THE GOOD FORGOTTEN TEA ROSES
By FRANCIS E. LESTER, Watsonville, California
IF YOU look through the twenty-seven volumes of our Annual you will note that every now and then there comes the voice of experience reflecting the merits of the old Tea roses. It is a spontaneous expression and it is remarkable because these old Teas are truly forgotten roses; commercial emphasis, in the past quarter century, has been given almost entirely to the Hybrid Teas, which constitute the bulk of the roses sold and planted today. With each passing year the evidence grows that the old Tea roses are sadly overlooked.
Chief reason for this fact is that the Tea roses are supposed to be too tender to be planted in our colder regions. I say "supposed to be;" but as a matter of fact many of the Teas and near-Tea roses, are hardier than many of the Hybrid Teas. And the purpose of this article is to emphasize that fact and to help restore the Tea roses to their important place in America's gardens.
About this matter of hardiness. It is true that it is an important factor over a great part of the country; so important, indeed, that it has governed the rose planting selections of America too much. Most of our rose literature and rose advice issues from our eastern authorities. We, of California and southern state gardeners are influenced too much by garden standards from that source. We forget that the advantages of our temperate climate (which, incidentally, make us rather lazy gardeners) make possible a wider range of choice planting material. An example of this is the Climbing rose. The recommendations for Climbing roses to be found in most of our current rose literature are confined largely to the hardy Climbers of which few are long-season bloomers. So, we plant these, little realizing that there are many far superior, all-season, Climbing roses that, if winter temperatures permitted, would gladly be given first place by our eastern rose growers. We of the temperate zone don't cash in on our climatic advantages. What would our fellow rose-lovers of Michigan and Vermont give to be able to grow Climbing Golden Emblem or Climbing Maman Cochet or Marechal Niel with their glorious, fragrant bloom from early summer to Christmas and no winter protection necessary? Perhaps, some day, we of the temperate zones may evolve a horticultural declaration of independence; meanwhile we are under the influence of cold-zone garden literature. It would be difficult to say which is worse - for gardeners of the temperate zone to be governed by cold-zone standards or for our northern friends to plant the tender material that is, or should be, the backbone of southern and Pacific coast gardens.
If we look at a zone map of our country we find a sharply curving line running down a little inland from the Pacific coast and taking in much of the Southwest and all of the Deep South, and this large area, nearly half of the United States, enjoys a minimum winter temperature of five or more above zero. This is the zone of tolerance which permits the growing of our Tea roses, with few exceptions. From the rose-lover's standpoint it is an important part of our country for here can be grown, with less effort than elsewhere, the roses that are the easiest of all to grow. So much for weather-zone moralizing.
In this discussion I am taking some liberties with the term Tea rose. Strictly speaking, there are few true Tea roses available today; but the dividing line between the Teas and the Bourbon and China and Noisette roses is not very distinct. Directly or indirectly, they all originated in China, that land so rich in roses, especially the species that adapt themselves so well to our California conditions. They constitute one of our oldest classes of roses, hence they include many of the old-fashioned kinds. They are to be found in America's oldest gardens, often as specimens 50, 75, or up to 100 years old, planted originally as a cutting given by a rose friend; neglected, unsprayed, un-pruned, yet happy as a wild rose on a woodland slope. Their bloom doesn't get on to the exhibition table nowadays because, forsooth, many of them "hang their heads;" and so warped has become our modern judgment of rose beauty that we quite forget that a climbing Tea rose that droops its lovely bloom for you to see is far more desirable, much more polite, than the climbing rose that shows its open flower only to the sky above. I think it is no overstatement to say that these old Tea roses are, over a large, part of our country, the easiest of all to grow, therefore, most useful for the amateur. They ask for less and give more than any other class of rose. Most of them bloom continuously all through the season. They have good habits; in her delightful book, Mrs. Keays says:" . . . they are refined in color, powerfully sweet, generous in bloom; neither what we say nor the pictures we see do them entire justice." Under average conditions they require no spraying. They rather resent pruning and, indeed, are at their best when left unpruned. Lady Hillingdon, for example, a true Tea, if left to herself here in California grows to be a shrub-like bush of large proportions, her apricot flowers borne all summer long, and she is much hardier than many a Hybrid Tea rose. Not far from where I live, in northern California's Santa Cruz mountains, the old Duchesse de Brabant is to be found in many an old garden as a huge bush six or seven feet high and almost as wide, that, for several generations, has been left to grow as though a native shrub, quite neglected, yet it literally blooms the whole year through.
