For a long time, Le Pactole was the top of the tree, for me. But it just can't beat out Honestly, Jesse Hildreth That IS my favorite. Honestly, it's generosity of bloom just puts it over the top.

I do love Le Pactole, though -- and Lamarque. I don't have a great sense of smell, so that's not a do or die thing with me.

And I'm pretty enamored of "Legacy Of The Richardson Family," which is in the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden (not, unf., in the Sacramento City Cemetery). (See below)

Jeri

Of the white tea roses I have/had, Mme. Joseph Schwartz and Mlle. de Sombreuil are my favorites. Westside Road Cream Tea was a favorite for two years. I have no idea what happened to it after that, but every bud would open into a small, grayish flower that bore no resemblance to what I'd seen before. It was a lusty, fast-growing bush and it was difficult to take out, but after two years of seeing soot-gray, tiny flowers I was done. I will forever wonder what happened to this bush.

Of roses I've only seen in pictures, Jesse Hildreth is the no. 1 object of my desire. I will never forget the picture of the original rose when it was covered (at the top) with the largest, most luscious white roses I have ever seen.

Ingrid

I really like Mme Bravy. She's a small rose, blooms constantly, very delicate and lovely. She's in a prized spot in my suburban garden and I think she deserves the spot.

Of course, I love tea roses the best.

My favorite white tea is probably either Madame Joseph Schwartz or Mlle. de Sombreuil, but my mom is growing Mme. Melanie Willermoz and the first bloom was one of the most fragrant tea blooms I've ever smelled. Mme. Melanie Willermoz has a lovely light pink tone and I could see it shooting up my list.

I admire Jesse Hildreth, Devoniensis, Mme. Bravy, Puerto Rico, and William R. Smith, which might belong more in the pink blend group. I just love white roses. I may be more inclined to like the white teas than others because I just can't think of one I don't like. White Maman Cochet is another beauty I shouldn't forget about, though it almost always has pink to it.

After thinking about it, The Bride is probably my least favorite white tea, but I still like it more than most roses!

How big has Mme. Bravy grown for you, Jasper? I have never seen one in person, but it is a real stunner in picture.

Jay

Not to run salt in no-Jesse-Hildreth-yet wounds.....

But with all the rain and dispite busy a busy growing baby, mine has one big bloom coming on....

I wan just going to ask about favorite white roses so this thread is perfect timing

I've seen many plants of 'White Maman Cochet,' but to my mind, this is the most beautiful one I've ever seen.

Jeri

Wow that one is huge!

Sigh....what a rose.

I wasn't going to mention this one since it isn't actually a Tea, but I think that everyone who can grow Teas and goes limp and misty-eyed before white ones ought to keep 'Mme. Jules Bouche' in mind. I know I keep talking about this one. It's an old, very Tea-ish HT, vigorous, healthy (in my climate), fragrant, easy to propagate, and very, very lovely. The color is white touched with honey at the center, high-centered, and on a well-fed, well-watered plant blooms are large and full.(flowers on a starved plant will still be lovely, but smaller).
I hear 'Snowbird' is similar.
Melissa

..the rose is lovely, but the old car looks a veritable museum piece.... from the 60's?.. surely that can't be roadworthy...

I can't say enough good things about Snowbird -- We're 99% certain that our wonderful "Louise Ave. White HT" is Snowbird. Vigorous, a generous bloomer, and wholly disease-free here (and also in the Sacramento City Cemetery.

See it, below.

We thought that "Legacy Of The Richardson Family" might be 'Mme. Jules Bouche.' Didn't turn out to be a match -- but the bloom is lovely. HOWEVER, MJB was blackspotty, when I saw it in the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden.

I've just acquired Snowbird as a band with two thin shoots and can't wait for it to grow and bloom. It sounded like the perfect rose for my climate, and disease-free is always a great draw. I was trying to decide between it and Grande Dame, and ended up getting both! Gosh, has anyone else ever done that? Never mind.....

Ingrid

Marlorena, it's a well-known tradition here to have rusty, old vehicles decorating the front or side yard, with sometimes more in the back. The man of the house will say "Yeah, that there is gonna be an antique some day worth a lot of money" or "Soon as I get around to it , I'll have her lookin' like new". Ten years later it's still propping up Maman Cochet....

Ingrid

lol...oh I see Ingrid... thank you...that did make me chuckle...
...the vehicle was reminding me of something from 'The Flintstones'... visions of Barney Rubble and all that...

FWIW, the truck was there for several years. Then, one spring, the truck was gone -- but some fool had cut the rose down to about 2 ft.

For several years, it looked like a 50-50 chance, whether the old rose would live or die, but last time I saw it, it seemed to be picking up.

I didn't get to see it, this past spring, because there was a chili cookoff in town, and it wasn't possible to drive a motorhome through there.

