THE HYBRID TEA. 



529 



THE HYBRID TEA 



(Bosa indica odorata hybrida). 



By the Rev. Joseph H. Pembekton, Vice-President of the National 



Rose Society. 



I. A Retrospect. 



In introducing the Hybrid Tea for consideration by the Conference, bear 

 with me if I allow some echoes of the last Rose Conference, held in 1889, 

 to reach our ears. 



" The class of Hybrid Teas do not seem to have made real 

 advance. After 1 Cheshunt Hybrid ' came in ' Reine Marie Henriette,' 

 and then some double climbing Roses from Nabonnand, as 4 Reine 

 Olga de Wurtemberg ' and 1 Marie Lavallee. ' ' Camoens ' and Bennett's 

 1 Grace Darling ' are beautiful free-flowering additions likely to con- 

 tinue." (Roses since 1860, by Mr. G. Paul.) 



" The separation of these hybrids from the parent group has not 

 been made too soon, although I think some varieties that have been 

 placed here might have remained with the Tea-scented, and others 

 have been placed with the Hybrid Perpetuals. They are hybrids 

 between individuals of these groups, and are not always a distinct 

 departure from one or the other parent. We gain something in 

 constancy of flowering by this cross, but the offspring is often 

 susceptible of injury by frost." (Grouping of Garden Varieties, by 

 Mr. W. Paul.) 



These echoes help us to realise the position. In 1889 Rose cultiva- 

 tion was on the eve of a new era, the era of the Hybrid Tea. The 

 invasion of our gardens by a new race was imminent, quietly yet steadily 

 advancing, aided in no small degree by a revival of a more refined 

 appreciation of the beautiful in the Rose, a revival of what are appro- 

 priately termed " Decorative " Roses. Speaking generally, the decade of 

 1870- 80 was the era of the exhibition Hybrid Perpetual as we know it now, 

 since those of the sixties had for the most part given place to larger and 

 more perfect flowers. In like manner the decade of 1880-90 may be 

 termed the period of the Exhibition Teas. We are not surprised therefore 

 to be told (I again quote from the last Rose Conference Report) that 

 "Hybrid Perpetuals are virtually perfected." Those were days when 

 the so-called Exhibition Roses were paramount ; the demand was for them, 

 and the supply corresponded. Our exhibition schedules bore witness to 

 the fact that two groups, and groups by no means to be despised, were in 

 power, the Hybrid Perpetual and the Tea. Nevertheless, as in politics, 

 so in the Rose world, a third party was in process of formation which 

 now is challenging the other two for supremacy — the Hybrid Tea. The 

 time was propitious. Lovers of the Rose were yearning for something 

 more suitable for the garden than purely exhibition Roses. The intro- 



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