Aperitif Hybrid Tea Rose

The latter part of last summer was hot and droughty in Westminster. I went to look at a garden, locally, on top of a windy hill that is quite exposed to the worst of winter's harshness. Included was a small rose garden. Due to the weather and some neglect, all of the roses looked poor, except one. This was a yellow hybrid tea, fully foliated and loaded with buds about to unfurl, still bearing the remnants of what was obviously a heavy spring and early summer bloom. It had about eight husky canes and stood every bit of 5 feet tall. As a class, yellow hybrid teas tend to be the most difficult of all. In general they don't have a strong constitution. They seem particularly prone to winter kill. For years I have been searching for a good yellow hybrid tea and to stumble across one so serendipitously is truly amazing. The homeowner said the rose was about three or four years old and that this was her best rose; so easy to grow and so reliable. With some investigating the rose turned out to be Aperitif, not budded but growing on its own root. Aperitif is a recent introduction from New Zealand. We checked further and found that in just a few years, Aperitif has developed quite a worldwide reputation for vigor and reliability.
Aperitif has glowing, well-formed, yellow blooms on long, strong stems. The four and a half inch blooms are exquisite, with up to 30 petals and a light fragrance. The long stems, which will reach 18 to 22 inches, make Aperitif an exceptional addition to floral arrangements. The bush is very vigorous and will grow easily in the garden, reaching a height of 60 inches. The glossy, medium dark foliage is quite disease resistant.
Planting and Care
For best results, plant in early spring.
Plant 4 feet apart in well-drained soil enriched with compost.
Prefers full sun.
Fertilize with Rose-Tone monthly from March 15th through August 15th.
Prune in the spring.
Hardy in zones 5 (with protection)-9.
Click here
to view Aperitif Hybrid Tea Rose on the Carroll Gardens website.
Alan Summers, president of Carroll Gardens, Inc., has over 30 years experience in gardening and landscape design. He has made Carroll Gardens one of America's preeminent nurseries, having introduced more than 20 new perennials and woody shrubs over the years and reintroduced numerous "lost" cultivars back to American gardeners.
It contains valuable gardening advice and tips and answers to customer questions. Carroll Gardens publishes a weekly online newsletter written by Alan.
Click here
to sign up for the Carroll Gardens weekly enewsletter.
Every Saturday, Alan hosts a call-in gardening forum on WCBM radio - 680 AM. For those outside of the WCBM listening area, they can listen to radio show via the internet.

Tea Grading System

You've seen FTGFOP, BOP, CTC on labels of tea...
What do these codes mean?
These codes are used to classify single estate teas such as Darjeeling, Ceylon, and Assam. At the end of a tealeaf makeing process, a machine will separate the tealeaves according to their type, size, and categorize them into different grades.

Letters like P: Pekoe, O: Orange, B: Broken, etc, are connected to indicate the different grades of the black tea.
Here is a summary of the most commonly used codes:
OP
: Orange Pekoe Usually refers to relatively longer and complete tealeaf.
BOP
They make a stronger brew than OP, so they are more suitable to make milk tea. : Broken Orange Pekoe Refers to broken orange pekoe.
FOP
: Flowery Orange Pekoe Refers to tealeaves that have buds, which would create a floral fragrance in the tea.
FBOP
Makes a stronger tea with floral fragrance. : Flower Broken Orange Pekoe Contains both buds and broken tea leaves.
TGFOP
Makes a much more fragrant and strong tea than FOP. : Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe Contains young buds, which appear golden.
FTGFOP
: Fine(est) Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe Very high quality tea that went through an extra procedure of rolling, which would draw out the best flavour in tea.
SFTGFOP
The meaning is obvious. : S stands for Super or Special.
CTC
It is ideal for consuming with milk. CTC leaves make a very strong brew in short amount of time. : Crush, Tear, Curl These teas are compressed into small pieces by a special machine.
Others:
Fanning
,
Dust
Usually used in India to make Chai or milk tea. Refers to very small pieces of tealeaves.
It means the first grade of that FOP. Sometimes, there is a "1" at the end of a tea name, such as FOP1 or FTGFOP1.
Some people prefer BOP instead of FTGFOP becuase BOP makes stronger tea, which is suitable for consuming with milk. The number of letters, however, does not necessarily mean the quality of tea.
Please visit is a tea lover and the founder of O-Square Tea Company. Tom H.
http://www.osquaretea.com
for more information.