The Tea roses and their near relatives like the Noisettes, formerly called the Tea-Noisettes, were the backbone of the rose gardens of the Pacific coast and the South a few generations ago. So easy to grow, so readily started from slips, they were passed on from one garden lover to another. That is why you will find Mme. Lombard or Hermosa or Agrippina in every old garden in one locality while they may be missing some distance away; they demonstrate the neighborly spirit of the garden-folk of those distant days. And when you note these old rose treasures, so indifferent to neglect, you find yourself asking whether any modern Hybrid Tea rose possesses the same keen will to live.
In the high Sierras, where winter temperatures may go to zero or below, I have found many an old Tea rose flourishing in bold defiance of the claim that it is tender. James Sprunt and Hermosa, Marie van Houtte, Catherine Mermet, Belle Siebrecht, Old Blush and Homere were among these, and that radiant red Climber, Reine Marie Henriette. All forgotten!
Some sixty years ago the rosarian Ellwanger wrote of the climbing Tea-Noisette roses: "In the southern states they are by far the finest Climbers that can be grown," and that statement is quite applicable to present day conditions in our temperate zone. Lamarque is still without an equal as a vigorous white Climber; Mme. Alfred Carriere, blush-white; Wm. Allen Richardson, saffron-yellow; Chromatella, light gold; Reve d'Or, deep yellow (one of these almost covers the north side of my house), these are all close relatives of Lamarque and possess her desirable habits and her charm. One asks why it is that Marechal Niel, which the same writer declares to be "the finest yellow, the most beautiful variety of any class that has ever been sent out," is so seldom seen today. In 1885, according to one writer of that period, this most deliciously fragrant of all Climbing roses was to be seen in almost every California garden.
Locality, of course, determines to some extent the fitness of any rose to its conditions, but some of the old Teas seem to be well adapted to a wide range of conditions. Papa Gontier, either the bush or climbing form, is one of these; continuously in bloom, she is the chief ornament of my garden with her striking rose-carmine-red flowers. (Just now, in winter's depth, her frost-bitten buds seem determined to mature anyhow!)
And there is Maman Cochet. I cannot understand why this all-purpose, reasonably hardy old Tea rose is not given a prominent place in the trade's offerings to America's gardeners for it is difficult to conceive of any rose easier to grow, more abundantly fitted to give rose satisfaction. The flower is of exquisite form, usually pink with soft blendings of yellow and a touch of red; the foliage is thick, handsome and resistant to pests. It is a far better rose for the amateur than a host of the Hybrid Teas offered commercially today at higher cost. It is very tolerant of varying climatic conditions and it would be interesting to know just how hardy Maman Cochet really is. As I write, the mail brings me a letter from a rose growing friend in Tucson, Arizona, where the winter temperature may go to ten above zero and the summer heat is severe, and here's what she says: "The most vigorous of all my old-fashioned roses is Maman Cochet. She bloomed her little head off, darling flowers all summer long, never stopped." The good qualities of this rose might well make some of our rose hybridizers sit up and take notice.
Dean Hole's one favorite rose, the one he said he would choose if condemned to live on a desert island with but one rose of the vast number he grew and loved, was Gloire de Dijon. It is a Climbing Tea, introduced in 1853, and although a temperamental variety, particular as to local requirements, is well worth growing in the Pacific coast area and in the South, for surely there can be no more beautiful sight than a mature plant of this lovely rose when in full bloom.
Old Blush or Blush China, a Bourbon rose, said to be the rose in the poet Moore's garden "that inspired his "Last Rose of Summer," is, with me, in bloom the whole year through. It has a wide range of adaptability and is reasonably hardy. Plant it, leave it alone with little pruning and it will pay continuing dividends of delight. Its virile and resistant qualities combined with those of the Musk rose are responsible for our Noisette roses, so many of which bloom in clusters.
Not much is gained in a discussion of our Old Roses by whetting the rose lover's appetite with the mention of old rose treasures that are not today obtainable. I have sought to avoid doing this here. Every rose I have mentioned is procurable from one or more reliable rose nurseries in this country.
I have been growing roses in America for more than half a century, under widely different conditions. It is my conviction that we have much to learn, much to gain from the old Tea roses if we keep in mind the grand objective of our American Rose Society, emphasized more in the past than it is today, of "A Rose for Every Home." These old roses broaden our horizon of modern rose standards, they simplify our conception of rose culture, they emphasize the value of natural resistance in a rose, its ability to take care of itself. I suspect that if we rose amateurs planted more of them the rose-spray interests would suffer! The main purpose of the Queen of Flowers in our national life is not that it should be used as a subject for man's attempt to improve or to reform her; nor as something to be exploited commercially by high-pressure ballyhoo; nor even as an agency for providing the best of all cut-flowers, important though that be; but that it be with every home in America, growing close at hand in a natural way, asking for no expert care, a flower to be accepted and loved for its rare capacity for friendliness. Only the easy-to-grow roses can fill this place and among these, for a large part of our country, the Tea roses stand out prominently; more than any other class they can most quickly dispel the man-made illusion that "roses are hard to grow."
