I can't help you with what will do best in your zone but I am growing MBRC in zone 8b. It's her second year and she is not impressive yet but from what I understand it takes her several years to come into her full glory so I am being patient and waiting for her to mature into what I have seen in photos from people who grow her on this forum.

Where are you located? The zones indicate cold hardiness, but teas seem to prefer heat. I am 7A and teas do well here. The only issue was when we had the polar vortex, it went down to zero (10 degrees below the zone 7 cold limit) and I lost all the above ground growth on most of my teas.

Teas also take awhile to get going, you can't really tell for 3-5 years how well they will do.

Buford - curiously, did your teas come back after dying to the ground? Were they own root? I would think that in a zone where a harsh winter was possible, the only way to have teas have a chance of coming back would be if they were own root?

Jackie

Thanks guys! I'm in Albuquerque, and yes, it does get hot in the summer. We've been above 100 almost as much as below this summer. The winters do get cold (by my standards). Winter lows are usually in the 20's, but can dip further down for a night or two (10F or below, once or twice a winter), then winter days go up 20-30 degrees. Also, it is very dry here, and don't these roses like humid/moist?

Wow, thanks! I was just afraid that they would do like Mrs. BR Cant did and sulk after the winter, but then again, maybe I just didn't give her enough time. This opens up a whole new world of possibility!

Three things noseometer:

1. Welcome to an entirely different "world" of roses to explore

2. Madame Joseph Schwartz

3. In a post written a few days ago, I wrote about being astounded by how well the tea babies are performing in "MY" summer heat.... and some are in full sun. You are in the land of dry and drip irrigation... many seem to love it!!

I am excited for you!!!

Teas love heat and full sun. What they do not like is freezing winters, although as mentioned above, if you have them on their own roots they may survive a bad winter and come back.

Jackie

While I've never grown tea roses, every other class of rose comes back stronger from a bad winter with a rootstock underneath it. That is a big reason the rootstock is there - to help the rose come back from winterkill.

I'm in zone 7a in California and the teas seem to like it so far. I do mulch heavily with pine needles and covered up the babies (6" tall) and they came through fine. I lost some branches on ones out in the open. What helped was snow which I shoveled onto them if they were in a tree's no snow zone. Many of the teas are rated down to zone 6 so if you want a little comfort zone go for those, but I grow chinas too. The thing I found was the ones I planted late in the season (sept-oct) fared worse than the ones I planted early in spring/summer). Hybrid Teas thrive here. Chinas did okay also. Mulching I think is the key.

mad_gallica, yes, they put out tremendous growth from the roots that spring. I guess because the root balls were so large at that point, they had a lot to work with.

Desertgarden: So why Madame Joseph Schwartz in particular?

Ingrid has an image of MJS posted in the "if you could only have one tea rose" thread. Her description is "spot on". My 2 MJS are performing very well. Honestly, if I was not so enamored with Mlle. de Sombreuil, they would receive more attention. Also, knowing that you grow Bolero, and Iceberg, as well as reading cues regarding other roses you seem to like, I am thinking that MJS is one you might be drawn to ( I could definitely be wrong, but...).

Actually, my first thought was Mlle. de Sombreuil. It is such a beautiful, elegant tea rose, but I fear it could be too cold intolerant for ABQ.

Well, you are right on the button. I saw that image of Ingrid's and I started laughing: Desertgarden has got me pegged! I may just have to try it. Thanks for the suggestion!