It's part fact and part mythology about the fertility of Miniature Roses. Many of the earlier ones had only partial fertility, if any at all, but there are many modern Miniatures that are highly fertile as both seed and pollen parent. No matter what your goals, you would be well advised to choose seed parents from a list of proven breeders, some of which are listed below. This is by no means a complete list, but is a good starting point from which to proceed:

· 'Sequoia Gold': Best used as a seed parent, gives some pollen. Produces some very good compact plants with good coloring.
· 'Avandel': A softly colored rose in peach and off-white. This is a very reliable seed setter whose seeds germinate easily. (Shown at right)
· 'Softee': Another softly colored Miniature (light yellow) that has great potential as a parent. Sets seed easily.
· 'Little Chief': Best for pollen only. Ralph Moore tells me he regrets not using this rose more, as he believes that it has the ability to produce great things. It has parented some very good, tiny roses with excellent compact growth habits.
· 'Sheri Anne': Excellent seed parent, good pollen too. Many of the best Miniatures have this rose in their pedigree somewhere.
· 'Rise 'N' Shine': Either seed or pollen parent. Some of my nicest Miniature seedlings have come from 'Rise 'N' Shine'. It produces a lot of pale seedlings which you have to weed out though.
· 'Joycie': Excellent seed parent, good pollen also. A great rose to start a breeding program with! Highly recommended.
· 'Golden Angel': Best as seed parent, imprints pollen parent characteristics very readily. An older Miniature, but still an excellent choice for starting a good breeding program.
· 'Sequoia Ruby': Best as seed parent, produces broad color range in offspring. I have obtained some very interesting russet and gray-mauve seedlings from this variety!
· 'June Laver': Best as a seed parent, often producing richly colored offspring with excellent form.
· 'Loving Touch': Has produced some decent offspring for me, best as seed parent. My new Miniature 'Lindsay's Rose' came from a cross using 'Loving Touch' and an un-named miniature seedling. This variety has been used only sparingly in breeding programs, as it tends to give pale or white seedlings. Still, its progeny tend to have very good form and nice shrub shape.
· 'Fairy Moss': an old but useful parent rose. Gives good quantities of seed that germinates very easily, making this a great choice for beginners. Passes on mossy buds to a percentage of its offspring. This has been used very frequently in the production of the Modern Miniature Moss roses from Ralph Moore and other breeders. Works well as a pollen parent also.
. 'Peachy White'; (Illustrated at left) This has been used sparingly in breeding, but the late Harmon Saville used it way back before Ralph Moore gave it a name. Its offspring includes 'Sunday Brunch', 'Golden Angel', 'Rise 'N' Shine' on down to the the sixth generation hybrids like 'Glowing Amber'.
· 'Black Jade' and 'Jean Kenneally': Although I have not used either of these to any extent, a friend of mine tells me these are good seed setters and have produced some good offspring.

Through the history of breeding Miniatures, it has been discovered that a few Floribundas have been very useful as parents, for two major reasons. First, they help impart hybrid vigor to their offspring, and secondly, they produce seed in larger quantities than the Miniature seed parents, making it possible to make more rapid progress in the breeding program. With the exception of a few good Miniature seed varieties, most of the Miniatures produce only a few seeds per hip and often the germination is poor, thus slowing the rate of progress. Also, since miniaturism behaves (generally) as a dominant trait, then the choice of seed parent matters little as far as obtaining Miniature progeny is concerned. In most instances, the pollen from a Miniature when placed on any large shrub will result in a high percentage of Miniature offspring. This varies depending on the choice of seed parent, but this has been found to be true in general. In fact, in Ralph Moore's pioneer work with Miniatures, the seed parent was often a large Rambler descended from R. wichuraiana that produces canes up to 20 feet long! (See "0-47-19") 'Tiny Flame' from 1969, and 'Trinket' from 1965 are both crested using Miniature pollen on this Rambler parent, and yet both of them grow no taller then 10 inches tall!

'Little Darling' is one of the Floribundas that is in the background of many of the modern Miniatures and is still very much worth using. (Best used as a seed parent, but very capable as a pollen parent also) 'Little Darling', when pollinated with Miniatures pollen will produce many Miniature offspring. There are no fewer than 163 named varieties bred from 'Little Darling', the vast majority of which are Miniatures! Although this is an older variety, it is undoubtedly still well worth using as a parent in combination with some of the newer Miniatures. I suspect it is capable of creating great things if bred with some of the new Minis. These comments about 'Little Darling' apply to the Floribundas 'Gold Badge' and 'Orangeade' as well, both of which have played a significant role in the breeding of modern Miniatures.

Although there are very few truly good seed parent varieties, there are quite a few excellent pollen parents to choose from. Miniatures that have been frequently used as pollen parents include: 'Little Chief', 'Cherry Magic', 'Fire Princess', 'Little Buckaroo', 'Magic Wand', 'New Penny', 'Peachy White', 'Pinstripe', 'Sheri Anne', 'Make Believe' and 'Red Fairy'. Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather is a selection of PROVEN parents still worth exploring for their sterling virtues as breeders. Once you have had a year or two to experiment with the technique of pollination, seed harvest, stratification, germination and seedling care, you may want to branch out and experiment to find out which other Miniatures work as pollen parents. (Or seed parents, for that matter) There are many fine roses available that may turn out to be excellent parents, and it may be YOU who does the pioneer work with some undiscovered parent rose!

I would like to stress that if you wish to create some of your own hybrids, it is of the utmost importance to choose some of the proven breeders to work with, at least in the beginning, because there is nothing worse than ending up with mediocre results to create an impression of failure and disappointment. Choosing good parents will insure some degree of success, which will in turn, encourage you to continue with your work and learn more about the genetics of the plants you are working with. Many an amateur hybridizer has started out with only a couple of well chosen parent plants and ended up creating some of the world's most loved hybrids. I'm thinking of Dee Bennett's 'Irresistible', George Mander's magnificent 'Glowing Amber', and Sean McCann's amazing red Mini Climber, 'S.W.A.L.K.' You don't have to be very serious about growing a few of your own hybridsin order to benefit from choosing good parents. Even if your goal is just to have fun and please yourself, it is worth investing the time and energy to select breeders with a good track record. Although it is early in the year to be thinking about the coming season's hybridizing work, it is not too early to be planning which parents you wish to use, and to start acquiring those plants.