Forgotten Charm: Classic Hybrid Teas

I have neglected my beloved roses long enough.  Here is a post on some very rare and interesting varieties, very few of which are now in commerce.

Lady Mary Fitzwilliam (Bennett, before 1880)

Classic, or early, Hybrid Teas appeared in the latter half of the 19th century.

Mme Caroline Testout (Pernet-Ducher, 1890)

The first Hybrid Teas were crosses between Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals, but gradually their genealogy became very complex.

Mme Wagram, Comtesse de Turenne (Bernaix, 1894)

Lady Alice Stanley (McGredy II, 1909)

The hybridizers' goal in creating these crosses was to combine the beautiful high-centered bud of a Tea with a long stem and upright bloom of a Hybrid Perpetual, to make the roses more suitable for cutting.

Mrs George Shawyer (Lowe&Shawyer, 1911)

The blooms were a bit smaller than those of later more extensively hybridized roses, the colors generally softer, and the form of the bloom not so stiffly formal.

September Morn (Dietrich&Turner, 1913)

Miss Rowena Thom (Howard&Smith, 1927)

Autumn (L.B. Coddington, 1928)

In those early roses, fragrance had not yet fallen victim to the rose exhibitor's demands: in most roses, fragrance resides in the petals making them soft. Such blooms do not last as long as those with stiff thick petals and are less suitable for rose shows.

Unlike older hybrids, which were open-pollinated chance crosses, hybrid teas were the first rose class obtained by deliberate efforts to introduce new varieties, and record parentage.

Edith Krause (Krause, 1930)

Being on the whole less showy and less vigorous, turn-of-the-century roses were quickly forgotten after the introduction in 1945 of Peace, one of the first modern-looking Hybrid Teas. Peace became extremely popular quickly eclipsing the older hybrids in the gardens, on the exhibitors' tables and in hybridizers' greenhouses.

Mme Jean Gaujard (Gaujard, 1937)

It is interesting to look at these roses chronologically, as they are arranged on the page. The form of the bloom gradually changed to assume the formal high centered shape, typical of modern Hybrid Teas. Yellow and orange colors did not appear until fairly late, after Joseph Pernet-Ducher, a French breeder, started experimenting with R. foetida and R. Lutea, and created vividly colored Hybrid Teas called Pernetianas in his honor.