Tea Koses at Shomasulle 
BY SAM. C. HJORT 
Georgia Rose Society Bulletin June, 1948 (Reprinted by permission) 
In the backyard garden of Misses Annie and Julia Wright, on 
Fletcher Street in Thomasville, is an old pink Tea rose planted by 
the grandmother of these ladies 86 years ago. No body knows the 
name of the rose, which is a little lighter and larger than Bon 
Silene. This old bush blooms every year and from it other plants, 
some of them more than 25 years of age, have been propagated. 
There are other old Teas in and around Thomasville, several of 
them almost half a century old, some about 30 years of such va- 
rieties as Mme. Lombard, Duchesse de Brabant, Safrano and 
William R. Smith. It is such roses as these that show that ours 
is a Tea rose climate. 
It was in 1898 that my father started the nursery business in 
Thomasville with which I grew up. I recall as a youngster about 
40 years ago that the nursery at that time was mostly a rose 
business, and there were varieties that seem lost to commerce 
now, such as Catherine Mermet, Christine de Noue, Mme. Demai- 
zin, Princesse de Sagan and others. For 20 years that fine old 
Tea rose Mme. Lombard outsold all other varieties, and it is still 
greatly prized in the gardens of this locality. 
Tea roses were brought to Europe from China’s gardens in the 
late 1700’s. In Northern Europe they were not well received, but 
in Southern France they found conditions of climate and soil 
suitable and rapidly gained favor. It is believed these Tea roses 
from China are of an ancestry combining the single species rose 
Gigantea, native to Southern China and Burma, with the common 
China rose. 
The customary hard pruning of roses is often fatal to Teas. It 
is absolutely necessary for Teas to be allowed to grow to a re- 
spectable size for best performance, perhaps because the climbing 
rose Gigantea is a dominant influence in the character of these 
roses, 
To use the well-chosen words of Mr. Roy Hennessey in his most 
commonsense book, ‘‘Hennessey on Roses’’: ““Tea roses are excep- 
tionally lovely in appearance, most of them with slender, graceful 
buds and high-centered opening blooms. The hues are of delicate 
creams, ivories, pinks, pale yellows, soft oranges, rose colors and 
perhaps blending of many of these shades in one blossom. ‘There 
are no true bright reds and no brilliant yellows. Tea rose growth 
1s usually markedly graceful, rather airy and spreading in habit, 
with wood usually reddish but occasionally soft clear green. Thorns 
are few and widely spaced, with an absence of pubescent thorns. 
Es fouaee is smooth, not glaucous, and never brilliantly bur- 
nished. 
Most Teas are not considered cut-flower varieties, but some 
produce large, double flowers on stiff stems, the best varieties 
being William R. Smith, Baroness Henriette Snoy, Maman Cochet 
(pink), White Maman Cochet and Mme. Lombard. A lot of the 
others are much better than generally believed. A vase of the 
large-flowered Mrs. Dudley Cross is lovely; first the color is ca- 
nary-yellow, tinged pink, then gradually all petals become suf- 
fused with pink, after the manner of the Hybrid Tea, Talisman. 
Actually when one begins using Teas, the experience is a fas- 
cinating one. 
I have indicated that the beginning of our nursery 
was In the growing of Tea roses. After some 20 years 
Hybrid Teas came to be played up everywhere, 
and the planting of Teas was almost abandoned. 
Now, these Old-Fashioned roses, so well adapted 
to the Lower South, are rapidly coming back into 
favor, and we are diligently seeking not so much to 
take in all that is ‘“‘new’’ in roses, but to search out 
and bring back into production more of the fine old 
roses of yesterday. Along with this work in the field 
of Teas, we are again growing and offering Climbing 
Teas and Noisettes, and some old favorite Hybrid 
Perpetuals. So much of the “‘new”’ has little value 
for the Lower South; so much of the old has genuine 
worth and merit. 
THOMASVILLE, GEORGIA 17 








































Fauortte Six 
Tea Roses 
Baronesse Henriette Snoy. 
Peach-pmk. 
Lady Hillingdon. Yellow. 
Mme. Lombard. Carmine. 
Mrs. Dudley Cross. Two-tone. 
White Maman Cochet. White. 
William R. Smith. Blush-pink. 
(Regular value $6.00) 
SPECIAL,one each $5,509 
TEA 
ROSE 
WILLIAM 
R. SMITH 
