The SDLMV I received budded in October 2015 and which I kept in a pot for a year before planting in partial shade last October has been blooming quite well for the past 2-3 weeks (which means early in my climate) despite its young age. Its blooms are large and glorious, of a loose formation half way between a Tea and an HT. It has grown 6-8ft long thin canes and I will have it partially climbing up a Vachellia farnesiana (Huisache) tree and partially sprawling on the roof of my garage. I still have to do the fixings though which I should do asap before I will need to fight with the rose... Even if this proves to be a strictly once bloomer I think it is worth it being such a glorious and early bloomer. Its blooming has coincided with my young Belle Portugaise which I have climbing up a Pistacia atlantica tree in another part of my garden. That one, of the same age, has grown even taller. Both the Vachellia and the Pistacia are very tough and fierce competitors so I keep my fingers crossed the roses can make it..

Wow that G. Nabonnand is gorgeous, Jeri. This is so tough. I cannot find a formula to help me select Tea roses, or maybe I just need to understand more about this class of rose. Mme. Antoine Mari, and Baronne Henriette de Snoy were roses I was unsure about, but they are performing very well. Lady Hillingdon is going to be shovel pruned or re-homed if I can convince an in-law in Camarillo to accept her. The problem with LH is the color holding up in the heat. I expect blooms to be smaller; as they all are if they dare bloom during the heat of Summer, but LH blooms are pure white now, and it is next to Darlow's Enigma and Marie Pavie, so I do not need another white rose in that area. It is difficult for a novice relative to this class of rose to find consistencies that could be an indicator as to whether or not a rose will perform well or horribly, and the indicators I have used for closer to two decades for modern roses just doesn't seem to apply.

I am delighted to announce - a repeat bloom !... in fact I have several coming out... I mentioned earlier that I never got any repeat on this rose, so this is a first for me...and it still smells good too... I'm not sure what I've done differently, if anything...

Where has this rose been all my life! Looks like a fusion of Cinderella Fairy Tale, Earth Angel and St Cecilia, with a dash of Desdemona. I love Delbards!