Here's a closer look at Maman Cochet's bloom -- This one, in an old cemetery. Sadly, this plant was lost to gall -- but I'm glad we got to see one perfect bloom.

Thanks everyone,

I hope I will able to get a ride to the Sacramento cem. sale this year so I might have a chance at buying a 'Jesse Hildreth',
Can anyone tell me if 'Jesse Hildreth' is a vigorous grower like Mrs. B.R. Cant and Monsier Tillier or is it one of those slow to build Teas similar to Le Pactole?
Because if I am blessed to be able to buy one I hope to propagate from it for others who share a love for Tea roses and white roses. I'm teaching my neighbor how to propagate rose cuttings this week so I'm making a new cutting bed for more Tea's.

Melissa,
I agree with you about M.J.B.. I grow Mme. Jules Bouche near my Old Garden Tea roses and I feel it fits in there well along with Mrs. Herbert Stevens the latter of which in the climbing form can be grown as a very large self supporting bush, c. 8 feet by 8 feet, not surprising since it is fully 1/2 Tea having been bred from the vigorous H.P.; Frau Karl Druski as a seed parent. X Niphetos for pollen.
Mme. Jules Bouche' is 3 generations distant from its' great great great grandmother (seed )Devoniensis. Two of its other ancestors within that generational span are unknown and one could have been a Tea rose. Either way
Mme. Jules Bouche shows several Tea characteristics:
1. Evergreen foliage ( in my garden near san francisco, california it blooms fully through every season of the year. where other H.T.s drop their foliage in winter and stop blooming for 3-4 months.
2. M.J.B. can bloom on short thin flowering stems, as thin as the lead of a pencil (most H.T.s can only form blooms on thicker stems).
3. M.J.B. produces a very high number of blooms per square foot of canopy, as many blossoms as many Tea roses produce.
4. Rapid re-bloom.
5. mature bushes in our warm climate grow as large as many Tea rosebushes grow to be, 7' + feet tall, by nearly 6 feet wide. The average Hybrid Tea in the same gardens grow to be c. 4 to 5 ' tall.
5. bloom form is nearly as delicate as an old garden Tea rose. It does have slightly thicker petal substance which gives it a bit longer of a vase life.

'Snowbird' is the third H.T. that I feel blends in well with Tea rose blossoms and bushes.

If I lived in a cool climate and could not grow Tea roses, I would grow those 3, and 'Sombreuil' and 'Poulsens Yellow' which has a growth habit similar to a China rose, bushy with slender wood and artless flowers.
and s.d.l.m and spray Cecille Brunner both of the later are Tea Hybrids, the same is true of Mermaid (R. bracteata X yellow Tea rose.
I've planted several dozen Tea rose seeds this winter ( and am still collecting them as they ripen, I may get as many as 200 seeds considering how many hips have yet to ripen, and am hoping for a worthwhile Tea seedling from one of these:
Le. Pactole
Rosette Delizy ( only 5 hips on a huge plant)
Marie van Houtte
Lady Hillingdon
Mme. A. Mari
Mme. Lombard
Monsieur Tillier
Clementina Carbonieri
cl. Devoniensis
cl. Florence Bowers Pink Tea
(Mlle. Fransizka Kruger produced no hips at all on two large plants) Rose seek informed me about the trait of a lack of fertility among Tea roses)
and seeds from tea noisettes:
Reve d'Or
Lamarque

( and Pax because I love white roses best)
I deadheaded W.r. cream Tea and s. de Pierre Notting so I'll look for hips on those next year.

I'm fantasizing about a Tea shirt inscribed with the words
"Searching for 'Jesse Hildreth' "
I just realized I wrote Tea shirt. Instead of T-shirt which it is called for its' shape. I am becoming a bit obsessed. I hope I dream of white Teas tonight.

Luxrosa

If it helps. My baby Jesse has doubled in size at least once since I got it in September but it will still be a bit before I am ready to try for a cutting

Jay, Mme Bravy is small for a tea, maybe 2 feet tall and wide. I moved it once,however, which set it back. I think it's been in it's current spot a little under two years. I think it will get bigger though, but probably not huge.

I also love White Maman Cochet and Mme Joseph Schwartz.

And, I covet Jesse Hildreth, like the rest of you.

Re 'Mme. Jules Bouche' and blackspot: I've never seen it on any of my plants here. It does get some mildew in summer, like about half the roses in my garden, but a mild form. Overall it enjoys quite good health. It's a popular passalong rose here, and thoroughly deserves to be.
Melissa

My Mme. Bravy is about 4' tall and 3' wide after 5 or 6 years, so I don't believe she will be a huge tea either. She does bloom a lot and is generally healthy (a little PM in spring, otherwise very nice-looking foliage). I think Le Pactole and Westside Road Cream Tea are also great. Mrs. Herbert Stevens has a tea-like demeanor even if an HT and I like her a lot, too.

