My Enchanting Cottage Garden: Tea Rose Verus Hybrid Tea Roses

Of all the Heirloom roses, the profuse, graceful scented Tea roses are among my favorites. I first fell in love with Tea roses when I first saw Safrano blooming in the front lawn of a home in Winchester, Ohio. It took me two years to find the name of that wonderful rose and another year to find out where to purchase Old Tea Roses. Tea roses are not as hardly as their subsequent offspring the Hybrid Tea, but they have plenty of other generous attributes to recommend them. First off, they are wonderfully scented. I could spend a whole afternoon in the rose garden just sniffing. Another plus is, they grow fairly fast and are large, full and loaded with bloom in the spring. I don’t think a Cottage Garden could be complete without one or two The Tea roses were introduced from China in the first half of the nineteenth century. They can be slightly tender but were highly prized for their large blooms, repeat flowering and the inclusion of yellow in the color range. They are beautiful, delicate creatures.

The early varieties were bred for the show bench but with further cross breeding they developed into the hardy garden plants that predominated in the 20th century. They come in a huge range of colors, shapes and sizes.

Pruning Guide: Prune when reducing main stems by half in winter/spring.

. My personal favorites in my own Cottage Garden include the following ....

Lady Hillingdon, cl

A vigorous and hardy climbing rose, and one of the best tea roses still in existence. The blooms are made up of large petals, resulting in long, elegant, waxy buds, which open to large, loosely formed flowers of deep apricot-yellow. These hang gracefully from the branch and emit a delicious, rich tea fragrance. ‘Lady Hillingdon’ continues to flower throughout the summer with unusual regularity. It has fine contrasting dark green foliage, which is coppery mahogany when young. 15ft.

Safrano

1839

Though its parents are unknown, ‘Safrano’ is recorded by Roy Shepherd as "the result of the first successful attempt to control parentage by hand pollination", thereby introducing a new era in rose breeding. This rose has double, well scented flowers of bright fawn, with long-pointed buds. It was once described exhibiting "lovely buds of sunset coloring... saffron to apricot in the bud, changing to pale buff... A pretty and hardy variety, worthy of a place in every collection..." The new shoots of foliage are plum colored, contrasting nicely with the blossoms. 4 to 6 feet

Specimens of 'Safrano' that are at least a century old exist in cemeteries and abandoned home sites.

Cramoisi Supérieur

1832

This fine old rose has velvety, rich crimson flowers with a silvery reverse and a deliciously fruity fragrance. The double, cupped form of the blossoms is distinctive, keeping with the rounded shape even when fully open. Like all true Chinas, it is very nearly everblooming in a warm climate. The leaves are small, neatly shaped, dark green and very healthy. The plant has an upright habit and, if left unpruned, will slowly grow to over five feet tall and equally wide. Cramoisi Suprieur or Agrippina, as it is sometimes still called, is one of the old roses that can often be found in country gardens of Texas and the South. It is a valuable and beautiful landscape plant that provides almost continuous color.

Général Schablikine

1878

This lovely old Tea has very double, fragrant flowers of copper-red shaded with cherry that open from rather long buds to nearly flats. A sturdy plant with plenty of foliage, ideal in a hedge or as a specimen.

3 to 5 feet

Devoniensis

1858

Known as "Tradd Street Yellow" in Charleston, where it is highly admired, this rose is sure one of the all-time greats. Its flowers can be primrose yellow, magnolia white or ivory, depending on the weather. Always of large and sumptuous form, with an intense heady fragrance.

Madame Joseph Schwartz

1880

The white color sport of Duchesse de Brabant.

4 to 6 feet

Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux

1908

Medium pink, tea fragrance, great cut flower and blooms throughout the season. Introduced/discovered in 1908.

Cross of Marie Van Houtte x Madame Abel Chatenay.Pink blend. Mild fragrance. Medium, very double bloom form. Blooms in flushes throughout the season.

Now that we know all the marvelous attributes of Tea rose why would we buy a Hybrid Tea?

What is a Hybrid Tea Rose? The favorite rose for much of the history of modern roses. They were created by hybridising Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses in the late 19th century. 'La France', created in 1867, is the first indication of a new class of roses. The flowers are well-formed with large, high-centred buds, and each flowering stem typically has a single shapely bloom. The bush tends to be stiffly upright and sparsely foliaged, which today is often seen as a liability in the landscape. Hybrid teas became the single most popular class of garden rose of the 20th century; today, their reputation as being more high maintenance than many other rose classes has led to a decline in hybrid tea popularity among gardeners and landscapers in favor of lower-maintenance "landscape" roses. The hybrid tea remains the standard rose of the floral industry, however, and is still favored in small gardens in formal situations.

I have many HT in my garden, but I try to choose those that are scented and of unusual color. They seem to be vigorous, but in my opinion are more prone to problems. With that said, here is a list of my personal favorites. My all time favorite Mme Caroline Testout just missed by a few years being an OGR, or Heirloom rose.

This rose, being well over 100 years old, is still grown in gardens all over the world. The buds are large and globular, the flowers a bright pink with a darker center. David Austin used this rose to produce "Wife of Bath". The fragrance is strong, repeat flowering.

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Mme Caroline Testout