Here's what Brent Dickerson says: "It was, at some time evidently roughly around the year 1800 or 1810, the custom of the inhabitants of the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, then called the Ile Bourbon, to mark off their land with hedges comprised of, as Monsieur Breon, a botanist of the time, put it, "one row of the Common China Rose [presumably "Old Blush"--that is, 'Parsons' Pink China'], the other of the Red Four-Seasons [presumably the red 'Tous-les-Mois' Damask Perpetual, which was common then]." One Monsieur Edouard Perichon found, when planting one of these hedges, a plant which appeared to be a hybrid of the two, and which was subsequently called, after him, 'Rose Edouard'. Here is a description of 'Rose Edouard' written in 1828, translated from Prevost fils' French: "This was the first one brought to France, and can be considered the Type of the species. Canes long and divergent, armed with much-hooked thorns, which are glandular at their base. Leaflets oval, large, cordiform at their base. Ovary oboid-oblong, glabrous and glaucous at the tip. Corolla medium-sized, hypocrateriform [i.e., "like an antique cup"], double or lightly double, intense and bright deep pink." Evidently in 1819, Monsieur Breon sent to Antoine Jacques, gardener of the Duc d'Orleans at Neuily, near Paris, seed from 'Rose Edouard'. Five of these seeds sprouted in Spring of 1820, and two of these five "bloomed and rebloomed" in 1821. One of these two seedlings was illustrated by Redoute, who, as was his habit, gave it two names, a scholarly-sounding Latinate one ('Burboniana'), and another in the vernacular ('Rosier de l'Isle de Bourbon' [sic]). Here is how Redoute and his collaborator Thory described it in 1824: "Shrub, tall, vigorous, branched, bushy. Prickles large, hooked, wide, reddish. Leaflets 5 or 7, base rounded, acute at the tip, glabrous on both surfaces, simply dentate, glossy green above, paler beneath; petioles villose, with small sessile glands and tiny prickles; stipules decurrent, acute, denticulate. Flowers sweetly scented, many together at the ends of the laterals; pedicels finely glandulose; bracts elongate, ciliate, glandulose; receptacles ovoid, glabrous; sepals pinnatifid with subsetaceous prickles; petals 3-4 seriate, cordately notched, bright pink. Hips somewhat rounded, ovoid, red. According to the Duc d'Orleans, this rose [meaning by "this rose," confusingly, the *parent* of the rose they illustrate, as close reading will show] grows in waste places on Reunion Island. Seeds brought from there some years ago produced the plants in the Neuilly gardens from which our painting was made. It has a good habit, and the abundance of its blooms, sometimes almost single but mostly semi-double, and their fine color and perfume, make it a worthwhile adornment for landscape gardens." Meantime, Breon also sent, in 1821, cuttings of the original 'Rose Edouard' to the gardener in charge of the hothouses at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris--Monsieur Neumann." Supposedly they did have cuttings in 1821. However, Josephine had sent for the tea rose years previously, though she was dead in 1814. Cafres (it's spelled with one f) translates to"African person taken to Reunion Island to be a slave", according to Wikipedia. I got the impression it may be an insult. So the Plaine des Cafres means Plain of Slaves, maybe? Down the road is the Plaine des Palmistes, or Plain of Palms. It's beautiful. Up the road is the volcano. All the pictures I found show what looks like a cow pasture on a hill running down to a valley. I saw one bush that looks like it had red hips, maybe. Leafless. I found another garden in Hellbourg with defoliated hybrid teas with a couple roses on top. Blackspot? Now, If I had a bunch of slaves working a field, I suppose it could occur to me that edging these fields with thorny roses would keep them in. Of course, Parson's Pink China is thornless, and scentless. Its value is the repeat blooming gene. I couldn't tell from what pictures I found what sort of crops grow there, and its hilly edges looked difficult to hedge. Yep, there's a hole in this story you can drive a truck through. You can find the very interesting botanical articles of Jean Jacques Segalen by typing his name and Reunion Island into Google.

Daisy, In my part of California we have a dry warm summer and cool sometimes rainy winter, but much less of the cool fog influence Jerijen has. Quite different roses do well for me than do for her. I grow several Bourbons successfully with only a single winter spray. They are Louise Odier, Honorine de Brabant, and Deuil de Dr Reynaud. DeDR gets a fair amount of powdery mildew some years late in the summer, and LO gets that cane dieback that some Bourbons seem to get. HdB doesn't get anything here. Funny as it seems I had very poor luck with Souvenir de Malmaison. My first (own root) plant proliferated with every rose it ever bore. I culled it and tried again, this time with a grafted plant that may have been virused. That one got some hideous creeping crud disease and I threw it away in horror. You might also want to consider some of the more disease resistant of the hybrid perpetuals. I was hesitant to try them but they now number among my favorite roses. Rosefolly

One thing I have noticed is that not all Teas are created equal. While Duchesse de Brabant (who is now in rose heaven) not only quit blooming but lost two thirds of its canes in the heat, Souvenir d'un Ami has beautiful full-sized buds and blooms and even another younger band of the same rose now has buds on it. It would make sense that roses with fuller, thicker petals would do better in the heat. But then how to explain Souvenir de Germain de St. Pierre (hope I got that right), a rather young band that has semidouble fragile blooms, has already bloomed once and has buds on it now? And this is a rose that gets only hot afternoon sun! I think I'm just going to stop trying to figure things out and enjoy the idiosyncracies of my roses and let them do their thing. It would be too boring if they were all alike anyway. Might as well have a square plot of hybrid teas and call it a garden. Eek! Ingrid

Thank you for all the suggestions so far! As far as yellows, I looked up the Crocus Rose and it sounds lovely, although possibly not quite the right colour. Austin described it as a soft apricot paling to cream, and I was wanting more of a cool yellow colour :) The Pilgrim sounds really beautiful, in bush form. Charlotte sounds almost the same, however. Both yellow, hardy and upright with The Pilgrim having more of a myrr scent and Charlotte more of a tea scent. What are the major differences between these 2 roses? I was reading through older threads that suggested that The Pilgrim was a stingy bloomer that had blackspot trouble. Also read that with the more vigorous DA roses (like The Pilgrim), own-root was the better option. I would lean towards The Pilgrim at this point, but I'm not sure what the difference between the two roses is? And thank you, I did think that Blanc Double de Coubert wouldn't be the right shape for the space, but wasn't sure! Any comments on Boule de Neige or Blanc de Vibert? I was also thinking possibly of KronPrincess Viktoria (Bourbon, sport of Souv. de la Malmaison). It repeats and sounds like an upright shrub . . . again, I'm not sure it will get tall enough in a zone 5 garden. Being borderline hardy, I'm thinking it might stay too small? As far as Winchester Cathedral, I've heard that the scent can be quite obnoxious for some people. It is described as honey and almond, which doesn't sound so bad :) I had always thought of Winchester Cathedral as a short climber, but it sounds like I was wrong. It is at least as wide as it is tall . . . I'd love to hear opinions on the growing habit of this one as well.