Booklet  (2022)  Page(s) 50-51.  Includes photo(s).
 
"Mystery Cream Tea" 

Magazine  (Jun 2020)  Page(s) 14. Vol 42, No. 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Pat Toolan. The Lino Catalogue, "Range View Pink Tea" & Belle Emilie.
In the early days of seeking out old roses in the 1980s, a friend showed me a deserted family property at Keyneton which had some old roses. This long-neglected garden had surrounded what must have been a lovely home before it was removed, leaving behind an old stone and glass conservatory, stone sheds, iron garden shed and numerous mature trees such as a strawberry tree, hawthorns, Judas trees and conifers, as well as shrubs such as Chaenomeles sp (aka Japonica or Flowering Quince,) and the drought- hardy climber Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica. When I first visited this garden there were numerous bushes of Indica Major and Rosa canina but there was also a hedge of Dorothy Perkins (Rambler, 1901), a tree-like Devoniensis and a bush of an unknown soft pink Tea.
I named the Tea roses “Bill No 1” and “Bill No 2” but soon these names were replaced with “Range View Cream Tea” and “Range View Pink Tea”, ‘Range View’ being the name of the property. Of course I gave them the colour that they presented on the day I first saw them. I was not sure about the names of either back then. “Range View Cream Tea” was soon identified as the 1838 Tea Devoniensis with its highly perfumed, thick-petalled, very double flowers, and its sturdy constitution with big prickles; but the pink Tea was an extra special rose to me as it had grace, fineness and less full flowers with less substance to the petals, but still had the prickliness of youth. To me it gave the impression of an earlier Tea/China rose than Devoniensis.
In about 1986 I photocopied a photocopy of a circa 1860 catalogue in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens Library, the original of which was found under lino in an old cottage in Lyndoch, South Australia. The catalogue was from a local nursery that operated on one of the Evans’ family properties, only a half kilometre from ‘Range View’ and a couple of kilometres from our home.......
 This time I decided to really investigate Belle Emilie so I went first to helpmefind.com to find the earliest reference,....
While the rose was in a number of local catalogues in the states where the unknown Tea was found, it is still just a possible identity, but the thrill is in the chase!
Other names suggested on helpmefind for this rose are: Mme. Melanie Willermoz, 1845, Cornelia Cook, 1855, and Innocente Pirola, 1878, but checking the references and photos I am still inclined toward Belle Emilie.
 

Website/Catalog  (21 May 2020)  
 
Mystery Cream Tea (Aus clone) Light pink to white. Cream, petals sometimes flushed pink, another Australian foundling

Magazine  (Mar 2020)  Page(s) 26. Vol 42, No. 1.  Includes photo(s).
 
Margaret Furness, Mystery Teas in Australia. 
“Mystery Cream Tea”, collected from various sites in Vic and SA, with several study names. It has similarities to Devoniensis. “Walter’s Not Niphetos” may be the same but it is not known whether it sets hips.  The flowers occur singly or in clusters, and have a sharp, sweet Tea fragrance at first. They are medium to large, and double to very double. They can have a pink or yellow tinge. The petals are notched, and the outer ones have a rolled edge. The hips are deep yellow and globular. Well armed. Medium growth, spreading, twiggy.  Recent suggestions have been Belle Emilie, pre 1829, and Innocente Pirola, Widow Ducher 1878.

Magazine  (2019)  Page(s) 51. Vol 41, No. 1.  
 
Margaret Furness.  Tea, Noisette and China Mislabels in Australia
Roses sold here as Niphetos are mostly Mrs Herbert Stevens, though White Ensign and what I think is “Mystery Cream Tea” may also arrive with that label

Magazine  (2013)  Page(s) 38. Vol 35, No. 1.  
 
Pat Toolan: "Range View Pink Tea" and Range View 'Devoniensis' are both on a local property which had one of the earliest plant nurseries in South Australia - 1860.

Magazine  (2011)  Page(s) 29 Vol 33. No. 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
p29. Geoff Crowhurst. ....On the way home Rosalie Walker and I squelched our way into the Kangaroo Ground cemetery, finding there.... and what could have been a pale pink Tea. Later, I brought a bunch of blooms of the latter to our March meeting, where John Nieuwesteeg said, after due consideration, that he thought it was the"Mystery Cream Tea"[photo below] as described in the Tea Ladies' book. It does indeed seem to fit nearly all the distinguishing features as described, though the heads of flower were large, on reddish stems with bright red prickles.

p30. Photo. "Kangaroo Ground Cemetery" rose.

Magazine  (2009)  Page(s) 46. Vol 31, No. 2.  
 
Pat Toolan. A Trip to Ruston Roses. Healthy, well-fed and watered roses can look so very different to their 'mother plants'. Here we saw...."Range View Pink Tea" which is the same as "Mystery Cream Tea" in the Tea book.

Book  (2008)  Page(s) 199.  Includes photo(s).
 
"Mystery Cream Tea" has likenesses to the rose we grow as 'Mme. Bravy', and also to 'Devoniensis', prompting a theory that it may be a seedling of the latter. Delicate flounce-edged flowers hanging in clusters against dark green foliage give "Mystery Cream Tea", an old-world appearance. This is definitely not one of the heavier late Teas that approach the modern Hybrid Teas in shape and substance..... pedicel - stalked glands, prickles..... outer petals have rolled edges.... hip deep yellow....stipules long, fine....prickles numerous....

Magazine  (1988)  Page(s) 14. Vol 10, No. 4.  
 
Iris King. Three roses nominated for propagation and re-introduction.
.... "Peace's China Tea" - another quality rose. At least 2 layers of pink petals with a paler reverse. Very heavily scented. Rather unique and certainly worth growing
(Not mentioned is the heavy rose-carmine flush the reflexes develop in warm weather. I find this rose after the style of 'Mme. Laurette Messimy'. Found in the Melbourne Cemetery. - Ed. [Rob Peace] )

["Peace's China Tea" may or may not be another study name for "Chapel Tea" and "Mystery Cream Tea"]