Mme. Antoine Mari balls for me; what other Teas might do the same

jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)

13 years ago

This is Madame Antoine Mari's third spring and sadly, I have to accept that she balls badly in my micro-climate.

Springs are cold, rainy and windy. Summers are cool (60-75 F) and dry. Winters are mild.

I will not get rid of Mme. Antoine Mari, but would like to prevent further heartbreak. So, what Teas should I avoid?

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,

Jo

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Comments (10)

collinw
13 years ago
Anything with a high petal count could be trouble. My William R. Smith will ball occasionally, but I just turn a blind eye. Just too beautiful when the blooms are perfect, and it only balls when we have a really wet spring.
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
13 years ago
I've heard that Alexander Hill Gray balls, although not in my hot and dry garden. Mme. Joseph Schwartz balls occasionally and she mildews in the spring.

Ingrid
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I use Mills Magic Mix once in the spring and then once in the summer. In between, I use a 10-10-10 fertilizer that mixes with water. I bought some Mills Easy Feed to try this year. I usually put some of my own compost on my roses in the spring as well. The soil at my house is really nice. It's the Georgia clay but it's really soft and well amended. The garden area gets sun in the morning from around 8 am to 4 or so in the afternoon. The garden is well mulched and gets water regularly. Other teas in the same area are doing very well. Souv. de Francois Gaulain, Duquesa, Angel's Camp Tea were planted later and they look great. Perle d'Or and Gruss An Aachen were planted at the same time in the same garden and are great. I really don't think it's my garden culture. Maybe it's this particular clone.
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Peony time, oh yes. Here my first peony to bloom was 'Mollis', ephemeral but lovely, and now the tree peonies are in bloom to be followed later by the herbaceous peonies. I have a notion the Officinalis varieties precede the Lactiflora peonies. And P. peregrina is flaunting its lone fire red bloom at the moment. Our bloom times may be odd compared to a normal year, though: I know the tree peonies in town bloomed well before mine did. I suppose all my tree peonies are common kinds, they come from the big commercial nurseries, but they're wonderful. I just wish the nurseries would assign them their proper names--sometimes they do, sometimes they don't--so I can relate what I have growing in the garden to what I read in books. Paula, I do like you do, add one or two every year. And I'm interested in those intersectional peonies, too: who couldn't be? Suzy, is your P. delavayii luteus possibly what my book calls P. lutea var. ludlowii? It sounds like a wonderful plant. Both times rust has struck here has been during a prolonged wet period in middle-late spring when temperatures are warm. Our usual weather pattern is that as temperatures rise, precipitation diminishes (this is why we can live without a dryer), but there is the occasional anomalous weather. DH read in the paper yesterday that this has been the wettest spring ever recorded in Piacenza since they began keeping records back in the 1860s. The winter rainfall was triple that of an average year. I went and checked one of the rolled-up leaves: no larvae. I think it's fungal. Poor 'Vanity' has every single leaf rolled up. Yesterday was glorious and I looked up now and then from my work to admire the garden. DH has been mowing the last couple of days. He got most of the paths, and by the time he was done the garden looked like a garden. Corners of it were pretty lovely, too. The rain came back last night. My first roses to bloom are usually R. hugonis and 'Sanguinea', then a gaggle of Chinas and Teas get going along with the Banksiaes and R. foetida. 'Souv. de St. Anne's' has been blooming, too--facing the wrong way so I can't see it--and yesterday I cut the first flower of 'Gloire des Mousseuses'/'Mme. Louis Leveque'. The bloom was four inches across and full of folded petals. The flowers and plants of this variety always remind me of a tightly corseted Edwardian beauty, very robust, and beautiful. I like a lot of flowering weeds, too, and they make the bees and other pollinating insects very happy.
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jerijen
13 years ago
Arcadia Louisiana Tea balls here for me, most of the time.
That's disappointing, because the plant is good, and the foliage is perfection.
Though it's not a Tea Rose, I note that 'La Reine' balls here, when it has a chance to do so.
So does Clothilde Soupert -- I've never seen an open bloom.

Jeri
Coastal Ventura Co., SoCal
landperson
13 years ago
E. Veyrat Hermanos balls like crazy in her first flush which comes at the end of months and months of rain. She's beautiful enough and fragrant enough for me to put up with it and just wait for the next flush, but....it's still quite sad to see...

Susan
mudbird
13 years ago
I'm in coastal southern CA, and ALL the yellowish Teas ball in my garden. I've tried so many of them - all grow vigorously, then every single flower of spring to early summer balls and rots. It
s not until the very dry days of late September/October, that I finally get flowers that successfully open. I'm not sure yet about Mde. Antoine Mari as she's still very young, but she suffers from the additional problem of "spotting" in moist coastal conditions. The spotting is annoying though not so disgusting as balling and rotting! Iceberg roses have a similar problem here. If planted out of the way of ocean breezes, the spotting problem sometimes diminishes.
jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks, folks. Your responses are appreciated.

Mudbird - I have many yellowish teas on my wish-list. I'll probably have to stay away from them .

I hear you about the coastal winds; although I am on the bay and not the coast it's pretty bad here, too. My Icebergs spot tremendously. Madame Antoine Mari seems okay but she's small and I think well-sheltered to the prevailing winds by a garden shed.

Cheers,
Jo
jerijen
13 years ago
One yellowish Tea which I've never seen to ball is 'Lady Hillingdon.' Another is 'Safrano.' They have a lower petal count.

Jeri
daisyincrete Z10? 905feet/275 metres
13 years ago
Papa Gontier balls a little early in the season, when there is still some moisture in the air, here in Crete.
It stops though once the dry summer gets going.
Daisy
buford
13 years ago
Many of mine are balling this year. Mlle Franziska Kruger always does a bit. Duchesse de Brabant is worse, and many blooms have never opened. Mrs. BR Cant did a bit but the blooms opened, but stayed tight. The cooler wetter spring did not help.
cemeteryrose
13 years ago
Hi, Jo -
Haven't heard from you for a while. Glad to see you posting here, but sorry that you're having a problem with one of my favorite roses.

Some roses outgrow the balling problem. Only laziness kept me from taking out Souv de la Malmaison, which finally stopped balling after it was at least six years old.

Definitely avoid the Cochet roses. Those big egg-shaped blooms will ball and rot for you, I'm afraid.

I think it's likely that Mons Tillier would do ok for you. I share Jeri's thought that Lady Hillingdon might be good. Le Vesuve might be ok, too. Comtesse du Cayla, which sometimes seems like a tea to me, and sometimes like a china, would probably love your climate.

Definitely avoid anything that mildews, like Duchesse de Brabant and Mme Lombard. You don't get hot enough to drive the mildew to dormancy.
Anita

Mme. Antoine Mari balls for me; what other Teas might do the same

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collinw

ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9

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jerijen

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jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)
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jerijen

daisyincrete Z10? 905feet/275 metres

buford

cemeteryrose

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Mme. Antoine Mari balls for me; what other Teas might do the same

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jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)Original Author

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jo_pyeweed (z9 SF Bay Area)
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