This rose is undoubtedly very tough. I found one growing in the middle of a paddock in a rural area where there was evidence that a farmhouse existed there many years ago. Only a few tough garden plants remained, including a couple of peach trees and this rose. I believe it may have been planted as a kind of hedge along the front of the house originally, as it is now forming a huge clump. During the worst of the drought it died back considerably, but would still flower reliably. I decided to take cuttings on my last visit, as it is undoubtedly an extremely hardy rose. The flowers were also very vibrant and eye-catching.
At times this rose seems to have more characteristics of a HT than a classic tea rose. Even the flowers when they first open are rather HT-like. But they soon start to ruffle and it is not hard to see that they are indeed the flowers of a tea rose. The "confused mid-petals" (as Margaret Furness puts it) are also a character trait of this rose.
The leaves sometimes look closer to a HT as well, except when the new growth comes out, fairly large, red and droopy, so typical of tea roses.