The preferences used in seedling selection will vary from one rose breeder to another. I thought that I would write out my own procedure to help me focus on the criteria that I have been following, to hopefully, ultimately select the "best" seedlings. Others may find this approach useful to help them in their own seedling selection process.

My first rule in evaluation is: Give the baby roses what they need to show their stuff: water, sunshine, fertilizer and protection from insects (and early on, protection from disease). It is no use culling rose seedlings that are languishing and lacking optimum care. Choose any AARS winner and withhold fertilizer or adequate water (especially on a smaller, weak plant) and you will get ugly roses.

I tend to think that most baby rose seedlings have a fair amount of disease susceptibility and do not gain their full genetic disease resistance until the 2nd or 3rd bloom cycle - usually about 4 to 5 months of age. For this reason, I will spray in the greenhouse for powdery mildew about two times - once in late January and once in February, to carry them through this susceptible period - note, this year (2001), I did not spray for disease at all and had opportunity to eliminate the most disease prone seedlings early. During this time, I nevertheless, am most critical in culling and eliminate about 50% to 75% of the seedlings in their first bloom cycle. This is necessary to allow room for the better seedlings to develop and perform at their best.

During the first bloom cycle, seedlings which have any of the following are culled: unattractive color, misshapen or very small blooms and awkward plants (lack of balance between bloom and foliage, or sparse foliage on very tall seedlings). During this time, I also mark the more attractive or fragrant seedlings with a wooden stick and remove it's bloom to encourage more growth. Sometimes, you will notice a seedling having a bent over peduncle which will result in a misshapen bloom. These flower buds are snapped off before they develop to allow a second chance for the seedling to produce a good bloom. Likewise, small vegetative centers are ignored as they may disappear as the seedling matures. Very large vegetative centers, however, will usually persist and unless the seedling has a lot going for it, it is removed.

At peak bloom, usually for me that is between the last week of March and the first week of April, I try to walk through the greenhouse once or twice a day and will cull 200 to 300 seedlings each day.

After 80% to 90% of the seedlings have been culled, the criteria begins to shift since the majority of the seedlings now have relatively attractive blooms and/or color. At this time, it is possible to compare seedlings from the same family and to select the best 2 or 3 for possible propagation, while eliminating the rest. Bloom form becomes more important as the seedlings mature. For many petalled blooms, exhibition or "English" form is looked for. For single petal seedlings, those with wider or rounded and uniform petals are selected. Disease resistance now becomes a much more critical factor in selection. Even the pretty rose covered with mildew must be eliminated. I think it is important to observe balance here though and I do allow some disease on a seedling that has everything else going for it, especially if it has great fragrance. If for nothing else, that seedling may be used for future breeding. Very disease prone seedlings should be eliminated, however, because I believe that their use for further breeding is unlikely to produce more desirable seedlings.

As the seedling population diminishes and the seedlings begin to mature, I start to look more at the overall effect of the plant - branching, vigor, floriferousness, and attractiveness of the foliage. Here again, seedlings from the same family can be compared so that the best seedlings are selected from a particular cross. Also, amount of bloom and repeat of bloom becomes more important.

Finally, toward the middle of summer, rather than removing spent blooms to encourage new growth, I just remove the petals and observe for the formation of hips. At this time I am looking for new seed parents to include in my breeding program. Really good seed parents are hard to come by and I have found some of my most useful parents among the seedlings. Seedlings that set hips AND keep on blooming are the best in my mind because that indicates real vigor to me.

At the end of the season, hopefully I have been able to eliminate 99% of the seedlings and will have found among those 50 to 100 or so remaining, 5 or 10 that are interesting. In addition to these, I will keep and evaluate approximately 10 more seedlings for use as seed parents by first planting their open pollinated hips to assess adequacy of germination in the next seedling generation. And the process continues.....