Tea Roses

Hi,
I've just received the book "Tea Roses - Old Roses For Warm Gardens" and it's beautiful. I've always liked the old roses and I think I'll get a few more.
Are they easy to strike from cuttings?
Which nurseries have the best selection?
Barbara B

Teas and Chinas (and Polyanthas) strike readily from cuttings (except Cloth of Gold, Tea-noisette). The specialist old-rose nurseries mostly have a good range. As you will have seen from the Tea Rose book, there is a lot of confusion with names, and some roses are sold under a number of names - Mme Lambard is the prime example. If you're thinking about buying a Tea rose, check the plant list of the HRiAI Collections at Ruston's to see what's what (as far as we know). Most of the nurseries haven't changed incorrect names, especially Jean Ducher/G Nabonnand and Duchesse de Brabant/Comtesse de Labarthe. If you buy (Beales') Mons. Tillier from Thomas for Roses, you'll get Marie Nabonnand - an excellent scented red climber, but not Tea. The roses sold as Mrs Reynolds Hole and Francis Dubreuil (anywhere in Aus) aren't Tea, either.
If you know where to access any pre-1926 HTs or any pre-1940 Aus-bred HTs not listed, please let us know!
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Mistydowns (near Ballarat) has quite a few. If you'd like cuttings I'm sure some of us could help

Thank you Margaret and Dave, for your excellent advice.
Dave, I have the Misty Downs catalogue but a lot of those mentioned in the book don't seem to be on their stock list. I guess it will be a question of looking around in every small nursery we go past. (Hardship, that.)
Do you do cuttings of tea roses at the same time as hybrid teas etc.? I'd like to try some cuttings. I like the idea of own root roses.
Barbara B

You can do warm-weather cuttings using the doggybag method - I can't remember which thread I posted it under. The quote for teas on their own roots is: "The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap, and then they go on forever." In fact mine have been much quicker than that, which may be because I remove almost all flower buds the first year, so they'll put their energy into making roots and leaves.
Mistydowns would have most of the roses mentioned in the Tea book, but in many cases under old/incorrect names, and/or misspelled. Hedgerow are quite good.
I can send you some cuttings in a while - with the late spring this year, the growth is still too whippy.

Thanks for your offer Margaret. Is that where you use a ziplock bag? I've used that for other cuttings but not for roses.
It is a late spring - we always have a party day here for shelties, usually about the middle of November and we can usually count on the roses being just past their first flush but this year, they're still just beginning.
Barbara B

Ah another convert!

Hi Balinbear,
a convert to what - tea roses or shelties?
I have eight tea roses so far - watch this space.

Barbara B

If Mrs Reynolds H is not Mrs Reynelds H, what is it/ might it be

Dunno. It doesn't smell like a tea and doesn't grow like one; long arching canes with side-shoots, like Mme Isaac Pereire. Maybe Bourbon.
Yes the doggybag method is the ziplock bag method.

Mrs Reynolds Hole does not grow well here on the Darling Downs. I have suspected she may not have been a tea and all the teas and chinas around her which were planted at the same time and under the same conditions are at least seven or eight times larger. She is out this year - mildew and lack of flowers will send her on her way. I get almost no mildew here so why grow her when others do better.

Could it be the understock?