I have 18 roses in containers. My climber is in a 15 gallon plastic container and the rest are hybrid tea roses in 5 and 6 gallon containers (5 gallon plastic and what I am calling 6 gallon are terra cotta pots that are bigger than 5 gallons but not by much - they could be 7 gallons). My roses started bare root (with 2 exceptions - 1 pulled from the ground and 1 purchased already potted) 6 years ago. Obviously it's better to have a bigger pot, but I haven't had major problems with this size pot. I have changed the soil once so far just to keep it fresh. I fertilize every other week at 1/2 strength with liquid fertilizer similar to Miracle Gro and once per month I fertilize with fish emulsion and an organic slow-acting fertilizer like alfalfa meal, blood meal, or Grow More. I never apply all of this on the same day, so that usually means a schedule similar to: Wednesday Week 1 Organic granular fertilizer Saturday Week 1 Weak liquid fertilizer Saturday Week 2 Weak liquid fertilizer Wednesday Week 2 Spray fungicide Saturday Week 3 Weak liquid fertilizer Wednesday Week 3 Fish emulsion Saturday Week 4 Weak liquid fertilizer Wednesday Week 4 Spray fungicide (I try to do the nasty things like spray chemicals and smelly fish emulsion during the week so that my neighbors and I don't have to deal with it when we are BBQing and the like on the weekends.) I spray for insects when they become a problem, except that I do proactively spray all of my buds with spinosad because thrips are the bane of my existence. For instance, I don't think I sprayed an insecticide at all last year. Most years I end up spraying maybe twice. I don't want to kill the praying mantis and hover flies that I get. Fungicide is a different story and I spray every other week (the week I do not fertilize). I use Immunox alternated with Mancozeb/Banner Maxx. When I do use an insecticide I use one mixed with yet a different fungicide just to switch it up. That's about it. Here in CA I usually prune in January, although I pruned in February this year. We usually get 3 flushes per year, although I had 4 this year with the mild weather. The biggest challenge I face growing roses in containers is keeping them watered. A rose in the ground can withstand even the fiercest heat for a few days between waterings. My container roses need to be watered every day when the temperature is above 90 degrees and when it's 100+ sometimes I water them twice if they look sad when I get home from work. If I miss a day the roses don't die, but the new growth gets crispy and the flowers I work so hard for burn up. Luckily, this is usually just for a couple of weeks in July or August. Otherwise, I water 2-3x per week. Right now with the rain I am watering just 1x to supplement Mother Nature.

I'm a little confused, some of these are not entirely tea, let me know if the noisette / china hybrids should be reported on elsewhere. A Mme Antoine Mari - no sign of mildew, occasional bs exclusively on old leaves. 2 years old now General Schablikine - as Mme Mari. Beales 'Anna Olivier' - not a spot on it all season - first year rose, still tiny Isabella Sprunt - ditto (if the blooms didn't lose form so fast this would be my perfect yellow rose) Clementina Carbonieri - ditto Mme Jules Gravereaux - ditto, except 4ft tall, not tiny. Duchess D'Auerstadt - ditto, 6ft up it's arch. No blooms but immaculate. Lamarque has been immaculate the whole summer and has taken off like a racehorse in its pot - it's well over 6ft tall. Destined to grow over an arch onto a warm wall. I love, love, love it. Still, have to see what the damp dank winter does. Perle d'Or, small, first year, spotless. B Reve d'Or has had a touch of bs on the long branch that dangled in the undergrowth - once propped up that disappeared. No sign of mildew. Comtesse du Cayla in a pot mildewed, the one in the ground did not, so I think it's an artefact of water supply rather than the rose. Lady H - blackspots a bit when unhappy; i.e., I haven't watered it enough. Never mildews. Sanguineua - occasional spots, no mildew - in desperate need of a bigger pot, so factor that in. Mutabilis, never mildew, will bs and shed and regrow leaves rapidly. No more than say, 10%. Isabella Nabonnand - needs a new pot, some bs, but it's been swamped by an ambitious euphorbia so that might be part of it. Maman Cochet and Maman Cochet white - these leave me this autumn to their new up the road home. Both had a teeny touch of mildew and bs, but I think that was lack of water related. Incidentally, they ball like it's their job. They have excellent sun and air flow too. General Galleni is about 6 inches high in his pot and not doing much. Had a touch of mildew when in shade early this spring. Beale's 'Archiduc Joseph', tiny, had a touch of bs early - again was shaded. Souvenir de Leonie Viennot. Had a little mildew its first spring and autumn, in a pot. Clean so far this year, apart from limited bs on old leaves. It bloomed like a trouper in my hottest,driest spot. C Crepuscule mildews for me, and has done so lightly but unremittingly since it first leafed out. I am not in love with it atm, really hope it grows out of it. it is in the more moisture retentive area of the garden so I don't think it's a dry root issue, unfortunately. Alexander Hill Gray, ditto, also it balls, ugh. No bs though. Le Vesuve - doesn't mildew, does BS periodically. Don't love the effect of bare thorny canes frankly. It does bloom its socks off though.

