden around early March. They were curious about the garden beds I was making. They saw the milk jugs. I explained to them what it was and also gave them the Wintersown site. I actually watched their reactions when they saw it. They didn't pay much attention to it kinda like "oh, ok". However, when plants started to come out/bloom, they went back to me and asked, "was that from the tiny greenhouse". :) I'm going to make more beds maybe by fall once my knee gets better. :D Thanks mnwsgal! :)

Thank you leafhead, now you are just exhausting me! :-) I am out of room for any thing larger than Marigolds, snapdragons and yes, asters. I cannot decide which asters to get. They recommend Aster lateriflorus 'Lady in Black' and Aster novi belgii Alert (red), for my area. I did find a great plant list just for the Texas High Plains, so I think I will try their local varieties. They also sell plants, however it is a long drive, but they do have native milkweed, several varieties, I would like to try. Next year I will have time to put in more garden space, as I do away with more lawn, but for now I am full-up! I think I will learn alot this summer, and by next spring I should know more about what is good for me as far as natives, and if I see butterflies I did not expect, I will plant what I can to meet their needs. I am very excited about my first season. I don't think I have a chance of seeing either a Giant or a Tiger Swallowtail. The sulfurs we get are happy with grasses, so I have that covered. I do need Violets! The list never ends.... Thanks again, Debra

From what I have seen the 50/50 citrus/poncirus hybrids are semi-deciduous in colder locations like mine. My citrumelos seem to always loose most leaves by late winter but will often still be green at Christmas. A low around 15*f will drop the leaves on citrumelo. The 1/4 poncirus hybrids like citrangequat are far more evergreen holding leaves unless it get's cold enough to kill the leaves and stems as well. One 50/50 citrus/poncirus hybrid that might be worth a try in a very protected zone 6 microclimate is CitChangsha (poncirus x changsha). CitChangsha is almost hardy as pure poncirus. A dude I know in Kansas City has seen his CitChangsha survive -10*f untouched. My CitChangsha specimens have only been down into the single digits which is nothing in testing their cold hardiness. I don't know why but there is something about citrus that I like more than any other plant. Ever since I was a very young child I have dreamed of growing citrus outdoors in Oklahoma. Some say edible and hardy can't be done but I think it's just a matter of try & try again. The tools are out there with poncirus, Fortunella and Ichang. We just need more folks breeding citrus for the numbers in favoring finding that magic plant.