Hybrid Tea Rose Uses

Technically, hybrid tea roses could be called hybrid-hybrid tea roses. Breeders created them by combining an existing hybrid -- the hybrid perpetual rose -- with tea roses from China. Today, gardeners plant hybrid teas more than any other rose variety. Their large flowers make them ideal for cut flowers, but the shrubs themselves are not as hardy as some other shrub roses. The home gardener and crafter will likely find hybrid tea roses useful for a number of applications.

Landscaping

The huge number of existing hybrid tea rose cultivars include choices suitable for hedging, as foundation screening and in decorative borders. The American Rose Society notes that only a small percentage of hybrid teas are suitable for landscape shrubbery, but recommends the hybrid tea cultivar Silver Jubilee for its hardiness, reliable flowering and ornamental foliage. The EveryRose.com data base lists a dozen hybrid teas cultivars as superior for hedging, including the orange Alexander, white Caroline Victoria, red Uncle Walter and pink Comtesse de Provence. Good cultivars for decorative borders include the red Colleen Mary and the light pink Julia's Kiss.

Cutting Garden

Florists and home owners alike celebrate hybrid teas for their use as cut flowers in floral arrangements and bouquets. Hybrid tea bushes reliably produce long-stemmed roses with large and colorful blooms. The rose database lists over 250 hybrid tea cultivars that make superior cutting garden plants. Nurseries offer hybrid tea roses in a wide range of colors, flower shapes and scents.

Fragrance Crafting

Select hybrid teas are rated as "exceptionally fragrant" by a rose society or a rose database. Fragrant roses translate into superior potpourri, wreaths and perfumes. Cultivars classed for strong classic fragrance include the pink and white Secret and the dark red Mister Lincoln. Some roses are bred to carry other fragrance notes. For citrus-rose scents, consider pink Elle Rose, white John Paul II, apricot 'Marilyn Monroe and lavender Barbara Streisand. For a spicy-rose fragrance, grow white and red Double Delight or white and pink Sheer Bliss. Fruity-rose scented tea roses include pink Louise Estes, pink and yellow Tiffany, the lemon-hued Mellow Yellow and the lavender Paradise Rose. Petals and buds work well in potpourris, while dried buds work best in wreaths and other dried arrangements. Infuse fresh petals in oils or perfume alcohol for use in home-crafted scents.

Culinary

Although rose-flavored food is somewhat exotic to American diners, roses are commonly used in other cultures. In the Middle East for example, rose-flavored Turkish delight candy is a centuries-old tradition, as is rose-petal tea, jam and syrup. Other food options abound for rose petals and rose hips. Infuse rose petals in water or cream as a base for sorbet and ice cream, or toss fresh petals in fruit salads and pies. While rugosa rose shrubs usually have larger and more abundant hips than hybrid teas, a few of the latter produce good amounts of the vitamin-C rich fruits. Consider Meg, a large-hipped salmon-pink hybrid tea. The red cultivar Slava and brown-red Georgie Lad sport medium hips. Use fresh rose hips in jams, jellies and syrups, and dried hips for teas.

Skin Care

Like all varieties, hybrid tea roses yield petals suitable for cosmetic use. Rose petals boast astringent and moisturizing properties, according to natural beauty author Jeanne Rose. The flowers boast a long history as beauty and hygiene aids. Professional-grade stills -- or improvised home stills -- turn petals into rosewater, which tones and hydrates all skin types. Alternatively, infuse rose petals in sweet almond or olive oil to create soothing massage oils, or in vinegar for use as deodorizing body treatments.