Our organic method Old Rose garden has these Tea and Tea like roses that thrive here where condtions favor p.m. more months of the year than blackspot: these I consider to be A list Tea roses and I would buy them first: Mrs. B.R. Cant a larger bloom and deeper pink than Duchess de Brabant and I consider both to be Must have Pink Tea roses along with the China-Tea Le Vesuve which has very rapid rebloom,, and Mme. Antoine Mari, which gets lightly covered with p.m. but no loss of leaves nor bloom production. Mrs. Dudley Cross, very healthy and quite smooth stemmed. Souvenir de Pierre Notting, a lovely Tea rose that has large blooms. I'd give it a few hours of filtered shade to keep it from bleaching out in the hot summer sun. Etoille de Lyon: can be kept to c. 5' in zone 7 a useful size and easy to espalier in a narrow space. Lady Hillingdon and the apricot form of Anna Olivier are also healthy A list Tea roses and most Teas are pale or light hues so these are very welcome in a Tea rose garden. plus A.O. is the most strongly scented of all the Tea roses to my nose. The white Tea roses, such as Niphetos and Devoniensis can be Divas depending on cultivation and situation, the ones I've found to be easy to grow are: Westside Road Cream Tea" I adore this fragrant white Tea rose, and bought two of them. W.R.C.T. is far more resistant to p.m. than Ducher which defoliated and was shovel pruned. Le Pactole" I had to leave mine behind when I moved, a great loss for it takes ages to build size and is worth every second of waiting. Exquisitly elegant blooms. Caveat Rosa: I shovel pruned my "Georgetown Tea" it was far too sickly from p.m. to keep in my garden, it defoliated c. 90% of its leaves. Mme. Lombard is borderline for p.m. resistance here,yet although it is covered with a thin icing of p.m. it neither defoliates nor decreases bloom production. As an organic method gardener I'm used to ignoring this amount of p.m.. Mme. Berkeley is quite resistant to powdery mildew in our area, but I have heard from folks elsewhere that it is not as resistant to blackspot as some other Tea roses. I love it and have it outside my living room window so I can see her often. I prefer Monsieur Tillier to Gen. S. for color and M.T is slightly healthier in our garden. The Triomphe du Luxembourg we received appeared like a plainer version of Mlle. Franziska K. and I regret ordering 3 of these. "Alliance Franco-Russe" shows less resistance to p.m. than Etoile de Lyon and Souvenir de Pierre Notting. best wishes for a beautiful Tea rose garden. Luxrosa.

All I can say is that this has long been my favorite Tea rose. I don't like to indulge in breathless puffery--if that isn't an oxymoron--but I'll make an exception: This rose is exquisite and gorgeous. I also have its nearly-as-good sport 'Lady Roberts' (the pink in 'Anna Olivier' makes AO just a little bit more intriguing). Sangerhausen had at one time a 'Climbing Anna Olivier', which as you might imagine was at the top of my want list. Unfortunately, it was ultimately reported that, hm, either their specimen(s) had died or were found to have been mis-identified (if the latter, I'd still be interested in whatever it was that came close to being a climbing AO). But I'd be tempted to advise folks that, if you grow only one Tea, grow 'Anna Olivier'.

Creekside Manor Tea - If this is Jean Bach Sisley... this is a lovely rose, very china-like, round bush shape. The flowers were sometimes quartered and very pretty, lovely baby pink. Sadly, I took it out too soon before I knew about summer leaflessness and how much water roses need. PM is not a problem here. Rosette Delizy - Wonderful! But for some reason she was plagued by botrytis (no normal flowers her last season) and cane dieback (sudden blackened canes) in my garden. I can't imagine this being a general problem with this rose, but no other rose in my garden did this. In her 3rd season she really started getting a wide vase shape, easily becoming 8' across, probably close to 6' tall. No clue how big she could have gotten but I've seen a very tall, narrow one nearby growing in clay. I loved her but she may have been too big for my small garden. I thought she'd be tall and fairly narrow. When she got wide, that was too much. Souvenir de Pierre Notting - In my garden very slow to mature, very small, very fine/delicate canes, probably vase shaped, not a ground hugger. I've moved her a few times so she's not on a normal growth schedule, but I'm told by people in the SE that she only gets to about 5' size. Her flowers are pretty and fat but I haven't seen many. She nods. Le Vesuve - Gorgeous, gorgeous blooms and lots of them from infancy, fairly round symmetrical growth, getting wider than tall, lots of crossing growth with u-turns and tangles, a real thicket. Perfectly healthy here. Mine is probably 8' wide and almost 5' tall. White Maman Cochet - Less awkward and angular than Maman Cochet, huge beautiful flowers, mostly white with red outer petals, turning mottled deep pink with age, sturdy canes. Mine went in the ground in February & already has several 5-6' canes that lean out, looking like it'll be a wide one. Anna Olivier - Mine is Bermuda's so probably not the same rose, sensitive to alkaline conditions, gorgeous fat pale yellow flowers, flatter than the Cochets. Mme Lombard - Only 14 months in the ground, beautiful blooms. Lots of growth, but I have to remove a plumbago to get a good look at her. I think she's going to be big. Good foliage, kind of leathery. I like all of them very much. I hope they do well for you, Rosefolly. I have Alexander Hill Gray, and I'm impressed with his smaller size so far, even growth, finer structure, very nice medium yellow flowers with lots of petals, flowers not as larhe as Cochets. Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Bud. It is missing the spherical ovary of Octavus. What do the pros think? Adam