Jeff, the rose they sell as Lover's Delight is actually the Austin Shrub Rose, 'Fisherman's Friend.'
(AUSchild, Gardener's Friend, Austin, 1987 (Lilian Austin x The Squire)
When its' blooms are right, they are heart-stopping -- but it does have a tendency to produce the
most appalling vegetative centers
I have ever seen on a rose.
OTHER THAN THAT, you have listed some of my favorite Tea Roses.

You may also have the right climate for Clothilde Soupert to open. And Celine F should be gangbusters for you.

Jeri

You have picked some great teas. Take full advantage of Mrs Dudley Cross' thornlessness. If one of the spots where you are going to plant allows contact with passersby, MDC is the girl for that spot. Brushing up against her is no problem.

Plant Madame Joseph Schwartz where you can take random sniffs of her ... very good stuff.

I look forward to your future reports on their progress.

Randy

You have some very fine choices, there!
My favorites are Mrs. B. R. Cant, Monsieur Tillier, and Mrs. Dudley Cross. Each of these roses is a winner!

My 'Fisherman's Friend' aka "Lover's Delight" was a dud. It has not done well for me, but neither have most of the other roses that I bought from the same source (not Chamblees, by the way).

Thank you for all the feedback. I emailed Chamblee's to cancel the order for "Lovers' Delite" (aka Fisherman's Friend) and to sustitute "La Biche" for it. I believe "La Biche" has been re-identified as the tea rose "Mlle de Sombreuil", correct?

Thanks also for the planting suggestion regarding Mrs. Dudley Cross. I am planning to take out a butterfly bush that I planted too close to the house; it has grown overly rampant and huge. Sounds like Mrs. Dudley Cross will be a great replacement for it. Sorry butterflies!

Thanks.

Jeff

Jeff,

I, too, think you've made great choices.. Think carefully about where you position Cl. Clotilde Soupert. Mine took off and devoured a large rebar teepee in the first season.

Robert

I really like La Biche/Mlle de Sombreuil. The flowers are just beautiful and I can actually smell this tea!

I really like La Biche/Mlle de Sombreuil.

*** Also, it is among the most disease-free roses we've ever grown here.

Jeri

This pic of Mons Tillier was taken today; it is about a year old and has grown to almost 5' since last fall. It blooms a lot and is going to be a very big bush, I think. I like the small pink blossoms, which it produces very freely. The bush was loaded a few days ago!

Mme Joseph Schwartz was planted not very long ago and has produced the loveliest white blossoms. I do not have Maman Cochet, but I do have William R. Smith, which is also called Blush Maman Cochet. It is beautiful, large and healthy. I hope you will love all of the teas you ordered. I've not been disappointed in any of the ones I have. I want more, but I am running out of room in my back yard and don't yet have the courage to dig up the front yard. Maybe next year!

{{gwi:310486}}

My Fisherman's Friend only blooms once with new growth swamping the blooms in the spring. It was so vigorous that I had to cut the new growth to see the once blooms in the spring. However, I may just not know how to grow it. - Best

Our Mons. Tillier was pruned regularly for its first few years. As a result, it has never grown to be tall, but rather has taken the form of a large, Floriferous mushroom, about 4.5 ft tall, and perhaps 5 ft. across.
It's planted on the hillside, a bit below the pathway, so you can almost look down on it, which is neat when it is in full bloom.

Jeri

Jeri, can you describe how and when you pruned her? I don't really want it to be so terribly large.

Hello Jeff, you have chosen very good tea roses, except you are missing one more - Duchesse de Brabant. Madama Joseph Swartz is a white sport of DdB. Even though I love MDS, I equally love DdB. I have both of them planted side by side.

Duchesse -- I haven't pruned him now for several years, except to remove dead or damaged growth, so so it's difficult to say with accuracy.
I suppose I probably shortened the canes by about 1/3, and removed the twiggy canes.
After several years of this treatment, 'Mons. Tillier' almost died of downy mildew. We were 100% positive we would have to remove it, and I am very grateful that it has come back.

You CAN prune Tea Roses with the aim of restraining their size, but you will achieve a plant of less grace, and probably less vigor. I would suggest, if you want to prune to reduce size, it might best be done in the summer.

Jeri

Thank you, Jeri.

Jeff, hope it was okay I asked Jeri a pruning ? in the middle of your thread. Annie

Jeff, I have most of the teas you have listed and they are some of my favorites. I don't know where you live but they have done exceptionally well for me here in the southeast.

Annie, in the south you can prune Tea roses without worry. I prune mine back by one third twice a year. They immediately put out tons of new growth and bloom like crazy. Just don't cut them back too late in the summer/early fall since the abundant new growth will get zapped by the first freeze and can cause problems with cane canker.

Carol

Thanks, Carol.

Jeff, what great choices, and the replacement with Mlle de Sombreuil - you're going to love that rose. Every you you list is wonderful. The only two I don't know are Mme. Joseph Schwartz and Clotilde Soupert.

Jerome

Duchesse: Thanks for asking the question about pruning teas. It's actually the next question that I was going to ask, and I have saved the responses for future reference.

BTW, Chamblee's is wonderful. I emailed them about replacing the "Lovers' Delite" with "Mlle. de Sombreuil" and they answered back immediately with no problem. Thanks for whoever recommended this nursery to me! I already have a "Sombreuil" growing in a pot, and it will be interesting to compare it next to the real thing. I'm also glad to find out that Mlle de Sombreuil has very good disease resistance.

BTW, if Mlle de Sombreuil is actually a tea, and not a noisette, what does that make the impostor Sombreuil? My rose book lists it as a tea. Also, if Mlle de Sombreuil is not "La Biche", what was the original La Biche?

Jeff

Ah Jeff -- SUCH good questions!

The imposter, judging by its physical characteristics is a Hybrid wichuriana.
Some sort of close cousin to 'New Dawn,' maybe -- but older, which makes it historically important.
We can trace it back to the mid-1940's, in Southern California. But it may be older than that.
Someone who is a clever writer might write a Rose Mystery, about how this very very good rose came to be anonymous.
There are a couple of intriguing possible origins.
:-)

La Biche -- the real Noisette -- was a real rose, and I have heard rumors that it may have been found
in an old French garden.
We'll know it when we see it -- it's said to have been very, very, very thorny!
I would love to see it verified, and returned to commerce.
We can never have too many Noisettes.

Jeri