Even if you decide to air layer, I would still try to root a few cuttings. You can use a styrofoam cup with holes punched in the bottom, but I'm using some really small clay pots now (they don't blow over). I purchased the Jiffy brand seed starting mix to root mine in. I take a fresh cutting, pencil thickness if you have it, nick the outer skin near the base of the cutting, dip it in some rooting hormone, and place it in a hole that you form with a pencil, firm it up with your fingers, and keep moistened. There are several articles on the ARS website on how to root roses. Everyone has a favorite method that works well for them. It's fun. Personally, I don't have much luck with the baggie method, they rot on me. I root mine in full morning sun, late afternoon shade, and mist them several times a day with my garden hose turned to the mist setting. Eventually, we'll set up some automatic misting heads to an irrigation zone. I am having a fairly high success rate, and I am a brand new newbie at rooting. It can take 4 to 6 weeks before they root. It's been thrilling watching the first ones I rooted bloom. Sandy

Hi again, I suppose rainfall here might make a huge difference. We have had plenty of natural hosing-down in the form of rains most of the year. Where our roses do get some mildew, we hose them down and that has always taken care of mildew nicely. But I don't recall any mildew this year on the roses located where the Duchesse de Brabant is, so Duchesse hasn't had that treatment. A rose as old as Duchesse de Brabant might also also have some different cultivars around. As nearly as I can recall, our Duchesse came from Chamblee's. We had much better than average luck with three Gruss An Aachens that came from Chamblee's too. That is, until the Rose Rosette Disease got them. As far as mildew goes, I doubt that having an all-organic yard made that particular problem vanish, so I don't know why we haven't had a problem in that particular rose bed with mildew. I do think a no-chemicals yard might correlate with less of a fungal problem in the long run, though. Anyway, for whatever reason, our Duchesse de Brabant is EASY to have good success with. Our Duchesse apparently loves the heat. It's in a spot where the ground is a very large berm that we created a long time ago from ideal mixed-up organically rich part-clay dirt all the way down to a sloping ground level of fertile woods dirt topsoil on clay. So the rose roots would have an easy time of it to go down about 3 or 4 feet to have a constant supply of moisture except in the very worst of drought conditions. I kind of think also that in weather that's as hot as we had this summer, the bit of extra shade for our Duchesse might have held some advantages too. Anyway, we didn't quite have a really bad drought here this summer. For whatever reason, Duchesse de Brabant is the easiest to grow healthy and prolific rose that we have. Ducher is healthy and blooms pretty well too, but isn't quite so prolific in the intense heat as Duchesse de Brabant has been. And the blooms aren't as pretty or fragrant as Duchesse either. Spice was prolific in the spring, but not once the heat really hit hard. It's plenty healthy though, and it sits in more shade than Duchesse de Brabant. Thanks to all who commented. I just was feeling so grateful for the good luck with Duchesse de Brabant I couldn't help but recommend this rose to others, at least to others with similar conditions to NC. Best wishes, Mary

Yes, I did get them from Pickering and am glad to know they are correct, because two of my Pickering roses (as well as their replacements) were incorrectly marked--York and Lancaster which turned out to be a summer-blooming Damask similar to Autumn Damask, but with somewhat more formal flowers, and Alba Maxima which was Maiden's Blush. Marianne is beautiful--I love the apricot color. I also love to raise seedlings. I have about a dozen this year; one yearling from Rosa Mundi; and half a dozen older seedlings. Two of them bloomed a couple of years ago, but haven't bloomed since, one lost its buds last year and didn't make buds this year, and the other had light, warm pink flowers last year identical in form to those of Rosa Mundi and Officinalis, one of which was probably the seed parent. A couple of these older seedlings look like Damasks, the others like Gallicas. I think they should all have buds this year--they get plenty of sun and inch worms are no longer a problem as they were for about four years straight. Lindsey

I have twice known landscape maintenance gardeners who went out of their way to learn how to care for roses -- and the difference between types of roses with regard to care. Those people could command a significantly higher fee, from homeowners who wanted things done right. But for the most part, these weekly-visit maintenance gardeners are really good at mowing the lawn, and a disaster for just about everything else. The smart homeowner will tell them to leave the roses alone, and stick with mowing the lawn. Tea Roses, in particular, don't take much maintenance. Save yourself a lot of grief. Make the roses your project, and leave the Mow 'n Blow guys to their mowing and blowing. Deadheading of Tea Roses can well be done near twilight, as the air begins to cool, with a chllled glass of white wine in hand. It also gives you a chance to get to know your hummingbirds and (at my house) lizards.