Tea Roses and Hybrid Teas.
If you live in a mild climate and have a sheltered corner for your garden, you should certainly grow the Tea Roses and their Hybrids, as they last in flower longer than the H.P.’s. Their season is said to be from May till October, but in a West of England garden we have gathered perfect specimens on a south wall at Christmas. Perhaps the best-known Tea Rose is the Gloire de Dijon, an apricot yellow that can be grown either as a bush rose or as a climber. Corallina is a lovely bright pink; Madame Lambard is bright rose; Maréchal Niel is the well-known golden-yellow Rose grown so often under glass. We should say that he and Niphetos, a beautiful white Rose, are what some gardeners call ‘miffy doers.’ If you don’t give them just exactly what they like, they either die or look so ill and reproachful that you cast them away. But if you can please them, they are very beautiful. So are Georges Nabonnand, a rosy white, shaded with yellow, and Catherine Mermet, a light flesh-coloured Rose of a globular shape.
Hybrid Teas are a cross between Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals, and are considered stronger than pure Teas. The best known of all is La France, and we cannot think why any catalogue should describe it as lilac. It is a rich pink, a lovely globular shape, fragrant, and one of those friendly Roses that flower from early summer till the frosts come. Madame Abel Chatenay is another Rose we recommend strongly. It is carmine, with shades of salmon. La Tosca is pink. Viscountess Folkestone is pale salmon, globular, and fragrant. Boule de Neige is pure white. Caroline Testout must not be omitted even from such a small list as this. It is pinky-salmon, large, globular, and fragrant.