What a big luscious bloom! Love the pink surprise! :-)

I have Mrs. Dudley Cross' in pride of place in my front yard, between Duchess de Brabant and Souvenir de Pierre Notting, I was going to replace S,P.de N because of its ugly brown ruff of old guard petals but my neighbors complained "We love that rose" so it stays.

Mrs. D-C is one of the most elegant Tea roses I know, and the Tea class, to me is the most elegant class of rose. I love its' rich Tea fragrance, wide growth habit, huge 5" plus blossoms and variation of hues, sometimes totally ivory, later rimmed with pink, and later still in autumn, flushed with pale crimson. 3 roses for the price of one, and that scent! Woo-Hoo!

Lux.

Oh, stop. (wiping drool off keyboard)

She is on my wish list. But I have no place to put her.

In warm climates like mine, she is hardy, too. Mine has put up with munching by deer, no water for 2 months of 90 degree+ temps, and too much shade. When the large tree shading that area had to be taken down, and I fixed the water problem, she bounced back and doubled in size in about a month. The deer still munch on her and her neighbors, but our deer are full by the time they get to our garden, and are just looking for desert, so they don't do much damage to established roses. Roses truly are the most remarkable plants -

Jackie

Kim, thanks for posting the beautiful comparison picks. I do have William. It *should* put an end to my Mrs. Dudley Cross lust since they are so similar.

I'm thrilled to see these mature flowers, Kim. Mine are in their first year and are not as filled out yet. Yours are gorgeous.

Good, I'm glad they helped.

Both beautiful roses! Lisa

Your Mrs Dudley Cross blooms look great, Jackie.

MDC has always been a good performer for me.

My Mom has one planted next to Paul Neyron in her Arkansas garden and they compliment each other well.

Randy

I am so excited for my first bloom of Mrs. Dudley Cross! Lovely scent, not strong but intoxicating and makes me feel like I am transported back 100 years when these were the kinds of roses commonly grown. I wanted to revive this thread in hopes that more people would post pics and experience with MDC. Any large bush pics? Mine is such a tiny thing right now.

Stephanie, your Mrs. Dudley bloom is exquisite and is an example of all that I love about this antique Tea. Mrs. D is one of my favorites and brings back memories of my early years in TX where she could often be spotted by older homes and in historic areas. I think she was designated "The San Antonio Rose" in a contest. Mrs. D has been discussed at length by most of the TX rose rustlers and praised in so many books including those by Liz Druitt, Mike Shoup (ARE), William Welch, Greg Grant, etc. I hope you find many moments in your days to pause and commune with Mrs. D and many more to post photos. I only grow Duchesse de Brabant at this time, but if I had a place to house her, I would also grow Mrs. D in a heartbeat. She is one of my top five...correction, top three Teas (just a notch below the also famous classics DdB and Gloire de Dijon).

Jackie, thank you for the original post. Gorgeous as are all your roses! Carol

I ran out to look at my Mrs. D when I read Stephanie's note. My bush is still only a baby (teas are babies for several years, at least here). It is about 3 ft tall now. It seems to like a LOT of water still. It is blooming, and putting out red new growth, so I have high hopes for its future. Its blooms are just as lovely as ever, but the blooms are so large that every single one of them was hanging face down, so no use taking a pic of the bush. My hope is that, as the bush matures, the blooms will be on stronger stems, or the bush will be so tall that I can look up at the blooms. I have just fed it to encourage it! Those of you who have mature plants, how long did that take, and how big did they get?

Jackie

bumping up, as I am anxious for answers to my question (patience is a virtue I talk about a lot to remind myself, but it does not always work!).

Jackie

Teas DO perform better with generous water. On drip or other miserly applications, they will exist and perhaps put out some growth. Flooding and drowning them really pushes growth. They aren't "fast" growers, but copious water will increase their growth rate. I kept mine "alive" and producing some flowers by being careful with the water. It wasn't until I started generously watering them they started pushing large, thick canes. Mrs. Dudley does form some upright facing flowers, but as with most of the type, the flowers do hang or come horizontally.

My Mrs. Dudley second Summer in the ground here.

The wood fence is 6ft tall.

Kim, thanks for the feedback to Jackie's question, since I was hoping for an answer too! Mrs. Dudley cross is putting out the least growth of the approx. 25 new bands I planted last fall. We have had a lot of rain for SoCal! Plus I have smart drip that waters if it hasn't rained. The soil has been moist around the roses whenever I check. However, now that summer is coming I will give the roses a good soaking from hose occasionally based on your recommendation. It will probably help to soak in the organic kelp fertilizer I put around each rose last weekend, since I am not sure the drip will do it adequately. I am a novice at growing roses, although growing up, I always helped my mom with the vegetable garden and love plants.

