I have two different varieties of rose - red and white.
How can I use them to grow an hybrid plant like this? Or is it even possible to grow a plant like this?
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3 Answers
Most of the rose flowers pictured exhibit what is known as 'colour breaking'. This is usually caused by a virus in various types of plant, and when professional growers/breeders see this occurring, they will attempt to breed from the plant to create a whole new variety whuch reproduces the colour break feature, without compromising healthy growth. It doesn't only happen in roses - there is a particular virus that causes colour breaking in Narcissus, for instance. Effectively, this feature occurs more or less naturally (albeit via the viral route) without interference from man - whether you could recreate such a feature in your own roses deliberately, I'd have thought unlikely. This extract https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-8-412 gives more information on colour breaking generally.
The other, partially visible rose flower demonstrates what is known as a 'picotee' effect, which means the flower is edged with a different colour than the rest. These are usually the result of intense breeding to create new varieties.
Almost all rose seeds advertised on Ebay and similar sites are a rip-off, because there is no way to know exactly what you will get until you see it.
Professional growers cross-pollinate different rose varieties in controlled conditions and grow the seed in the hope of producing something good. If you plant say 1,000 seeds, then wait two or three years until you get the first flowers, you might be lucky.
If you want to grow some roses from seed just for fun, the seeds will not germinate unless they are kept at a temperature close to freezing for 6 to 10 weeks. If the climate where you live will not do this naturally, you can plant the seeds in a seed tray, wrap it in a plastic bag so it doesn't dry out, and keep it in your fridge (but not in your freezer!) for two or three months.
It is not unusual for roses to "change color." A minor change occurs when cooler weather intensifies pink-to-red shades, or age and hot weather fade them. Knock Out ‘Blushing’ rose flowers, for example, are medium pink in cool springs like this and in fall, but a washed-out, nearly-white in summer. The 'Rainbow' and 'Sunny' Knockout rose marketing capitalizes on the fading of pastel pink and yellow petals as they age, emphasizing that at any one time there are deeply colored buds, pastel newly opened flowers, and pale to off-white older blossoms. The contrast is greatest, and those plants are most attractive in cool weather. Some of our Master Gardener volunteers have complained they are quite disappointed in the "washed-out" summer appearance of those varieties.
The second type of color change is due to the fact many roses are grafted, so the branches are one variety and the lower root system is a hardier rose. If those lower roots sprout branches, they may appear different in leaf size, shape and flower color. They are more likely to have such sprouts when planted shallow, or if the top branches are all killed by cold temperatures
