I'm in love with Anna

Anna Olivier, that is. The mystery Tea girl - no one knows who she was.
A bit of balling in the wet but she recovers quickly. Minimal BS at the base - still looks well covered with better foliage than any other Tea in my garden. I like her much better than my Lady Hillingdon (in this climate). A top favourite with the Tea Ladies (they are sometimes understated in their praise:) Gorgeous in the vase. Fertile both ways - great hips and a pollen machine Few prickles. Dry tea scent. If my camera was working I'd show her off.

Does Anna have any other friends out there?

George Thomson uses Anna in breeding, to retain scent. When he's shrinking Austins he uses one of his owhn seedlings with a dwarfing gene. The sequence is (Austin x Anna Olivier) x Mary Thomson. Lady Phelia is an example.

That's interesting, Margaret. I 've tried a few of George Thomson's releases and they have all died after a couple of years. No idea why.

I'm crossing Anna with Abe Darby , Graham Thomas, Tamora and Maggie. But I've only just started on her

Dave, I was only thinking this morning, 'Anna Olivier' is my favourite gal, considering we have had rain here on the Sunshine Cst. for the last few of months for most days!! she is doing remarkably well. No bs flowering beautifully (no balling) and very graceful, her foliage very healthy. I have only had her in for 5 months and she is growing like steam.
Other teas that are preforming well in this extreme wet we're having without bs or mildew out of the 16 or so varieties that I have:
G Nabonnand
Marie van Houtte
Lorna Doone (unnamed - Penny McKinley of Pittsworth sells it - named after lady that found it and where she lives)
Mrs B R Cant
William R Smith
Lady Hillington

I have a few other old world roses other than teas that are also preforming very well. This weather has certainly been a good test for them all.

My poor girl is clinging to life against all the odds. She was supposed to be Lady Roberts but, if so, has reverted, as the few flowers I have seen have been pale primrose. She began life at Larry's, was fostered on to me after drastic pruning, flourished briefly before being overwhelmed by a boisterous Comtesse du Cayla and was fished out from the gloom of the Comtesse's skirts in late spring, all but bareroot due to the difficulty of extracting her.
Being entirely out of space, I weakened this spring and began to encroach on the nature strip. Mutabilis (my third attempt to grow it) went out there for a test run, only to expire when a passing boot separated it from its rootstock at the graft. Reluctantly, there being no other place whatsoever, I tucked Anna out there instead, secreting her in a thicket of yellow Californian poppies. So far, so good. She has come back from the near dead and, just as you say, is disease free despite all the bucketing rain this year. If ever a rose deserved to grow....
Any hints for outwitting the odd brutish passer-by?

Linde

Did you get that storm monday morning?

Man didit rain! 90 odd mm in a couple hours (mostly between 11 & 12. I was working at home and could not hear myself think.

Very interesting, Linde. We would have similar climates, but my Mrs BRC is a perennial baller. But I keep her because the good flowers are so worth waiting for.
And Lady H likewise - mostly noddin' sodden! Marie VH went on the bonfire in her second year - never had a decent bloom - they even balled in the bud! GN is clean and fantastic.

The rain is certainly a good time to see the toughies shine

Meryl, Im sure AO will survive as long as the passers by don't grab every bloom. Put up a skull and crossbones sign: Warning poisonous sprays

I'm off to Mildura and will check out the roses there in the Botanical Gardens. Been bucketing there too.

4.52 am!??!!! I rise not long after first light but to be chatting amiably at the computer at such an hour...

Love your suggestion, Dave. However the populace around here is split right down the middle in its attitude to gardening between the uglies and the greens. A sign like that would have the Greens trampling down AO. As it is, my roses are politically incorrect and only pass with a push because I grow natives as well.

WARNING!
Designated Poisonous Snake Sanctuary.

Hi Balinbear,
re the storm - to be honest the last week or two have blurred into one another, I don't particularly remember the storm on Monday, we have had some heavy downpours though off and on and have had alot of fog up here......hasn't it been GREAT though the last couple of days to see the sun again!!!! its like look look the sun is shining how fabulous and you race outdoors to enjoy and the dog jumps his muddy feet all over you! the dog (Barney) is a terrier and do you think we can stop him from jumping up, have tried everything, he is an embarrassment when people come and visit...he is irrepressible. That was a little aside I didn't intend.

Next to my Anna Olivier I have a Mme Berkley that has buds ready to open, the plant has only been in the ground for 5 months, I love the beautiful subtle pink against her foliage.....another one to fall in love with!! I bought bare root teas this year and have been disappointed with a few, some were pathetically small when I received them and they have hardly got going where as others are going great guns. In fact one was meant to be 'Alexander Hill Gray' but it definitely isn't!! and I got them from a supposedly reputable place.
We have a little holiday house up at Woodgate and recently on the way back to the sscoast we called into Trewallyns rose nursery, have been there a couple of times! I was after a 'Safrano' which he didn't have in stock, however, he very kindly took some cuttings to give to me off one of his stock bushes, (they are looking OK). With the nursery we had for years I did alot of prop, however, I'm still working out rose cuttings and the best time to take them and what is the best material to use etc.....trial and error I guess and maybe some advise from you guys on this forum would be great. Like what time of the year is best for cuttings - semi hardwood? - what tubemix is best.... would love some advise.
Cheers

I posted my method for warm-weather cuttings (the Doggybag technique) a couple of months ago, I think, and IanM posted his method fairly recently; but I can't remember under which headings!

Trial and error is the way and but after a few years of trying I am still not sure what works the best up our way. One time the bag method will work next time it won't.

I have just tossed out 50 odd cuttings that failed using my usual method of just putting them in tubes and making sure that they did not get too wet or too dry. The whole lot failed but I did find some that I had totally forgotten about that I had put under a camelia some time ago. All were healthy with nice roots but they were Corniellia which seems to root quite easily.