Shelia,

Oh Wow, 2nd summer! I want mine to grow that fast. Thanks for posting.

Stephanie, I'm also in 9b, but a cold, damper 9b than many. Are you in a warmer 9b or a more colder coastal type? Temperature makes tremendous difference. Definitely pushing growth with water as well as watering the fertilizers in deeper works wonders. But, adding some warmth (not triple digits, but comfortable warmth) helps dramatically.

Kim, thanks for mentioning this temperature aspect. I live on the edge of the Los Angeles Basin a few blocks from the Angeles National Forest at 2000 feet. So if these teas like real warmth, cool temperatures could explain almost no new growth on Mrs Dudley Cross since it was planted in Nov. It has been cool, rainy and cloudy about 1/3 of the days since then. It’s just starting to really warm up, but now we are getting long lingering morning marine clouds all the way back to the mountains that isn’t burning off until noon-1pm. It’s usually sunny here by 8-9am in May/June. I am not complaining though. I love the cool weather. Most of my roses, including Mrs D, get afternoon shade so I now realize she’s not getting much direct sun at all. I will keep giving extra water and gentle organic fertilizer every couple weeks this summer and post a picture this fall to compare. Here she is this misty morning probably too close to the wall, but will try to train her up like a narrow hedge since my yard is so small. Also Monsieur Tillier and Rosette Delizy will get this treatment.
Jackie, where are you in CA? Is yours putting out any new growth yet this season?

Sheila, your Mrs. Dudley Cross is magnificent. I can't believe how quickly roses put on growth in your garden; it's phenomenal (especially when compared to mine, darn it).

Thanks, Stephanie. "Direct sun" is something roses require in London, England and other similar locations and climates. When that was written, the style of rose of the day were the Hybrid Perpetuals with their hundreds of petals and it was literally written in London. There is tremendous difference between sunlight there and sunlight in LA. There's a great deal of difference between the sunlight in LA and HERE. For the first time, I have actually been diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency. My doctor is from San Diego and went to school in LA and he said here is where he has first encountered D deficiencies and it's due to the quality of the sunlight. It isn't as directly overhead due to the latitude. Of course there are other mitigating factors such as fog, but the higher north (or south in the Southern Hemisphere) you go, the more hours of sun plants and we will need. Add the increasing heat of the sun and that helps reduce the number of hours required or even to be able to be endured. Oh, and Jackie is in the San Francisco Bay area with lower temps, greater fog and multiples of the rainfall you or I receive.

Jackie, Mrs Dudley Cross is one of my favourite Teas. When I first had her in this garden, the blooms were goose-necked. However, as the years have gone on, they are far better supported. Trish

All last Spring Mrs Dudley Cross’s blooms balled. so many buds and none opened. I thought it was the cooler Spring weather that we had, but now we are having cool fall weather and she gave me this beauty shown with Softee.

Perhaps the balling was more a function of flower thrips than cool/damp weather? If she should be expected to ball, it would definitely be here but she doesn't. We have regular, fairly heavy fogs and dews and though the sun is bright and intense (when we have it) the air is often chilly as it's right off the Pacific. Mrs. Dudley Cross opens just fine.

I didn’t see any little bugs, but I wasn’t looking either. Good to know it’s not a normal trait for her. Mine is in a less than ideal location shaded by a large salvia. So she is growing like a climber with two long canes going up 8 feet. Each cane went up 4 feet the first year and then another four foot extension this year. I am going to give a good aged steer manure mulch in late January (when hopefully we get rain to soak it in) and increase her dripper and cut the salvia back to a foot high. I think maybe she just needs more love. Interestingly, many in other threads here have mentioned that she mildews. I haven’t seen any mildew on her. However I have seen mildew on my Madame Joseph Schwartz (Duchesse de Brabant sport), G. Nabonnand, Madame Alfred Carriere and Gruss an Teplitz. The last being by far the worst. Has anyone seen climbing behavior from their Mrs Dudley Cross or is mine just reaching for light?

I think yours is reaching for light as that isn't the usual habit for her. I avoided Mme Joseph Schwartz and Carriere specifically for mildew (and Carriere's DEMAND to be permitted to absorb the Universe). Not that they aren't pretty or Carriere doesn't smell good, but living where it is usually cool and damp and where water stress (which INDUCES mildew) are the norms, why deal with it when it's a given?

My Mrs. Dudley here is pretty well rounded. Here, William R. Smith is a huge reacher.