Hybrid Tea Roses
This is the most popular of all the rose groups and represents the peak of 20th century breeding, with scent, health, and large flowers in all colors but a pure blue. They are called Hybrid Teas because the first were hybrids of Hybrid Perpetuals and Tea roses, combining the tall bud and delicate flowers of the latter with the larger, flatter, coarser blooms of the former. Crosses of Hybrid Teas and Floribundas have resulted in roses with some characteristics of both: in some places these are called Grandifloras or Large-flowered Roses, in others they are still classed as Hybrid Teas, and we have included them here.

The earliest Hybrid Teas roused little interest. ‘La France’, raised in 1867, was a sterile triploid and it did not lead to a rush of similar crosses. The group was recognized only in 1880, when English breeder Henry Bennett visited French rose breeders. Bennett’s ‘Lady Mary Fitzwilliam’ was among the earliest deliberate breedings of a rose in the new group. A cross between this and ‘La France’, ‘Mrs W.J. Grant’, won a gold medal in 1883. The first Hybrid Teas were of various pale colors and red; the firm of Pernet-Ducher succeeded in introducing bright yellow by crossing with R. foetida ‘Persiana’. ‘Soleil d’Or’, introduced in 1900, was the first of the so-called Pernetianas, which brought bright yellows and orange into Hybrid Teas.

These are generally healthy roses: removing all dead leaves at the end of the season will help control any blackspot. Prune in spring, cutting back to two buds and removing weak or damaged shoots; a trim after flowering will encourage more blooms. In colder areas, it is best to cover the stems with earth or mulch for the winter and uncover them when spring is advanced. Hybrid Teas are almost always repeat-flowering, and so need ample feeding.