I am interested in trading cuttings of old garden rose to add to our collection. I have not been able to list roses as haveto find interested traders.

1986 New Zealand Rose Annual
p65. Jennifer Howard. Save Our Tea Roses. Many of you will know the pale pink cupped Tea Rose with a "gutsy" constitution, found growing throughout New Zealand. "Teddy" Roosevelt wore a flower of it in his buttonhole. America and the rest of the world seemingly know it as Duchesse de Brabant. In New Zealand we love it and grow it as 'Irene Watts'.

I've had this rose (grafted on multiflora) for 3 seasons, 2.5 of which it spent in a small pot situated in less than ideal light--shade from trees local and neighbouring. This season, season 3, seemed to be her year of readiness, putting on fast, red growth and with blooms much larger than I've seen in her short history. She went in the ground in season 3, jumping from pot and running. She was planted at the end of a heat wave (3 weeks of 35C and above weather), and at the beginning of a 2-week spell of heavy rain. Incidentally, two giant trees surrounding had been taken down by the council. She immediately put out 3 big basals, much top growth, all while flowering continuously. Notably, her flowers never balled through the heavy rain (though the petals were mauled by the downpour), and she never showed signs of disease, even from day 1 of life here in a shady yard.

Flowers vary from pure shell pink, to shell pink thinly outlined with darker shade of pink, to pure 'Queen Elizabeth' pink. The family all say she has a "planty" fragrance, which they don't particularly like. But if in her development she is to have the sweet fragrance much described, then that's one more thing to look forward to with this real champion of a rose.