Sumognat, I agree with the group. 5-1/2' would not really be big enough for any tea, sad to say. If you look on the Vintage Gardens website, you will see 3 types (sizes) of teas. Type 3 is the type you definitely don't want and can't have. In choosing roses for my postage stamp-sized garden I could not choose Type 3's. Well, that's a lie. I did receive Mme Lombard free from a friend. (Can't turn down a free rose!) She just finished her 2nd year, and mama mia! she's getting big. I'm noticing that she grows a cane and then grows a shoot off that cane that keeps going in the same direction. She's easily 8' wide in one direction. I took a look at her the other day and saw that she wouldn't be that wide if her canes stood UP instead of flopping over. I propped up the cane in question on another cane, but I knew I was kidding myself. The first little breeze will knock it over. I could tie it (and may try since it seems to have helped Louis Philippe), but I don't know if that's going to alter the nature of the rose. I gave her an 8x8 space plus a teensy bit of overlap, so I'm not in really bad trouble, but you will be. I have a tea, General Galieni, that doesn't seem to be objecting to trimming on 2 sides to keep him in a space about as deep as yours. Maman Cochet grows in a bed that is 5' wide plus overhang into the neighbor's yard and a wide path. When she reaches over the timbers, I cut her - with fear and trembling at first (would she die or become worse due to umbrella growth?) She did neither, so I keep cutting her. My MBRC is on Fortuniana, and I knew she'd get huge so I put her in a spot where she could reach out 8' in all directions from center which she does in an odd way so far. Many of my beds are 6' wide. Along my front sidewalk I planted Clotilde Soupert, a polyantha that I love. Between spring pruning and deadheading she doesn't get any bigger than about 5x4-1/2. I love her but if you have thrips 11 months of the year, I can't recommend her - or any other light-colored rose. (BTW, even Louis P was not immune to thrips last year.) Louis would not be a candidate for that spot by the driveway either. I think I would be inclined to go with a rose like Quietness, an upright shrub rose, basically a grandiflora, I think. It won't mind trimming, i.e. deadheading, and won't get as wide anyway. You could put Souv de la Malmaison there also, maybe even 3 of them. The Type 2 tea roses (Duchesse de Brabant, Alex Hill Gray, Mme Antoine Rebe, Mme Antoine Mari and others) could work with some nibbling, and you can put two of them in that bed. That way they'll have 2 sides that won't get chopped. BTW, when I trim teas, I cut back to next joint of another cane no matter how far that is unless I'm just deadheading. Then I cut to the next swollen budeye (or snap them) unless it's not far enough. On young teas (3 years & less) I only snap deadheads at the abscission point - no cutting except for scrawny growth that's going downward into the ground. Some realities just can't be avoided. Put a big tea in a corner of your backyard. The corner will give the illusion of not being as large a chunk of real estate. Now back to the drawing board and choose again. :)) Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

I don't personally have G. Nabonnand, but have heard many people on the forum say good things about it. If you're really interested, you might write a separate post and get reactions from people who actually grow it. Well, I hope Malcolm and all you Mrs. B.R. Cant lovers out there are happy. After having sworn over and over again that I would not buy another rose (and being really sincere about it), the thought of not having "the world's greatest rose" simply would not leave me alone. Over the last few days I've studied my place endlessly, searching for a large flat spot to hold this rose, and there simply was none that had any sun. This morning I had a Eureka! moment as I stood outside the house and looked down the driveway. It's very long and the terrain along it is hilly, but more than halfway down there is a flat spot where what we call the studio is located. About 20 feet away from the studio I found my spot for this rose! It just hadn't occurred to me to plant roses that far from the house but there is a water connection there and a huge rose like that would be a wonderful introduction to the roses around the house that aren't visible until you go around a curve on the driveway. Sanju, it just goes to show where there's a will there's a way. I need another rose like I need three eyes in my head but I've become convinced I have nothing quite like THIS rose in my garden. Oh gosh, how many times have I said that, and it's always been true. They are all different.... Ingrid

My PDJ was one of the victims of "early pruning". I rooted a cutting given to me at a cutting exchange and I was so impressed with how easily it rooted that I may have planted it prematurely in the rose bed. To add insult to injury, I decided that I should cut the young little canes so I would have a fuller rose bush. That was about 3 years ago and the plant has never become vigorous. It did bloom in the spring, but the blooms balled. So, in short, I don't think its PDJ, but my treatment of it. I went out a few moments ago to water the roses and I do see new growth emerging, so I may have to grant a stay of execution. (not mine....PDJ's)

Jeri, thanks for plugging this one--it's one of my favorites roses. It definitely deserves to be well-known wherever teas can grow. It's one of the healthiest roses I've grown here in the Washington, DC area, and the color variability is nothing short of fantastic. Cream with cherry-pink edges all the way to deepest brick-crimson with black edges, which is the phase that really gets me. My clone is very vigorous and floriferous (of course, we have plenty of heat), and it came from Vintage. Stefan