Tea Baby

I love this! Love the colour and that gauzy-looking silky texture. And fragrant to boot. Wow! Reminds me of a french boudoir.

Sunny Coast might be a good name or perhaps Pompadour Pink

Just an update. Most of the seedlings that I dug up have survived. We lost a couple as it was very dry when I found them and the ones that we lost were a bit sick looking.
We had our first flower from them the other day. A Mons Tilier OP seedling that was a very dark red single. The flower did not last real long and I missed getting a photo of it. It did not look all that flash but will keep the plant and see what happens.
The pink one above has shoot up a new stem and is now taking off much like its parent. It has had 3 or 4 flowers on it over the past few weeks and the new stemm looks like it is setting buds as well. More photos will come.
Our original baby 2 is still in a pot and will soon have a place found for it in the garden. The foliage is still very china like and more or less always has a flower (or at least a bud) on it.
Our Original baby number 1 looked like it was about to pass away a month or so ago but has since shot up a new stem and is flowering again (will be open in a couple of days I guess). This time I won't try to kill it with too strong a seaweed mix.

It’ll be nice to see some photos, especially the original tea baby, but they all sound interesting.

Love the colour of the peachy surprise

I think I've mentioned before that it is hard enough amassing a collection of nearly all the known cultivars in this country and then people go and breed more.

A couple more Pics of the Pink Monsieur Tillier

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And the surprise this morning. Also a MT OP and I'm not too sure what to think. Flower is abut 3cms across. As you can see the plant looks like a strong grower so it will be interesting to see how this one progresses.

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The pink Mons T has a long cane to the right of the photo, I wonder if it will want to climb.
The single OP looks good, do you think it might repeat, Gary.

David

That cane growth is typical of some of the larger teas. Our BR Cants are an example. We grow them as climbers other grow them as large shrubs.

Ths single is a surprise. We had a flower on it a few weeks back but I was away and missed it. Lee loves singles so she thinks its great. I hoping it will repeat as Mons Tiller does and Beauty of Glenhurst (which is planted very close and I bleieve is the best candidate for the other parent) is more or less in flower continuously. Keeping my figures crossed in this regard.

Gary after looking on HMF you could be right with the other parent

David

The flower on single MT OP lasted like a typical single. It was gone the next day. I'll probably keep it as Lee like singles and who knows ot may flower as prolifically as Beauty of Glenhurst which is almost never without a flower.
Gary

Latest Photo of our first Tea Baby. Somewhat different to the first flower (see start of this topic).

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The scent is still there and the bush has started to grow. I am glad I did not toss it.

Baby No 2 (tentatively named "Katherine Lee")

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A bit wet from this morning's downpour

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Gary, it has come a long way from the previous shots of it. You know I am not keen on the nodding head of roses. I must admit I do like this thou. How do you think it will hold upto the rain/wet weather which you get at times. The leaves look good.
How is the single that Lee likes going ?

David

The nodding was mainly due to the rain that we had received not long before I took the photo. Normally the flowers are a bit less downcast.

But yes it is growing well. Despite all the rain and humidity that we have had it has only shown a small amount of spotting on the leaves.

The red single is still going. We ended up with quite a few singles out of the seedlings that we dug up with colours from pale pink to dark red. One of the seedlings from the Peace 1902 looks promising as does a Red Poly from a Borderer OP that is looking good.

We are going to plant them all and see what happens.

The Pink MT mentioned above (or the page back) is still going gangbusters and may try to propagate some this year. If I can't get them from cuttings I will get Bruce to bud some for us.

Gary

Hi Gary
I am looking forward to seeing your tea babies when some of us from Toowoomba and Brisbane visit you on the 20th April.

Bonita

Now you have me worried. I thought it was the 20th but Barbara sent out an email saying the 21st. I'll sort it out with her.

Gary

Photo below of our "Pink Mon Tillier" with the "mother" and most likely suspect for the "father" (Com de Labarthe) below her.

The top left is a new flower which has more pink than the older flower below which has faded to be a more apricot. Perfume is similar to the "father" just not as strong at this stage.

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Growth is typical Tea. The shrub is about 1 metre across and just under a metre high at present. The "climber" look that it had earlier does not appear to have been maintained.
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How old is the seedling now Gary. Mum is a good dark colour.

David

I guess it would be 18 months. I can't really remember as it was about 25cms high when I found it growing under "mum".

Mum is a typical MT. It changes colour from a red to an sort of orange depending on the time of year.