Tea Grades-Kinds-Varieties: Start Learning All About Tea!

TEA PLANTATION IS A LOVELY PLACE TO VISIT!
TEA PLANTATION
is a nice place to visit. Look at the bounty of nature. Have a view of the estates from a few hundred meters above in the sky. Wonder at the natural landscape being manipulated by man for his convenience.
The smooth undulating hill is seemed to be covered with green woolen blanket just to protect itself from the cold weather. See also a few trees other than the shade giving silver oaks, looking beautiful with their own canopy.
You can see the clouds spreading above the tea gardens and a few small waterfalls turning into streams. They fall down and run here and there in between the blocks of the estates and go down to mix with the river far off in the plains.
SILVER SHINE OF TEA FACTORY!
Look at the tea factories located on the hill tops; their metallic tops are shining in the sunlight; they leave smoke in the sky demonstrating that they are active in the production of raw teas.
They are grown to a short height of about 4 feet for all the operational convenience of man. The tea plants are not really short bushes, but tall growing trees kept pruned. When you admire with the birds eye view of the plantation, come down and drive in a jeep and see the estates at a closer look.
BONSAI CULTURE!
You are right. It is a large scale "bonsai culture" of hundreds and hundreds of tea trees grown to a short height, not in earthen pots, but in Mother Nature's lap. The aim is not to exhibit the art of bonsai, but to exploit the nature to the advantage of man with the help of science.
TEA PLUCKING AND PROCESSING!
The tea plucking is a beautiful operation. Just walk and see the plants opening their ‘two leaves and buds' every where in the terminal shoots. They appear in all the pruned shoots, say in hundreds in a bush of tea.They readily allow the women harvester to pluck and put them in tea leaf baskets. Baskets of tea leaves are emptied into small trucks and sent to the factory for processing.
You can see the tea leaves being processed inside the tea factory. To explain in a simple way, the leaves are withered, fermented, roasted, graded through sieves into different sizes and packed in separate bulks in chests and gunny bags in convenient sizes. There may be about seven or eight grades of tea from each factory.
OLD AND NEW!
However, the raw materials are the very same "two leaves and buds". The processing methods are different and so also the resultant teas. The good old method of processing is adopted in some orthodox factories, while ultra modern method of CTC processing is done in most of the factories. There is also difference in making of the teas also.
LOOSE TEA IS BULK TEA!
The teas are now made available in the form of bulk teas. In other words, they are graded and kept in loose form in bulk quantities ready to be shifted to godowns of auctioneers for selling to big traders.
Now, let us see the loose teas in different grades or sizes. Now, the teas are in the custody of auctioneers and tea brokers. You may ask for those samples of teas. Get a shock, here. What a surprise? They give you samples of teas of different kinds and grades and also from hundreds and hundreds of plantations, estates or factories. To a new entrepreneur, really it is a shock and starting of a state of confusion!
TEA
IS NOT A SINGLE OR SIMPLE PRODUCT!
You thought that the packed tea is simply a single direct product; not so; all are not alike; when you make it as a tea drink, it differs every time; taste it sip by sip; feel the difference!
Only when you see the auction catalogues and samples, you will get astonished to see that there are hundreds and hundreds of varieties and kinds; again that all are not the same; they differ in their characters too.
Alright, there is something to know and something to do!
It is wonderful!
Now, you agree that there is a need to understand all kinds of teas,
in respect of their prime characters called, color, taste, flavor and strength.
WE WILL MOVE TO THE NEXT.
Please Note:
This information web site/blog will grow steadily.
However, you know 'time is money and the fittest only survives'!
As a research scholar, grower, planter, trader, retailer or a part of this prestigious tea industry, please contact the author to get more information at a faster way.
CONTACT: teablendspnk@yahoo.co.in or pnkguru@yahoo.com
RESOURCE:
From business and intensive research experience of the author.