I had a similar thing happen to my Mme Plantier, we had high, swirling winds for over 24 hours & I couldn't believe she was the only one blown off course. She was engulfing an old 9ft wooden pole, unbeknownst to me it was rotten inside the concrete & then snapped off at the base, Poor Mme was listing badly but once the pole was removed she almost righted herself & only needed minimal support. Plants are amazing.

Jane

I've had this happen a few times. At least you don't have to cut the whole thing down. Yes, the teas when in bloom get very heavy when it rains. The good thing about DdB is she will come back strong.

Jackie, wasn't the mother rose the one that was almost engulfed by your ancient Le Vesuve? This one is very top-heavy and with all the rain I can see why it might topple. With the pruning I wouldn't be surprised if it now leafs out all along the canes. I have almost nothing blooming and it's amazing how many flowers this rose had.

I had a few cistus branches break here, and a few roses break branches with the recent snow. Now I have a Lady H "cutting" as well as a Cram Sup "cutting", and 2 Rosette Delizy "cuttings". I've also stuck the 2 cistus breakings in to root. I left a few split big canes in case they can continue to live. I tied string to brace a split crotch on a cistus and hope it could knit. I also put duct tape on the split. Here's hoping. Whatever, the damage is less than an Alaskan winter. I'm impressed the Tea roses arched without breaking for the most part, with the snow load. They also had the horizontal growth typical of the baby ones so it was already on the ground effectively anyway. The stronger upright basals all look good. The breakage was smaller side branches with buds.

Ingrid - yes, you are correct - we think it was planted at the same time as our ancient Le Vesuve - there was a row of ancient bushes all along the fence/wall - Cecile Brunner, DdB, Le Vesuve, and Cl American Beauty. At least, those were the ones still growing massively and making a huge hedge when we moved in. Over the last 30 years they all gave up the ghost (except for Cl American Beauty, which tip roots and carries on). However, I have clones of all of them still growing in the garden.

I agree with you about the DdB - I expect it to leaf out more and try another bloom cycle soon. My white sport of it is also having a full, although ruined flush, as is Safrano. (Since I started this post we have had another 1 inch of rain as of 5PM yesterday, and since then it has been raining HARD without stopping, so I'll bet we will have gotten at least another 2 inches by 5PM today - in 2 more hours). Tea roses just keep going and going in this climate, like that battery bunny.

Jackie