THE AMERICAN ROSE ANNUAL 1944 PP71-5

CALIFORNIA'S OLD TEA ROSES
By FRANCIS E. LESTER, Watsonville, California
editors' note.-—This plea for rose wisdom needs double emphasis. Let us rediscover and cherish these old and enduring roses!
THE more I see of the endless succession of the Hybrid Tea roses, the more I respect the old Teas. They belong to a day when rose-lovers never thought of sprays and dusts as a necessary aid to rose-culture.
Repeatedly we find these old Tea roses in old California gardens where for generations they have flourished with little attention, and under the ownership of old-fashioned flower lovers. Roses and owners both represent a standard of gardening high in simplicity and genuineness.
The old Tea roses, of course, are seldom hardy enough to withstand the rigors of sub-zero winters, though many are much hardier than is commonly supposed, and hardier than many Hybrid Teas. They belong to the South and the Pacific Coast climatic conditions; but where they can be grown, their value has been obscured by the flood of Hybrid Tea varieties. They seldom appear in our rose catalogues nor attain to the "exhibition" type of bloom. They are often condemned because the flower is not stiff-necked - as though a rose that is polite enough to bow its head to us were an outcast! On the other hand, the old Tea roses possess great sturdiness of constitution, a tremendous resistance to pests, disease, and neglect, and an amazing will to live. The very fact that they are found still flourishing in many an old, abandoned garden is itself eloquent testimony to these worthy qualities. As a class they are admittedly the most continuous-blooming type of rose we have, and most of them have much fragrance. They require little or no pruning. All these good qualities, I submit, should be of the utmost value to the average amateur.
It is interesting to note, in the present-day distribution of old Tea roses in old gardens, that the same variety is often found in several near-by gardens, yet nowhere else, perhaps, for a great distance. This fact reflects the neighborliness of the garden folk of past generations who passed on, from one friend to another, cuttings of their Tea roses which root so easily.
It would be quite impossible to compile a complete list of California's old Tea roses, because there are still many to be rediscovered, including, doubtless, some varieties we look on as extinct, the search for which has all the thrills of an explorer's adventure in distant lands. It has the element of surprise, and a peculiar delight.
One day an ardent and competent rosarian brought me a cutting of Crepuscule, an old Tea rose I am unable to find in any American list of today, and in only one English rose catalogue; yet in color and simple beauty its coppery fawn flower of exquisite grace, borne all season long, and its handsome foliage, are without a superior in my garden; and its behavior indicates an utter disregard for rose enemies. Surely a rose like this, rescued from oblivion, is worth reestablishing in thousands of gardens throughout our milder zones.
An incomplete list follows of these good old Teas that already have been found. No attempt is made to confine the list to a too-strict classification of what constitutes a Tea rose, for the China and Bourbon roses are too closely related; and then there are the Noisettes, also related, but not here included.
Agrippina, Bridesmaid, Catherine Mermet, Coupe d'Hébé, Comtesse Riza du Parc, Crépuscule, Devoniensis, Duchesse de Brabant, Etoile de Lyon, Gloire de Dijon, Gloire des Rosomanes, Grass an Teplitz, Hermosa, Homer, James Sprunt.
Jules Margottin, Isabella Sprunt, Louis Philippe, Lady Hillingdon, Maman Cochet, Marie van Houtte, Mme. Berard, Mme. Lombard, Old Blush, Perle des Jardins, Papa Gontier, Safrano, Solfaterre, Souv, de la Malmaison, Souv. d'uu Ami.
Many of the above roses are mentioned in the literature of California of earlier years. In the Overland Monthly for August, 1885, for example, an article by I. C. Winton recommends them for California gardens, adding others, such as Niphetos and William Francis Bennett. And, speaking of the "Roses of the Argonauts of 1849," he gives us eloquently some idea of the friendly use made of the rose by those pioneers when he describes the climbing white roses: "Now, deserted cabin and tree and hillside are a wilderness of white chalices held up by unseen hands, relieved by tangled masses of vines and tendrils fed by a clear stream that murmurs past the cabin door."
America must not lose these rose treasures! The Gulf Coast of the South needs them too.

THE AMERICAN ROSE ANNUAL 1939 PP 43-4