Mrs B r Cant is only two years old, and already she is to the top of the shed (8 feet) and about 6X6 otherwise. Duchess de Brabant is not getting as large as fast, about 5 feet tall and about 3.5 X3.5. I don't grow your other choices, but teas do like the southeast. I am in central Alabama.

kay

Subk, I'm here for moral support. I'd like the answers too.
Mine have been slow growing this summer....
Susan

For me, Mme Joseph Schwartz and the Duchess have stayed small--under 4'--but neither is in the best spot. The rest of my Teas get large and larger. Also, they grow rather like Chinas, ie random canes shooting out this way and that. You'd think they would grow towards the sun, but don't bet on it. I planted Dr. Grill near a path and he immediately threw out a huge horizontal cane directly across it, and a second one heading into the shade.

Just wanted to bump this back up. I know there are a bunch of you that grow teas outside of CA and I'd love to hear your experiences about sizes--even if you aren't growing the ones on my list!

From northeast of Knoxville, and about a half a zone colder.

My teas reached about six to seven feet with the culture usually afforded HTs: drip irrigation and organic fertilizers. That took five to six years (but for Lady H who languished).

Then we had several very dry years and although we didn't lose our well, it was struggling to pump ofr lengthy periods, so the irrigation went off. Tea sizes adjusted backwards to three to four feet.

Now with the rains this year, the sizes are back to five to six feet.

Originally I planted mine way too close together; silly me, I believed the local rose experts (most of whom are bedecked with awards) who said we couldn't grow teas (etc.) in Tennessee and I was ready to winter protect what I expected to have as struggling bushes. It taught me not to pay much attention to self professed experts.

Generalization, except for Safrano, the light yellow teas are smaller here. The pinks love this part of the country and will get big. Leave any dead canes in place: they provide support and are barriers to rabbit predation in late winter. Dead canes will snap off after a year or two and you won't damage live canes by trying to get secateurs in to cut where the cuts don't need to be made. Tea roses can overcome small cankers on their stems, unlike HTs.

The winter back in the 1980s when temps got to -28F for three nights probably wiped out our old tea roses; it also wiped out the HTs here. HTs got replanted; the teas should have been replanted as well.

Well, not cutting dead canes was interesting. I have not heard that before and have struggled to "get in there" and get those dead ones. Now I know to leave them alone....and I lot less work for me. My teas and chinas also throw long canes sideways. I have some that are just low and wide with one long sideways branch.

My Mrs. B.R. Cant is one of those. She is sparse in the middle and has long sideways canes. She looks like a pruned peach tree and I didn't do a thing to her to make her like that.

Mrs. BR Cant-- 8 x 8 wants to be even bigger!
Duchesse, Mme. Joseph-- 5X4
Lady Hillingdon-- 4X3 I've seen her bigger tho
Mrs. Dudley Cross 6X5

And if you need one more for your list-- consider Mme. Antoine Mari. Very vigorous and healthy with extremely refined blooms of delicate cream and pink.

These are all 5 years or better, growing in 5 to 6 hours of sun, no irrigation, and surrounded by mature trees. Teas rock!

The two huge ones in my yard are Mrs BR Cant and Mons Tillier. They could take up 10x10 easily. Lady Hillingdon is tall, about 5 feet, but not wide. I have DdB in a tight spot and I do prune it to keep it smaller, but it does not grow as vigorously as the others.

Thanks you all! Barbara, tell me about your teas and trees? Cause I've got a big maple with several roses planted around it. The only one that seems to cope is Safrano...
What others grow near trees?
Susan

I'm not from your south, mine being in California, but I want to second the remark about Duchesse de Brabant, a lovely rose that for me also stayed smaller, as did her sport, Mme. Joseph Schwartz. DdB died twice in my dry heat but would probably love your humidity, and she's one of my favorite teas. I highly recommend her.

My two Mrs. B.R. Cant must be related to peepsi's. They're growing mostly sideways, sprawling but keeping low. Of course they're in a spot where I wanted them to grow tall as I was told they would!

Ingrid

If you southerners (or anybody else) would like to see tea roses and other heritage roses and plants surrounded by piney woods, go to the American Rose Center in Shreveport and look at the garden the Heritage Rose Foundation has planted (and maintains) there. They had a tornado go through that knocked down a lot of trees but the gardens survived. I have only been there once, nearly three years ago in early Dec. The HRF garden is about 7 years old now, I believe.

I was just taking photos of the overall place and didn't record the names of the roses, but my guess is that the big one in this photo was Mrs. B. R. Cant.

It's nice there in December, when I visited, because they put up Christmas lights and have music.
Anita

{{!gwi}}

I have most of my teas near or even under trees. I have a bunch that were planted at the same time as a maple tree, which has gotten quite large. The tree leafs out very late, so the teas get nice sun in the spring. Then they get some shade in the hot summer, which they seem to like. I haven't had an issue with the tree roots stealing nutrients from the roses. The other bed I have teas in has Okame Cherry trees near them. The only issue I have there is that the cherry trees sucker very badly. But they and the roses are doing great.

Decided to go out and measure my Mrs. B.R. Cants. I have two of them. One is planted in full sun, is 6 years old and is the one that looks like a pruned fruit tree. She is 15 feet wide, 7 feet tall and still growing.

The other Mrs. B.R. is a 3 year old, planted in part shade of a pine tree, and is 7 feet wide and 5 feet tall. This one has a nicer bush shape.

Lady Hillngton died in my garden.

Mme. Antoine Mari is planted in part shade from the pine tree and is 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. She is a 3 year old and seems to be slow growing.

Mademoiselle de Sombreuil is not a good rose in my garden. She has spindly branches with few leaves. Her blossoms are pretty so I keep giving her a chance to do better thinking after a few years she will come into her own.
Her branches are about 6 feet long and there are very few of them.