I haven't had Teas for that long but they are definitely amongst my best roses. In my hot, humid climate (10b), my favourites so far are: 1. Rosette Delizy - I think this one is my best rose overall. I love the growth and sheer number of blooms. I don't have any problems with balling and they only burn a little on very hot days, which doesn't really matter to me as there are new blooms opening all the time. No disease and fast growing. The blooms don't nod and last ages in a vase for me. 2. General Gallieni - I don't think many people love this rose but it's imperfection is the key to its beauty for me. You never know what you will get! I love the look of the blooms on hot days, where they look like they have been painted with watercolours. Doesn't ball or burn at all for me. Took this pic not long after it arrived as a tiny spindly bare root a few months ago, now it's 5ft high and rising! 3. G Nabonnand - some days it's my favourite but the blooms aren't as tough as the others so it suffers a little in the heat. Beautiful leafy shrub though and always in bloom, like everyone says. I think it has nice perfume too. 4. Duchess de Brabant - I didn't like this one much to start with but it's growing on me! Love the perfume and the number of blooms. Gets a bit of black spot here but nothing serious. 5. Climbing Devoniensis - wow, what a climber! It's my most vigorous climber by far. Actually I'm a little scared of it. My favourite perfume from all the Teas. Also gets a little black spot here. 6. Anna Olivier - mine is still young but it's graceful and has soft full blooms. No disease, not as fast growing as others but it's slowly making a nice full shrub. 7. Baronne Henriette de Snoy - not 100% sure about the growth and how the bush will shape up, it's a bit branching and angular and sparsely foliated at the moment. I'm hoping it will improve. Love the full pretty blooms though. 8. Reve d'Or - I don't even own it yet but I love it! It's on order! I've admired the mature bushes at the rose garden for ages, I can't wait to find a spot for it. 9. Lady Mary Fitzwilliam - sneaking this early HT in as it grows like all my other Teas - vigorous, leafy and healthy. I guess I can't be sure the rose I have is Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, given the contention, but I think it could be. Never balls, never burns. 10. Mrs B R Cant - wasn't too impressed with this one until I fell in love with the reverse of the blooms! So pretty (and huge!) She is sprawling at the moment and may get too big for her spot. Not as floriferous as others for me but very good blooms for picking. 11. Souv de Pierre Notting - here this rose loves the heat. The hotter, the better. I don't have a problem with the brown ruff of outer petals unless it rains. Last very well in the vase and an interesting shape. Love the tinge of pink to the golden blooms. Healthy but a little less vigorous than others I have. 12. Marie van Houtte - I adore this rose but it's a monster! Beautiful blooms that I prefer to most other pink/yellow combinations. Nice tea perfume too but it's getting too big for its spot sadly. Should be higher up my list, I just forgot about it. Ones that haven't impressed are Monsieur Tillier (blooms fry instantly and are tiny, so disappointed with this one), Francis Dubreuil (likewise), the imposter Noella Nabonnand (floppy wet rag blooms here that don't last) and White Maman Cochet (balling a bit, slow growing for me, not many blooms so far). I've ordered loads for next year so I'm sure my list will change! I'll be adding Mrs Dudley Cross, Tipsy Imperial Concubine, La Vesuve, Comtesse Riza du Parc (whatever it really is - Dr Grill? Mme Charles?), Souv de Therese Lovet, Souv d'un Ami, Mme Jules Gravereaux, Triomphe du Luxembourg, Etoile de Lyon, Archduke Charles, Duchess d'Auerstadt, Marachal Niel, Octavius Weld and Lady Roberts. Now I just have to make more room! A Tea I'd love to add one day is David's Dilemma.

