I made an inquiry regarding this book, and today I received the following email from the publisher, Rosenberg. Whoo Hooo! I can't wait. Randy "Thank you for your email. We are making arrangements for the book to be made available in the USA in October 2008 and will confirm these arrangements shortly." Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd P.O Box 6125 Dural Delivery Centre NSW 2158, Australia Ph: +61 2 9654 1502 Fax: +61 2 9654 1338

I got my order this past Tuesday only 1 day after shipping! Beautiful plants! I was so excited and then so challenged by the boxes and in kind of a hurry since out-of-town company was due soon that I didn't notice that 1 of the 5 roses I ordered, Valencia, wasn't there, but Apricot Nectar was. I finally noticed after company left and I was watering my roses. I emailed them and I'm waiting to hear back to see if this was a mistake or a substitution. I'll be very confused if the substitution was on purpose since she verified it was in-stock and I wasn't asked one way or the other about subs. Not complaining right now, mind you, just confused. There wasn't even indication on the packing slip. Valencia was checked off as if it, too, was in the box. Would this be odd if it IS a substitution? Thanks.

Kim, I'm not convinced that the color was so rare- a search of Tea Roses at HMF shows quite a few that are called red or dark red, including FD's presumed ancestor, 'Souv. de David D'Angers'. The dark red color combined with the large flower probably was a real treat, though, and it sounds like the plant was a nice shape if grown in suitable conditions on suitable understock. I read the review below of 'Francis Dubreuil' from a 1906 issue of Gardening Illustrated Magazine, and felt that 'FD' was being praised for his beauty, but also subtly dismissed. The writer suggests that because 'FD' has a weak neck that the HT's 'Liberty', 'Warrior' and 'Richmond' are better choices for red flowered pot roses, and that 'Princesse de Sagan' is a better choice for mass planting of a red Tea in the garden. 'FD' is best grown as a standard for buttonhole flowers. Honestly, if I were in the market for a red Tea rose in 1906, I wouldn't have rushed out to buy 'FD' after reading this review... As for why 'FD' wasn't available in U.S. nurseries at the turn of the 20th Century, it may have been due to something fairly simple- poor marketing, problems with importation, plant losses due to weather/poor storage or some other factor(s) lost in the sands of time. Or you may be right to suspect that 'Francis Dubreuil' just wasn't a very good or useful rose, and American nurseries preferred to devote limited space to better/ more popular plants. Virginia Rose Francis Dubreuil Red Tea Roses appear very much out of place when mixed with other Tea-scented varieties at the exhibitions, but in the garden their value is justly appreciated. It is a question whether the Rose under notice of the variety Souvenir de Therese Levet is the better, but I think the place of honour is usually accorded to Francis Dubreuil. It is a lovely Rose, of exquisite shape in the bud, and of a rich dark amaranth-red colour, with a maroon shading. Its beauty is best displayed when grown in standard form. Here it will make a glorious head, if budded upon a thrifty Brier, and one may always be sure of a good button-hole flower from a tree of this sort. Neither this variety nor Souvenir de Therese Levet is seen to very great advantage as bush plants, their growth being rather too diffuse to be used as garden varieties, but upon a low wall they would be grand. Where highly-coloured flowers are appreciated several plants of Francis Dubreuil should be grown, considering the scarcity of good reds among the Hybrid Teas, and by good cultivation upon well-drained soil blossoms of great beauty may be obtained. Being a true Tea, it is as free flowering in autumn as in summer. The tropical weather of the last few weeks has been very favourable to this Rose, and I have been able to cut numbers of lovely blossoms. There is a beautiful reddish Rose named General Gallieni which is worth growing. It has a tinge of coppery-yellow at base of petals, and often pervading the centre petals, but its general effect is red. Betty Berkeley and Friquet are two other good crimson or...[bottom of the page is cut off]... but the best of all for general effect in the mass is Princesse de Sagan, which is as much a China as it is a Tea Rose. How effective are its velvety crimson blossoms, so quaintly twisted and so freely produced! Another Rose that has been splendid just lately is the Hybrid Tea Etoile de France. I have been inclined to condemn this Rose, but must hesitate in view of what I have lately seen. I am afraid that in a cool or wet season it would be a failure, but in seasons like the present it will be fine. As a pot-Rose Francis Dubreuil has one failing, and that is a peculiar weakness in the stalk, which causes the blooms to bend at the neck and appear on the plant quite distorted. Market growers have, for this reason, been obliged to discard the variety. Perhaps it is not wanted as a pot-Rose now that we have such beautiful reds as Liberty, Warrior, and Richmond. ROSA.

Hi Jan, I filled the survey out about 12 months ago and part of the survey was structured to find out the control methods used by those with Lantana. Basically the DNR was developing a "Best Practice" procedure as apparently to date very little serious research had been done. (Why re-invent the wheel when the public have been using it for years.) The DNR is a QLD state dept. but the initiative for this is Federal. I believe QLD and NSW are the most seriously affect states of this weed. Hey Len, I sympathise with your frustration about the local councils/shires but if you have it on your property it can still be spread outside to other properties, including the roads unless you get rid of all the birds that carry the seed. LOL Unfortunately we the grass roots people do pull our weight more than the shire councils but it has to start somewhere. Doug.