J de P in my yard was a disease ridden, puny mess. I found it very susceptible to BS; you might want to check with other rose growers in your area before trying it.

You might ask your mentor about the sizes of his/her teas and how old they are and is winter protection a necessity? (And the real elephant in the room question is "Is your mentor a serious exhibitor?" Serious exhibitors will often push a plant to get one good bloom to take to a rose show to win Dowager or Victorian Queen. They care not at all for growing a good garden rose that looks good most of the year. Some of the puniest roses I've seen are in such gardens where they are fed and watered to make show blooms. I expect that can be done with tea roses, but it doesn't make for long lived plants. If you have time, download Gertrude Jekyll's book "Wood and Garden: Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical of a working Amateur" which has a very interesting chapter towards the end titled something like "Following False Gods" that talks not about roses but about how (other) flower shows do the public no favors. There are also good chapters in there on the flowers that appear through the seasons in her gardens. I liked the download so much, I bought the book.) Here is a link that might be useful: Wood and Garden

I like 'J.E. Murphy's Pink Tea' (which may be 'Mme. Emilie Charrin'). It has a perfectly healthy and vigorous plant, good leaves, and a flower of a decided pink color with a form which is both pretty and distinctive. Recommended. My 'Second Street Tea' is taking its sweet time to make anything of itself; but early this year, it started to show some interest in growing, so we'll see. The plant is not yet large enough for me to trust how representative the flowers it has are; but, as of yet, they're a warm light pink, and full of petals. 'Arcadia Louisiana Tea' is wonderfully happy in my garden--healthy, vigorous, bloomy, and beautiful. The flower color is essentially a chalky pink, which doesn't sound as attractive as it is. The bush is about six and a half feet tall, and thickly foliaged. It would dominate that area of the garden if it weren't for an extremely vigorous 'Faberge', which is just as tall, and, by its orange color, distracts from 'Arcadia Louisiana Tea'. I think 'Faberge' is an outstanding rose, indeed one of the very best; but I wish I had planted it elsewhere (it wasn't supposed to be so tall!). But no way am I moving a big, healthy, happy rose... Like 'Second Street Tea', my 'Florence Bowers' is a little slow getting started; but, that said, it did put out this year a good, if slender, six-foot cane, more like one would expect of a climber than of a regular Tea. The plant is young, so I can't really say much about the flowers; but it seems to bloom in flushes rather than anything like continuously.

I am really torn on this one. In the early season I love this plant. I love the blooms. They are gorgeous. HOWEVER, now it is is entirely covered in powdery mildew, a few blooms, but it doesn't look pretty. I havent sprayed for powdery mildew, but usually it is just BS that is the culprit here.. so I think that says it is pretty suseptable to PM. In conclusion: When it is good it is REAL good, but when it is BAD it can be pretty bad. I have waffled back and forth shovel pruning this one out. But I went to the time and expense to order it from Vintage and the 3 years in growing it... The jury is still out. Marleah