Thank you all very kindly for the words of praise! They're appreciated. Paula, don't worry about the land dropping; I don't. It's not that it's not worrisome, but for ONCE I'm acting wisely by doing what I can, and then not thinking any more about it. Actually all our amending and planting so far seems to have been working: our steep hillside, with our house perched at the top, is staying in place, even with all the rains of recent years. No pictures are on the way, alas. What I need is an enthusiastic gardener and photographer to come pay a visit in rose season. Forumers, consider this an invitation--we have room--though I'm a somewhat awkward, if willing, hostess. You don't need to take pictures. My sister would come regularly if she could, but she has a job, and plane tickets are expensive. Virginia, I enjoy writing the kind of brief essay of which my initial post here is an example. I don't know, right now, how to write a book, a good one. But your comment has started me thinking. True_blue, I think I've looked into vetiver in the past, but, this impression confirmed by another check just now, it's too tender for our zone. It is employed further south for soil stabilization and erosion control, which Lord knows Italy can use. Lavender_lass, we grow all those same plants and what you describe is similar to our year, dry summers and succession of bloom, though with our much milder climate we also enjoy more tender plants and a longer growing season. I think the summer humidity of much of the U.S. is a problem for many of the old roses of European origin. We have little trouble with black spot or Damask crud here; rust is quite rare. Many roses do mildew, but it's mainly an aesthetic problem. Anna-Lyssa, we've had terrible weather too, in fact this morning we had a fire in the wood stove again. I'm hoping the weather will finally turn warm now, though I'm happy for yesterday's inch or so of rain. It was so dry during the usual rainy season that I'm afraid that groundwater levels are still low. And these late rains have been nicely spaced out, I must say. I think your idea of "untaming" your slope is exciting. What occurs to me to keep in mind if you decide to do so is this: generally you want the wild herbaceous plants to be annuals. Annual grasses, euphorbias, wild peas and vetches, poppies, veronica, geraniums perhaps, are all good. (By the way, poppies grow in disturbed soil.) Some perennials are also good, small non-invasive plants like English daisies, and I like chicory with its clouds of blue flowers in summer, though it can grow quite thick, especially in very heavy soil. Native bulbs are pleasant: ornithogalum, muscari, wild gladiolus. All these are fine in a meadow. You want to keep most perennial grasses out, Bermuda grass and others, and such obnoxious colonizers as wild clematis (C. vitalba), wild plum (Prunus spinosa), and nettles, and I prefer to keep the dock population down, too. If you have mostly meadow with just a few roses well spaced out, you could just mow it occasionally, timing the mowings to allow the plants to go to seed. Actually the possibilities are vast. If you want an example of the range of plant life that can grow in an area that's maintained by simple mowing, just look at a country roadside. Feral tall bearded irises bloom and then get mowed down in early summer; and this might also work for native officinalis peonies, and would be fine for Saponaria officinalis, field sage (Salvia pratensis), ox-eye daisies, the many pretty Galiums (not the obnoxious G. aperine I mentioned above, but most Galiums are attractive); also native orchids. I would allow clover in a meadow as well. All these plants I've named are native in my area, and most of them probably in yours as well. If you just cut the grass, leave it lie, and keep invasive perennials and woody plants from taking hold, my guess is that many of them will arrive on their own; others you could add by going out on plant digging excursions. Thanks, Marlorena, I'll take a look at that article. The possibility of confusion has been raised before: I believe David Austin talks of it in one of his books, and it also comes up in 'The Vintage Gardens Book of Roses'.