Given that only 3 gardens list it on HMF, and neither of its two vendors will be around in the future, and that some people had good things to say about it, I personally would try to give it away. It might do better in someone else's garden.

But if you cannot find anyone to take it, I don't think you are morally obligated to keep it in your own garden if you do not love it. If that were the case, it would probably discourage people from taking a risk on rare roses. We certainly don't want that to happen!

Rosefolly

If you are in a hot inland location, maybe someone in the coastal fog would find the flowers last longer.

Hi Linda

I would suggest this might be a good donation for the Stow House, but after a visit to the local rose garden and noticing how bad the antique section is looking, I think it is best to suggest only wonderful winners to the museum. Not sure what is going wrong at the rose garden, but not a good endorsement for antiques right now.

If you can not find anyone who is dying to own Frances Grate's Tea, I can find a spot in the lower garden to hold it and see if a change in location helps, having a large garden is a benefit for things like this. Or propagate some cuttings and see if it is wonderful rose else where (once I find out the details on shipping outside of a quarantine zone-we are in a few but one is by half a block and the other covers citrus) It might do better in a cool draft zone and I am local with a truck. I hope this fall I can build my small green house and have a place to start pass-along plants.

I agree with trying to find it a new home. There is no reason you should have to keep a rose you dislike but so many roses can be terrible in one garden and a joy in another.

Good news! Anita Clevenger from the wonderful Sacramento Heritage Rose Garden has offered to adopt it. I hope it will do better for her. Maybe the cooler winters will stimulate it to a better bloom cycle?
Thanks everyone for the good advice and special thanks to Kippy for offering to adopt it. If for any reason Anita can't take the rose, I may take you up on that!! Kippy, I propagate heritage roses from time to time and would be glad to share some with you if you like. You can reach me at lbuzzell (at) aol (dot) com

Linda.....

I am glad you found a home for your rose.

Here's something to think about ... I have a few roses in my garden that only look good in the cooler weather of spring and fall. I love them, so I keep them. I just forget about them during the hot summer months because I have plenty of roses that don't fry except when the triple digits last too long.

To me, it's worth it to see the rose during those cooler temps.

Smiles,
Lyn

If it's possible to propagate some of Frances Grate's Tea for Kippy to try, that would be the best thing, then she can how it does in her setting.

I have a similar dilemma with Homere. I really don't like its little flowers and the way that they ball, but it's a gorgeous healthy plant and there are very few sources in the US. Take it out of my home garden or not? Every year, I consider doing it, and don't. The cemetery specializes in found roses, and I bought this from Paul Barden years ago. If it weren't a commercial rose, I'd dig it up, plant it in the cemetery and be glad that it's gone! (Peggy Martin said that she once saw a Homere that had huge flowers and she's coveted it ever since - mine are about the size of Mlle Cecile Brunner. Since Homere was another popular buttonhole rose, I think that my blooms are the right size...)
Anita

Thanks, Lyn. Good thought. I wish Frances Grate's Tea was wonderful in spring. I have a few other roses that I keep just for that great spring flush even if they don't do much afterwards. But the blooms on FGT are pretty brief in spring as well, sadly.

Good idea, Anita, to try to propagate FGT for Kippy. Good luck with deciding what to do with Homere!

I love 'Frances Grate's Tea' it was one of the roses at S.J.H.R.G. that had me stay by it, to linger and adore it, and smell it's cherry like scent, for some time.
like several Teas with little petal substance, I find in a hot climate F.G. would do better in partial shade.
Nearly all Old Garden Tea roses are shade tolerant in the warm climates in which they thrive, because the closer a garden is to the equator, the stronger the sunlight is there. Which is also the reason why her blooms shatter so quickly in full hot sun.
I'm so glad F.G's going to Sacramento, where I can visit her there.

Lux.

I do love a happy ending.

That's great advice, Lux - thanks. I think you're right that teas are happier in the shade in our climate...

Linda, so glad a perfect home for it has been found! I might be interesting for me to try and root a cutting here and see how different the same plant is in a different location.

I have a list of a dozen antiques I want, but thought I would first run the list past the gang here and then see what Burlington has available. From what I seen on her list it is kind of 50/50, but you might have some of the ones she doesn't.

I have the strip along the bottom of the property that I am looking to fill with roses happy to be 6' or more and no real concerns with how wide (what annoying neighbors)

I'll earmark a partly shady spot in the cemetery for it.
Anita