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American Rose Society
P. O. Box 30,000
Shreveport, LA 71130-0030

E-mail : ars@ars-hq.org
Phone: 318-938-5402
Fax: 318-938-5405

 
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Propagating Roses

Predicting the Color of Your Seedlings

by Steve McCulloch

At a meeting of the Pacific Northwest Hybridizer's Group, I showed the members a chart I made several years ago. When I first started hybridizing roses as a teenager, I didn't have a feel or even an understanding for the inheritance of color in roses. All I knew was that the color pink was very dominant and would show up in nearly every cross made.

In order to better understand the inheritance of color in roses, I checked out Modern Roses 5 from our public library. It had the parentage and descriptions of many cultivated roses in existence. For every rose listed in this book with a defined clear parentage, I recorded the color of the rose and noted the color of each of its parents. If the parents were not available, I passed over that variety. I spent nearly an entire summer working on this little project!

From all this data, I developed a chart. You can use this chart to help predict the possible outcome of crossing any two roses. You may be surprised at how accurate it can be. Of course, I make no guarantees with this chart, but it can be a useful guide.

Have fun with it! Let me know what you think!

Male (pollen) Parent






F

e

m

a

l

e

( seed )


P

a

r

e

n

t
 
Red
Pink
Orange
Yellow
White
Lavender
Bicolor
Red











91% red

5% orange

3 % pink

1 % bicolor




53%pink

42% red

5% white







36% red

36% orange

21% pink

3.5% yellow

3.5% bicolor
47% pink

23% orange

13% yellow

10% red

7 % bicolor
40% pink

40% white

20% red



















34% pink

34% red

22% bicolor

10% white




Pink












53% pink

44% red

1.5% orange

1.5% yellow




86% pink

5% red

2% yellow

5% orange

2% white




50% pink

35% orange

7% yellow

7% red

0.5% white

0.5% lavender
48% pink

26% white

13% yellow

10% orange

3% bicolor


40% pink

34% white

13% yellow

6.5% orange

6.5% red


34% red

34% lavendar

32% white







57% pink

14.3% red

14.3% yellow

14.3% bicolor




Orange






44% red

34% pink

22% orange

77% pink

15% red

8% yellow


83% orange

17% pink



56% yellow

25% orange

19% pink





















Yellow











39% pink

27% red

15% bicolor

7% white

7% orange

5% yellow
56% pink

28% yellow

8% orange

4% red

4% bicolor


36% orange

24% pink

16% yellow

16% white

8% bicolor

75% yellow

9% orange

6% pink

6% white

4% bicolor


25% yellow

25% pink

25% white

25% bicolor



























White













39% red

33% pink

17% white

11% yellow






63% pink

30% white

7% yellow









43% orange

14.25% pink

14.25% white

14.25% yellow

14.25% bicolor
47% yellow

26% pink

16% white

5.5% orange

5.5% red



75% white

25% pink







































Lavender





80% lavendar

10% pink

10% red




































Bicolor





50% orange

25% red

25% pink




































 
 
 
 
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