German seedlings

In June of 2008, I was the recipient of some rose hips sourced from Germany. The hips were from 3 unknown rose varieties and each variety was from a different city, namely Cologne, Wurzburg, and Trier.  The rose bushes still had the hips in question from the previous year plus their current blooms, so I was able to obtain a general description of the bushes as well as their bloom form and color.  Because the hips resulted from open pollination, their progeny in my garden have the parentage:  "unknown x unknown".  As described, the rose variety from Cologne was a climber with full red blooms, the variety from Wurzburg was a small shrub with 5-petaled pink blooms, and the variety from Trier was a floribunda type with 8-petaled red-orange blooms.  Below I will show you photos of a representative sample of the seedlings that I grew from each of the three varieties.

The last group of photos below shows one of my seedlings of Trier origin that has the unusual characteristic of having light spots on the darker periphery of its red-blend blooms (6-7 petals, 3 inch average bloom size, small clusters).  The spotting on a dark background resembles a galaxy of stars, so I have named the seedling 'Red Galaxy'.  On December 4, 2011, I registered this rose seedling with the "International Cultivar Registration Authority -- Roses" in Shreveport, Louisiana.

The other photos below are presented in pairs -- the first photo of each pair shows the seedling exhibiting its very first bloom, and the second photo shows the rose bush later in its development.  You may click on any of the photos to enlarge them.


(Seed origin -- Cologne)  Seedling born on 9/12/2008:

First bloom:  7/04/2009

Photo taken:  6/13/2012

(Seed origin -- Cologne)  Seedling born on 10/13/2008:

First bloom:  5/24/2009

Photo taken:  6/13/2012

(Seed origin -- Wurzburg)  Seedling born on 10/15/2008:

First bloom:  7/10/2009

Photo taken:  6/16/2012

(Seed origin -- Trier)  Seedling born on 2/22/2009:

First bloom:  6/02/2009

Photo taken: 6/03/2012

(Seed origin -- Trier)  Seedling born on 2/26/2009:

First bloom:  6/07/2009

Photo taken:  7/01/2012

(Seed origin -- Trier)  Seedling born on 2/23/2009, registered on 12/04/2011 as the 'Red Galaxy' rose:

'Red Galaxy' rose
First bloom: 6/01/2009

'Red Galaxy' rose
Photo taken: 6/10/2011

'Red Galaxy' rose
Photo taken: 6/10/2011

'Red Galaxy' rose
Photo taken: 6/12/2013

Updates of February 4, 2013 through June 16, 2013:   Over the last couple of years, I've researched several roses that I thought could be the parent rose that supplied hips and seeds from which I derived my 3 "Trier" seedlings shown above -- a red-orange seedling, a pink seedling, and a red-orange seedling with spots.  The parent rose, most likely SELF pollinated, would VERY LIKELY have a pink rose as well as a rose with red-orange blooms in its IMMEDIATE ancestry; not have very many flower petals; have floribunda / shrub growth habit;  have toughness and clean foliage and be suitable as a "street rose" in Trier, Germany; be a popular rose and probably bred by a German hybridizer; and last but not least -- be capable of manifesting spots in its offspring (meaning it must have spots in its own ancestry).   This is a tall order, but I believe I have identified it -- 'Flower Carpet Red'.

'Flower Carpet Red' was bred by Werner Noack (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), and its parentage is given as ('Irish Wonder' x 'Paprika') x 'Flower Carpet Pink'.  So far, ALL of the above requirements are met except for "spots".  It is known that 'Flower Carpet Pink' produced a sport named 'Flower Carpet Apple Blossom', which itself produced a sport named 'Flower Carpet Pink Splash'.  For photos of the latter, see the website helpmefind.com or use Google Images.  It has a striped / mottled / spotty look to it, and provides a clue that the ancestry of 'Flower Carpet Pink' warrants a close inspection.  Pardon my use of technical terms, but it appears to me that 'Flower Carpet Pink' harbors some latent "crazy genes" that could cause spotting in its progeny.

'Flower Carpet Pink' was also bred by Werner Noack, and its parentage is 'Immensee' x 'Amanda'.  More than one rose is named 'Amanda', but the one used in 'Flower Carpet Pink' is the one bred by Bees Ltd. in 1979.  This particular 'Amanda' rose holds the final clue to our search.   The one photo of 'Amanda' in helpmefind.com does not reveal much, but its likeness did help me to sift through the myriad photos on Google Images for additional (similar) photos.  I found 2 very revealing photos -- they show blooms in later stages of maturity.  By clicking on the photos, one can back-track to their source.  The first photo is in a blog written by a lady named, you guessed it, Amanda.  The photo is in her post of August 4, 2009 (the blog's name is flowerscents.blogspot.com).  The second and most revealing photo is on the website rogersroses.com, and is found by entering amanda in their search field.  Click on all photos to enlarge them.  I see spots !

Update of August 5, 2015:   Here's another piece of evidence that I think ties 'Red Galaxy' to 'Flower Carpet Red'.  In the above discussion, the rose named 'Paprika' (a few roses are thusly named) is the one bred by Tantau in 1956, and is described as being orange-red with a purple center -- see photos in helpmefind.com     Some of my 'Red Galaxy' blooms have a definite hint of purple as they age, given the right conditions.  I was reminded of this while ambling through the rose bed this evening, where I saw the bloom whose photo is below on the left.  The photo to the right, taken last year, is a richer example.

Photo taken:  August 5,  2015

Photo taken:  May 26,  2014