St Francis Xavier

Anyone have any experience of St Francis Xavier? It's Australian bred and said to be a tea (though there seems to be some doubt about its parents). If you have, I'd love to hear about it.

I put it in last winter and love the flowers...not individually large but in clusters of dark purple-red flowers packed with petals and perfume. But so far its habit of growth is a surprise. It seems to want to be a ground cover and a very low one at that, so the flowers at the end of the shoots drag in the dirt. Is it going to continue like this as it grows and is this the natural habit of growth? If so, I'd better find a wall for it to spill over.

One of its parents is the rose sold as Francis Dubreuil, which is not the true Francis Dubreuil, and not a Tea. The other parent is Tea but as you say, there's confusion about which.
The bush at Renmark has remained small, as "Not Francis Dubreuil" does, but I'd say it was upright. Like many dark reds, it burns in hot sun, and would do better with afternoon shade.

Mine is about three years old and has stayed about 1.5ft tall. It's a stingy bloomer here. It is, however, doing better than "Francis Dubreuil". The one I received was virused, as was FD.

Thanks, Margaret. More by lack of sunny spots than good management, mine gets afternoon shade, so the blooms have been perfect, and there is no sign of virus, cross fingers. The plant is too small and new for me to comment on bloom frequency but all the shoots so far have been horizontal.

That's a shame about your "FD", Simon. I have it in arvo shade in the mountains and (in the years it is not swamped by surrounding vegetation) it blooms almost constantly during the season with wonderful scent. Shade seems to be key because the plant in the Parramatta Rumsey garden is in full sun and most years when I have visited has been pitifully burnt and unattractive.