Mrs. Dudley Cross

Mrs. Dudley Cross - She is the epitome of a very fine hybrid Tea. Introduced into commerce in 1907, she quickly became known as the 'gardener's' rose, supplying even the most careless one with beautiful large, double, superb, light yellow roses. Her tea scent permeates the air on a warm day. On the bush, flushing pink in cooler weather, this fascinating rose, when cut and taken inside, will be yellow, then become two-tone, and finally pink all over. Large, full elegant blooms on thornless stems made this rose an all time favorite, and why she is still around today, meandering through many old gardens.

Especially adapted to dry, southern climates, she can survive many a Texas summer of heat and drought superbly with only a dressing of compost over her roots. Her mature height is about six or seven feet with a three to four foot, rather lax width. She doesn't mind a bit of pruning however, to a more compact size. Stems are almost always thornless, with only one or two thorns found at the base, on larger, older canes. This one is also found all over San Marcos, marking turn of the century home sites.

Two superb examples can be found growing behind 'Columbia' and at a car wash on South Guadalupe, where Mrs. Johnson lived in a small frame house built for her by her newly wedded husband in the early 1900's. Mrs. Johnson entered her home as a new bride and never moved, living there until the day she died at 89. When the Johnson's (no relation) purchased the property in the early 1980's and built a car wash, they preserved the rose bush that still flourishes today, a symbol of the Johnson's lasting love.

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