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Billy, how did you get the rotten mongrel to look that good? Mine is flatly refusing to behave, under conditions in which several other Teas are absolutely romping.
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Treat 'em mean? A number of the best crops of blooms, including these, I suspect, have been found after the plant has been rescued from the weeds.
Like VB Rossi's comments about Maman Cochet - "In dealing with Tea roses, the grower will notice the vast difference that exists between some varieties. Take, for example, white and pink Maman Cochet; they abhor being pruned. The best blooms I have ever seen were on unpruned plants running riot. The only time they require the knife is in cutting the blooms. They should be grown by themselves, given a good position, and attention to watering and manuring is all they require to produce large quantities of good blooms,"
It's not always lovely here GMC - the outer petals bruise easily, but I do think it improves with age.
Climate certainly comes into play and I guess time will tell whether 'Hugo Roller' prefers a dryer climate than yours, or whether it is capricious.
What is your 'Hugo Roller' like in the prickle department?
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Mine doesn't seem to have any prickles. Don't know how long that will last, but it's smooth as silk at the moment.
I've pretty much decided that I'm going to move it to a spot where it can just go ahead and be ugly. That way if it ever produces any blooms worth looking at it will be a pleasant surprise, and if it doesn't it won't be a waste of space in a prime spot.
Edit: Just had a thought. In my climate it's possible that this one would be best suited as a cutting rose that is cut before the buds open. Which is fine if it's growing in an out of the way spot.
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'Etoile de Lyon' is another with outer petals and petal tips that bruise easily but which, when cut as buds and allowed to open inside, not only open delightfully but with a much more intense yellow colour than blooms seen on the plant growing out in the elements.
Like 'Hugo Roller', it has good, strong, disease resistant foliage, and the petals have some real substance too.
Reasons for why the blooms of certain roses bruise and ball, and why they do it in some conditions and not in others deserve closer scrutiny I reckon. Soggy weather certainly contributes but it isn't just that a rose has blooms that are especially full or have especially tissuey petals.
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Thanks for the tip re Etoile de Lyon. I'll bear that in kind if I ever decide to get one.
This balling thing is weird. In my garden Aotearoa seems almost immune to weather, but it's notorious for being subject to balling in other places. And it's definitely not a case of us not getting rain and humidity here. Nor have I given the thing any special care.
Mrs Dudley Cross on the other hand is a great producer of soggy lumps at the slightest excuse. Although this may be down to the plant being so young. Some member comments indicate that Mrs Grumpy* takes a few years to get into her stride.
*(my nickname for her, because she's cross)
Edit: Take a look at http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.304470 if you want to see what the canes are like on mine.
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It looks very healthy GMC - and beautifully smooth. Mine rarely has prickles but I've seen plants that are partially prickled - a bit like your Restless example. (Have those prickles persisted, or have they dropped off as the wood ages?)
Probably repeating myself here - we were shown a really old plant of Hugo Roller that had been neglected for many years and then enthusiastically chopped back on one side. The parts of that plant that had been untouched or only lightly trimmed were completely thornless, while the side of the bush that had had a hard chop was producing impressively prickly new canes. I haven't sen it since and don't know whether the prickles persisted.
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I don't know if you remember, but my Restless was a victim of "stunt gardening", aka "flying lessons in a howling gale", so that plant no longer exists. The cutting I took from its dying remnants is completely thornless so far, even though obviously all the canes on it are young. There's a shot of it here: http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=21.304306
Nothing much to look at right now, but it's healthy and should do well when planted out.
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Lovely and healthy. Your garden and its setting looks beautiful.
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