Yes, my Anna Olivier climbs up the wall of our house, & to the top of the porch railing - about 15 feet. She is growing in a 8 inch wide strip of dirt between the driveway and the house, so all of the canes that try to go towards the driveway either get cut off or espaliered against the house. No problems created by this. I think tea roses are a type of rose you can practically do anything with (if you are willing to let them get large in some dimension or other). I also have a Mme Joseph Schwartz, and it has not thrown out any 8 foot canes, (probably because it is growing in partial shade), but it does throw out 6 foot ones. So, I think you should go for it! Don't worry about the canes you have to cut to keep it out of the walkway. Perhaps some of them could be allowed to get long, and then tied in the other direction towards the pergola? Jackie

Niels, I've been growing this lovely rose for slightly less than 10 years and I'm afraid that might disqualify me, but I hope you'll overlook this minor defect. She's reputed to be a sport from Mlle. Hedda Kledderstump, although this has been hotly (and in my estimation) wrongly disputed from a usually knowledgeable rosarian from Blsk. I think the coloration is somewhat misleading in his frigid climate zone. I don't belong to a royal rose society (the only royalty we have here is Her Serene Highness Courtney Love and Princess-in-Waiting Lindsey Lohan). However, I do boast of a Ph of 20,000 and am eagerly waiting to hear from the Guiness Book of Soil Records. I believe I've got that category sewed up. I do want to point out that michaelg's little article in Trailer Trash has been shamelessly borrowed from my work "The Alliterative Insinuations of Spurious Allegations Regarding Splash O'Sunshine's Purported Transmorgification of SdmDQ. It's a feeble effort on his part but I'm afraid some less astute rosarions may be taken in by his cleverly worded ruse. I hope I've cleared up any little misconceptions that may have crept into the TRUE origns of said rose. I don't quite have the aphid population in the desired range but believe me when I say I'm working at this non-stop. The grasshopper population is veering nicely toward prescribed levels and I believe I will soon meet most if not all your criteria. Sincerely, Ingrid (published author of many, many articles in many journals other than Trailer Trash)

The question is not whether or not 42 degrees will damage the rose. If a rose can't handle our summer lows, all hope is gone. The question is, will a climate that can see temperatures like that any day of the year affect the ability of the rose to "grow back after taking a beating". Winter lows in the -20F range deal quite a beating to roses that don't supercool well, and there is a great deal of growing back that would be required. Do teas do this better than other roses? In general I have found that expecting roses to grow back from winter damage and bloom acceptably isn't a very effective way to grow roses here.

I ordered this rose from Vintage in 2007. It's planted in a border of mixed roses along my front fence, in good soil with adequate water. It's okay, but not spectacular. It is an awkward grower, with canes that jut out at odd angles and are stiff from the get-go. Vintage's line drawing of it on their site perfectly depicts the rose in my garden. I don't know what the eventual size of it will be, but it doesn't seem to have the star power of Msr. Tillier, or Mrs. B R Cant, or Mme. Lombard, which are also big, stiff teas for me. In damp weather, the flowers get a bit spotty ... my "Reuter's China", another china/tea with a similar habit, does the same thing. Here's my two cents: if it intrigues you enough, and you have the space to grow it, go along with that little voice in your gut and buy it. I have rarely regretted roses I buy, and have many times regretted the ones I left behind. Here's some photos for you. Artsy shot of a partially open flower A half-open bud Fully open flower. Hope this helps, Connie