By Kathleen Gresham
The hybrid tea rose might also be called “the flower of lovers.” It makes the perfect long-stemmed rose.
Hybrid teas are the result of combining the tea rose with the hybrid perpetual. Hybrid teas flower repeatedly and can be strong with the proper care.
Choosing a Hybrid Tea Variety
A hybrid tea is an ideal choice to present to the love of your life, a special gift for a mother, or just to display on your tabletop. It will add a touch of elegance to any room even as a lone flower in a vase. There are at least 237 varieties of hybrid teas.
If you worry about thorns, you can choose a thornless variety of hybrid tea. However, some people feel that the thorns add to the artistic charm of the flower. Thorns demand respect and add character the rose plant and flowers.
Caring for New Hybrid Tea Plants
When planting hybrid teas, be sure to take care of your newly acquired plants. You will need to decide what to feed the new plants for endurance and strength and overall health.
Most experienced rose gardeners have a favorite recipe or brand of plant food. But beware of over-fertilizing.
Overusing fertilizer, or using too strong a solution can chemically burn the rose leaves or stems. Plant food often is highly concentrated and must be diluted. Follow directions and to not use more than the recommended amount.
For best results, when in doubt, use less plant food and more water. It is better to dilute the fertilizer in a weaker solution but fertilize more often than to to take a chance on burning the delicate roots.
Watering heavily also helps dilute the food so that the hybrid teas can absorb it more easily. Although some gardeners choose to feed more often, hybrid teas really only need to be fed once in the spring and again in the fall.
Pruning, feeding, proper watering, insect and disease control all sound a bit overwhelming at first. But it’s actually an easy process to learn.
Like most living things, hybrid teas need care for proper growth and development. Keep good notes on how you care for your hybrid teas, such as what and how much you feed them, when you last pruned them, and how they responded.
Keeping records of your gardening process is a good habit to get into for any flowering plant. By reviewing your gardening records, you will be able to see which efforts bring the best results and which need to be curtailed or expanded.
Romantic Hybrid Tea Rose Names
Some hybrid teas have romantic names, such as Bride’s Dream, Bronze Star, Change of Heart, or Classic Beauty. If you like card games, perhaps your landscape would be more complete with the Ace of Hearts.
Like other rose types and other beloved flowering plants, hybrid teas are named after famous people. Those tend to be popular and well-tested varieties. With names like Barbara Streisand, Barbara Bush, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope, whatever your choice, you should find it easy to grow one of these most popular and beloved of roses.
The Famous Faces of Hybrid Teas
It would probably be next to impossible to count all the things ever written about the rose. Often when one pictures a love scene, if a rose is involved, it is usually a long-stemmed hybrid with or without thorns. Although not known for having a strong scent, hybrid teas have their own special appeal just for their beauty.
Commercially the hybrid tea is a favorite rose. Often photographed for magazine articles and ads, the hybrid is greatly admired. You will often see images of hybrid tea roses on gift wrap, tattoos, dinnerware, wedding decorations, and especially on gifts and cards for Valentine’s Day, to name a few.
