A question on tea roses please

I've just demolished a garden bed which had some bushes in it and i thought i could put in some tea roses , having no experience with tea roses , i thought i better check first . The bed is in a open , sunny , windy spot in the front garden in suburbia , do tea roses like strong wind ? Are they tough weatherproof roses ? thanks

Maree, if it is not to far to travel and not to be an advocate of any one nursery, I would make the time to travel to Silvan and see Jean at Reliable as Zoe did. You can get the knowledge and see the plants in situ.
Without being to personal, which part of Melbourne do you live that causes so much wind that might be a problem.
The other thing I would do is 'google' "The history of the Tea rose". Other than that I will find some bits over the next couple of days and post some links here if that helps.
Gary(Balinbear) grows some good one's, no doubt he will chime in sometime soon with comments.

Thanks for the help Roseman !!

Maree

I refer to Tea Roses as a "landscaping" rose as they are more than just roses they have a "shape" to them and they are usually a reasonably balanced sort of growth and thus are generally not top heavy and they can withstand winds and wet soil without falling over. We have never staked any just put them in the ground and let them do there own thing.

I am not sure if you copped cyclonic winds what would happen but I would imagine that they would survive okay.

We have a Marie van Houtte which must be one of our oldest roses. I was about 7 metres diameter and stood 3 metres high. One thunderstorm the weight of the water on the leaves broke some of the branches but we simply trimmed them back and it is still going strong. We don't let it get that big anymore though it is still about 3 metres diameter.

Beauty Balinbear , thats good news , i have been looking for a spot in the garden for ages to plant some tea roses , and i finally found a spot , just had to pull out some defunct natives , its not a big area , but it will do , thanks ...

Sounds like an interesting project Maree and I will follow your progress with great interest. This year I planted my one and only tea Frances Dubrueil because I loved the colour and it was small enough for the spot I had. I'm glad I did because she is a beauty and very fragile looking, but quite tough I suspect.

What are you thinking of planting Maree? I will go and look up your choices on HMF so I know what you're all talking about!

7x3m sounds incredible Balinbear! Do you have a pic?

Hi Silky / Muscovy , i'm just doing the research now , but i'm thinking , Duchess de Brabant , Francis Dubriel , Monsieur Tillier , Devoniese , just depends though on the size , its not a big bed , so they can't be huge plants ...

That sounds like a lovely combination of colours Maree. M Tillier is one I would love to have too.

M. Tillier is the sexiest rose ever. Hands down. Jean also had a beautiful tea called Anna Olivier which was a creamy buff sort of colour and smelled divine. And I saw a tea in some catalogue somewhere called Rosette Delizy which looked amazing!

Where abouts is Reliable roses Muscovy ? Can you get there from Southern Cross Station i wonder , I know Misty Downs but i haven't heard of Reliable , HMF give such varying sizes in width and height its hard to know how to space these roses ...

Maree, Reliable is in Silvan

Maree, I'm afraid taking public transport to Relible Roses is not an option. You could catch the train to Lilydale or Belgrave station but it's still a 20 minute drive from both of those as the busses don't go anywhere near it. Do you drive?

Yes , i do for sure , but Reliable are a long way from where i live , i think i'll email them , thanks Muscovy

Good plan

Marie Van Houtte.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A gallery of our roses is at:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

It has most of our teas apart from the "foundlings" we have recently acquired are shown. There is the odd rose or two in the gallery that have been shovel pruned.

One thing to note is the teas up here tend to grow quite large whereas down south they do not tend to grow as large.

She is indeed a monster Balinbear. I really enjoyed looking at your album. I love your pics of Sombreuill and Perle d'Or, and Pink Chiffon and Katherine Morley look beautiful too, I've never come across those two before. Plus your poppies and irises... Ah, it seems you have my dream garden there! Thanks for sharing.

So many roses Balinbear , amazing , what are your most fragrant and free flowering tea's in a small to medium size bush please ...

Generally teas don not have strong scent, however, you can't go past Comtesse de Labarthe. Lots of flowers and a sweet citrus scent. It should not grow to large in Melbourne but is one of the few teas that don't resent being cut back.

G Nabonand is also very floriferous. Anna Olivier and Lady Roberts (one a sport of the other but not sure which way) are a delight. Papa Gontier is good if you want a red Snowflake if it is a white you are after. Yellows are harder as they tend to go brown in the wet, but Souv Pierre Notting is good and Etoile de Lyon is nice. Also Isabella Sprunt is a nice yellow though the shrub can be very untidy.

muscovyduckling

The Perle d'Or came from Bunnings and I am not sure if it is correct.

The Pink Chiffon came out of a garden that was being bulldozed. We spent a whole weekend back in about 2000 ripping out everything we could. It was a bit overgrown and in reality at that time we did not have too many roses and we were mainly after the azaleas and staghorns that grew on the trees. We worked out that we probably pulled $3K of plants etc out of the garden.

Katherine Morley no longer lives in our garden. They went in a purge of under performers. It's main problem is that it blackspot's something fierce and despite the flowers it was just to messed up. Pity because the flowers are nice and it strikes easily from cuttings.

We grabbed the rose not knowing the variety but found out soon enough. It is old variety that we had hoped for as it was a very old house and the first assumption would be that any roses growing would also be very old.

Anyway it has a beautiful perfume though it balls up a fair bit in the wet.

Thanks Balinbear , what about Monsieur Tillier , does it grow huge and Duchess de Brabant ? Thanks

Monsieur Tiller can grow quite large. I'm not sure it would down your way but it does up here. Has the advantage that as the branches sag down to the ground they send out roots and you can hen cut these off the main plant and shift them around. We have an old one that has spread out considerably to be 4 or 5 quite large bushes so we are going to have to attack it next winter.

Comtesse de Labarthe (Duchess de Brabant) is not as big and can be handled quite well.

My question to those which might venture into unfamiliar ground, what colours are we looking at ?

Comtesse de Labarthe (Duchess de Brabant)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Up here almost always in flower but best in Autumn as the cooler weather brings out the colour.

A gorgeous garden, Balinbear.   I think I may be a little green with envy!!!
The few teas I have trialled so far are generally easy care shrubs (although currently suffering with insufficient water). We have the occasional frost here that have so far not caused any issues, although a 'black frost' might be problematic. I wonder how the teas would cope with Melbourne winters given they are generally considered 'tender' in cold climates?