But by the beginning of the 1900's, interest had already begun to wane. Introduced in France in 1837, as 'hybrid remontant', they were later referred to as hybrid perpetuals. Perpetual was a real misnomer since their recurrent bloom was still only twice seasonally - still more flowers than produced by their illustrious genetic ancestors, the damasks, hybrid chinas and bourbons. Their most important contribution to the rose world was their winter hardiness, a great improvement over their winter tender parents, and a hardiness that still exceeds the modern hybrid tea roses that usurped their place in rose gardens. The bushes are vigorous growers, having tall canes with an upright growth habit.
Some varieties have extra long canes, and the overall appearance is improved by 'pegging down'.
The foliage for the most part is dull, wrinkled, although some varieties have blue-green leaves while others have shiny smooth leaves, and some are nearly thornless. The many-petaled flowers are usually very fragrant and run the gamut of color from purest white, to pink, red and deepest maroon. Some varieties are edged or splashed with white or deep maroon. Interestingly enough, with the wide range of color shades, there were no yellows. In 1867, the first hybrid tea, ' La France ', was introduced, and it signaled a definite death knell for these Victorian beauties.