Some questions on breeding roses

[confuzzled]

Hey everyone! So I'm going to try and start breeding roses (as in new varieties, not propegating with cuttings) and I can't find an answer to these questions:

- Though it's late in the season my new rose bush (Midnight Blue) finally made blooms and is doing well. I decided to go ahead and practice pollenating it with another rose bush whose name I don't know. The Midnight Blue rose bush doesn't give enough pollen to bother with. Anyway, I gathered a considerable amount of pollen from the unnamed rose bush and the next day the pollen was grey. The oldest pollen (which I had gotten about a week before) that was stuck tight to the q-tip was still yellow, but everything loose was grey. I tried gathering new pollen a day or two later and the day after that turned grey as well. I don't understand it. The first batch of pollen I had gathered stayed yellow for a week. What would cause the new batches to turn grey? I used the same method every time (find and pick buds about to open; peal the petals and sepals off; place rose on paper and let dry out of direct sunlight; knock off the pollen and collect into an air-tight container).

- Can pollen, once applied to the stigma, be washed off by rain? What if the stigma is sticky?

- Can a single rose be pollenated by multiple varieties? Some websites say to tear off the stamens before pollenating; is it possible for the rose to self-pollenate after the human pollenated it with another rose?

 

[catjac1975]

Tried breeding roses and found it quite difficult. I got a few seedlings, one bloomed and it was an inferior quality and only lived a few seasons. I did not stick to it but, you are supposed to be able to go from seed to bloom in a few months indoors.
As far as the questions go my real experience is with daylily breeding. Daylily pollen must be frozen to stay viable unless it is only for a couple of days. The grey color sounds like mold, but it could be about the age of the pollen while on the bloom. Rain could wash the pollen off-your're supposed to cover the cross with a wax paper envelop. I'm sure each bloom could be pollinated by different parents but each seed produced would be related to the pollen plant that pollinated it. I'm sure there are some great websites that can help you. The ARS is fairly cheap to join and you can probably pose those questions to the club and get many experienced answers.
I have gotten some real info from the AHS for my breeding program.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/crosspollinate-rose-bush-22629.html
http://www.ars.org

Hey everyone! So I'm going to try and start breeding roses (as in new varieties, not propegating with cuttings) and I can't find an answer to these questions:

- Though it's late in the season my new rose bush (Midnight Blue) finally made blooms and is doing well. I decided to go ahead and practice pollenating it with another rose bush whose name I don't know. The Midnight Blue rose bush doesn't give enough pollen to bother with. Anyway, I gathered a considerable amount of pollen from the unnamed rose bush and the next day the pollen was grey. The oldest pollen (which I had gotten about a week before) that was stuck tight to the q-tip was still yellow, but everything loose was grey. I tried gathering new pollen a day or two later and the day after that turned grey as well. I don't understand it. The first batch of pollen I had gathered stayed yellow for a week. What would cause the new batches to turn grey? I used the same method every time (find and pick buds about to open; peal the petals and sepals off; place rose on paper and let dry out of direct sunlight; knock off the pollen and collect into an air-tight container).

- Can pollen, once applied to the stigma, be washed off by rain? What if the stigma is sticky?

- Can a single rose be pollenated by multiple varieties? Some websites say to tear off the stamens before pollenating; is it possible for the rose to self-pollenate after the human pollenated it with another rose?

 

[confuzzled]

Thank you for the info. It makes sense if it was mold or something similar. I'll make sure to really clean the container for next year. I checked out the link, but it doesn't let me read much unless I join, so I'll look further into it later when I have some money to spend.