‘La France’, in 1867, was the first hybrid tea rose to be hybridized. ‘Peace’, in 1945, was the first hybrid tea rose to be classified as a hybrid tea rose. Yes, it took quite a while.
Afterward, hybrid tea roses became very popular both for the cut flower industry and home gardens from the 1950s through the 1980s. Because of their single bold flowers that bloom on tall and sturdy stems from spring until autumn, they are still very popular as florist flowers. However, more florific floribunda roses became more popular for home gardens through the 1990s. Since the turn of the Century, all sorts of simpler shrubby roses, such as carpet roses, became more popular than all of the other types of roses. Hybrid tea roses and other types that produce comparably exemplary cut flowers require more specialized maintenance than most people want to commit to. Sadly, hybrid tea roses are now passe.
‘Proud Land’ was the first of the hybrid tea roses that I installed into my mother’s new rose garden in 1984. It came from Jackson & Perkins while Jackson & Perkins was still based out of Medford in Oregon. Unfortunately, it suckered so profusely during its first season that I wrote a letter to Jackson & Perkins about it. Jackson & Perkins generously replaced it for the following season. Also, my mother, who was unaware of the replacement, purchased another replacement. As if that were not enough, I managed to abscise all sucker and burl growth from the original while it was dormant for the following winter. So, three individual specimens of ‘Proud Land’ bloomed at the center of the small rose garden for 1985, which was the year that I graduated high school.
Technically, hybrid tea roses are at their best after about five years, but should probably be replaced before about ten years. ‘Proud Land’ continued to perform though, with no indication of deterioration, until I finally removed them in 2020. They live here now. I grew a few ungrafted copies from their pruning scraps. I should properly graft a few copies also. Realistically, there is no need to retire the originals.
Some consider hybrid tea roses to be passe. I consider them to be historical.
Tony Tomeo 
Count me among those who dream of growing hybrid teas. My father grew beautiful ones in the 70s in our zone 4 garden! Peace and Tropicana are two I particularly remember.
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Tropicana! I remember how popular that was, and that Brent grew it in his Mother’s rose garden in Southern California. I was impressed by how well hybrid tea roses performed with less chill there.
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My parents’ house in SoCal has a hybrid tea collection planted in the 70s that is still going strong! They grew so tall and seemed to be perpetually in flower though I know my dad wasn’t doing much more than watering them. I’ve been trying to start my own rose collection here, though the care involved is a lot more complicated with cold winters!
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I found it to be easier with cool winters, and thought that it would be even easier with cooler winters. This is a great climate for them, since it gets cool enough for good dormancy, and the summers are warm and arid. Roses do not get as much dormancy where the winters are milder in Beverly Hills in the Los Angeles region. They do not seem to stop blooming. I do not like pruning them while they are still foliated.
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Admittedly, I didn’t even know they needed dormancy or you were supposed to prune them any other way until I moved away!
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I sort of wonder how they get pruned in San Diego, Southern Florida and Hawaii.
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The same way we handled them in southern OC, I’m guessing — judiciously take off the top third some time in January and hope for the best! By the time I took over garden duties in middle school, all the plants were far taller than me.
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The primary problem that I encounter with roses, and the reason that most people believe that they are difficult to grow, is that they do not get pruned enough or properly. I believe that I learned about that because I grew up with the last remnants of orchards within the Santa Clara Valley. Before they were abandoned, prior to their removal, such orchards were pruned very efficiently. I learned, from people from climates with cooler winters, that roses benefit from the same sort of pruning. It concentrates resources and removes the growth that pathogens overwinter in. Nowadays, no one prunes roses, and expects their so-called ‘gardeners’ to shear them like hedges. All their diseased foliage falls to the ground below and stays there to infect new foliage in spring.
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