The cutting I got in September of Jesse Hildreth was the last and smallest one of those available but it continues to grow, putting out a new set of leaves even now. I think it will be a while before I see a bud, though-- looking forward to that!

By the way, I agree with Lux that the demeanor of 'Poulsen's Yellow' is very much like that of a China -- and a yellow one at that! I have become enamored of this rose in the two years I have grown it -- fast on its own roots and constantly blooming, even now.

We will have both Jesse Hildreth and Louise Avenue (Snowbird - perhaps the climbing form) at the Apr 18 rose sale. JH has been very slow to build for us - it's one of those twiggy teas that grow low the first years. Jeri says it will produce some vertical canes and start to grow up but it hasn't yet. It blooms a lot but flowers are rather small. Jeri says a bigger plant produces bigger flowers. It's at least four years old in the cemetery. Devoniensis, planted next to it at the same time, is more vigorous.

Louise Ave, OTOH, also blooms very well and is a wide, lusty plant. We've had ours five years and have pruned it to be free-standing and to keep it out of the path and off of the monument in the center of the plot. I'm sure it can be trained to climb but think that it will grow as a large shrub. No disease, very nice rose for us.

My favorite white Tea is Mlle de Sombreuil. It sends out long, vigorous canes in its youth and then the rest of the plant grows to meet it. Typical high, wide Tea with nice fragrance and exquisite, large, flowers - lots of bloom. We will have it at the sale, too.

Lux, get a ride to our Open Garden if at all possible. We will have lots and lots (and lots) of wonderful roses.
Anita

Yes. "Jesse Hildreth" isn't a speed demon as to growth.

I suppose I could speed him up if I religiously disbudded him, but I can't bear to do it. I enjoy the blooms too much.

I really can't say enough good things about "Louise Avenue"/'Snowbird'. I can certainly see why it was so popular in its day.

Anita, I really want to try to get another one when we're up there for the sale. Mine has consistently been crushed by 'Mme. Berkeley' and I want to put up another, with some room to breathe.

I hope you have more than one of each plant.

I hope to make it too.

anita,

would you consider selling soft wood cuttings of Jesse HIldreth during the Open Garden sale??? For those of us who propagate it would be a great blessing, especially if all the plants of it have been sold before those of us who desire J.H. have arrived.

Lux.

P.S. just a thought...
I'd consider $5-$7 for a bundle of 3 cuttings to be fair. Because the number of 3 cuttings, I believe, is a decent number of cuttings to allow for an amateur propagator to use in order to get one rose cutting to strike roots.

Lux -- There's just not that much material.

Jill took some last spring from the mother plant, and they had those roses for the Sept. Open Garden. They did take what they could -- and I'm going to push Clay to get some off our plant.

We are reminded of the fact hat it took the big rose producers almost 10 years to get roses from one mother seedling up to numbers they could put into commerce.

But they should have some to offer.

I like that very much, Malcolm. It's not one I've heard much about before.

Hello, I am new to the board. I have to say that Devoniensis is my all time favourite rose in any colour. I live in a hot dry area in Australia, I have four of them growing over a rose tunnel and the scent fills the entire garden.

My favorite is Angel's Camp Tea, followed by Mme. Joseph Schwartz and Puerto Rico.

Angel's Camp is vigorous, blooms often, is very fragrant, can take some shade, and has pumpkin shaped hips in fall.

Here's my plant of it which is in quite a bit of shade. It would probably do better in more sun.

erasmus, your Angel's Camp Tea is exquisite. I had always thought it was a light pink rose, as shown in your first picture, but the second picture shows a white rose. It has a beautiful growth habit.

Ingrid

Newforold,

I would love to see a picture of that tunnel. And welcome!

Veronica

I only have Devoniensis (I have Sombrieul the climber, but that's not a real tea). I love love love this rose. However, I had it in a bad spot where it got too much shade. I did have to dig it up because of yard work, and it's actually put on a lot of size and vigor in the pot. I am planning on putting it in a nice prime spot when I replant it.

Thanks, Ingrid. Overall it's more white. See Mme. Joseph Schwartz below..it's mostly white but gets those delicate blushes of pink. I tend to take pictures when they have a blush of pink. I had a friend in 4th grade whom I was out of touch with for a long time, then we started exchanging Christmas cards and news. Her ex mother-in-law was named Mrs. Joseph Schwartz and as they were on good terms i sent her a rose of that name.

Those of you who are interested in "Jesse Hildreth" might want to read the latest issue of the HRG publication The Rose Letter. Jeri has an article about it there.

It is hot off the press. I just got my copy in the mail today.

Rosefolly

erasmus, I had Mme. Joseph Schwartz until my poor soil and the drought did her in. A lovely rose in every way, and mine also blushed pink many times, to the point where some of the blooms looked like Duchesse de Brabant. I also lost my DdB but happily have a new one growing in a better spot. DdB, SdlM and La France are the top three roses I'd never want to be without.

Ingrid