I used to grow Alba semi-plena (which I like a lot, hence my GardenWeb name, for another of the names of Alba semi-plena is "The White Rose of York") and grew it in the shade of my townhouse and a flowering cherry tree. It was on a southeastern exposure, but only got a few hours of direct sun each day. It didn't bloom at anything like full strength, but it still put out probably 80-100 flowers before it died during a winter with freaky weather (exceptionally, eerily mild through January, followed by an abrupt and brutal cold snap in early February).

You also should consider the Hybrid Musk roses. A number of them have a reputation for relatively satisfying performance when planted in shade.

Hello York Rose,

When did your Semi-Plena come into bloom? And would you be willing to share your growing zone information?

Thanks so much for your comments!

Best wishes,
Mary

I live on the coast ten miles north of Boston. The once bloomers (White Rose of York included) here tend to bloom in the 3rd week of June.

Check out Darlow's Enigma, too.

Well, that might put its bloom here around the middle of May, I'd guess, since there's also a good bit of difference in latitude between us. That will probably work with the deciduous trees' schedule for leafing out to fuller size here. Hopefully...

Not all once-bloomers bloom at about the same time for everyone, by the way; it all depends on the varieties you happen to choose. (Thinking, among others, of American Pillar. Book learning here, not from experience! These will be our first once-bloomers.)

Thanks again for your help!

Best wishes,
Mary

It would be presumptuous of me to comment on your growing conditions, climate, sun exposure, etc., but my first thought when I saw your post heading of "naturalizing on deciduous woods edge" was, as York_rose said, the Hybrid Musks. The form and habit of that class of rose would certainly blend well into that setting.

Randy

I have Crepescule in a slightly shaded area. It is trying to climb up the tree near it on it's own. I don't want it to do that, so I've removed the canes from the tree. But that one could be an option.

Well, one of the famous ones for tree climbing is Rosa filipes.

This is one of the filipes cultivars, "Kiftsgate".

Purezza blooms way more than once here in the Piedmont :) Granted, mine is in a suunny spot.

I have great luck with wichuriana and multiflora hybrids in my woods, but I can't think of any I have that are thornless or nearly so.

Well, here they are:

Evangeline
Blush Rambler
A found rose from the coast: A Cecile Brunner, Cl probably that blooms in sprays
Sebastopol Queen from Vintage (like Kiftsgate)

Morletti did OK but didn't bloom enogh in that much shade. Very thornless.

Wichuriana Curiosity has great variegated foliage in the shade! It didn't bloom much, though.

I haven't really tried others there.

Thanks so much to all your thoughts. You've set me onto a delightful reading trip looking up more about a bunch of roses. I've only been into roses for a year, but have a zillion terrific rose books, each with different little pieces of information, and of course, there's also HelpMeFind information and the various nurseries I might order from too.

In the end I've decided (I think! But nothing is done until it's done...) on two roses for this long woods edge. There is actually room for more, but this is probably enough to start with. One long single variety might be ideal in a landscaping way, but I'm also considering different uses in filling vases alongside other flowers in the yard at the same time. (We also have lots of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, and bulbs for cutting.)

The two choices are for Fortuniana and White Lady Banks. White Lady Banks fulfills every wish--thornless, leafy mostly evergreen, easy to grow, and blooming within the time when the sun hasn't started to be shaded out much by the leafiness of the deciduous trees. As a plus, Antique Rose Emporium says that deer don't particularly bother it.

I forgot to say that we have a significant deer problem here, but we're not going to spend the time or money to try to do all the anti-deer things for this naturalized planting that we do for the other roses closer to the house. The main, perhaps the only, disadvantage to the White Lady Banks, is that it's iffy in terms of winter hardiness here. Theoretically, it won't be hardy over the long haul. I'm just thinking that the conditions in this particular spot might be somewhat less prone to the deep, deep freezes below 15 degrees that are sure to hit at some point within a ten-year period. But we'll find out, I guess. ;) It's a small investment financially, and no further investment in terms of time and attention once it's supported in establishing itself when first planted. We won't be watering, weeding, feeding, etc. I'm just guessing that it will do fine anyway, though, just as that wild multiflora did in our woods.

The other rose will be Fortuniana. In terms of hardiness, it seems a pretty sure bet, and also fulfills the other criteria. Or almost. It's not thornless, but is relatively low in thorns. I don't know for sure that the deer will leave it alone, but I'm thinking that probably so, since it's fragrant and the deer, unless they're starving completely, don't like to risk being near very fragrant flowers that can cut off their early warning signs of predator dangers.

The differences between the two flowers will be noticeable, and after we see how they do, perhaps repeating one or both of them in alternates might work out in terms of the landscape. But their bloom periods might not overlap anyway; White Lady Banks blooms about a month earlier than most roses, and Fortuniana blooms with most of the roses. I'm thinking that the two of them combined might give pretty good coverage for combining in a vase with other flowering plants from the yard over a long period of time in the spring. We do have a couple of fragrant azalea varieties and a couple of fragrant rhododendrons but the vast majority of all our plants are not fragrant and these varieties will make a nice addition to vases with most anything. Azaleas and rhododendrons don't last terribly welll in a vase, so it won't matter if the banksia don't last well as a cut flower either.

The only piece of information that gives pause now is that Peter Beales, in his "Classic Roses" book shows them both as needing full sun. But to my mind, they'll be in close to full sun during the period they are first growing and putting on buds in the early spring. Influenced only by Peter, though, I'd probably tend to go with Mme. Plantier; he says that Mme. Plantier is suitable for a north wall. It's good for cutting, thornless, and does have some fragrance too. Mme. Plantier would work in every way, except that I find nothing to indicate that it might be evergreen like the banksias. Decisions, decisions...

Regarding Hybrid Musks, I love just about every one of them and have spent a ton of time looking up the very same varieties again and again, just imagining them here. If I only had one type of rose in the yard, those are definitely what I'd go with. We have a couple of HM's, and I have maybe 20 or 25 others on a wish list for various spots. I just want to go with something different here for this particular area, and whatever does go here has to be capable of sustaining itself with essentially no care. I can't say that that's my intention for any of the Hybrid Musks; as a matter of fact, I've already started pegging one of them. (And it went into the ground last April; this is just the start of the second year with roses here.)

Connie, I love gardenias and am drawn to any flowers that remind me of gardenias. I want the peony gardenia and the camellia gardenia, and now the rose gardenia too. I'm just thinking that I'll start with something with no or few thorns for this particular spot where my husband regularly walks nearby.

Buford, I don't have any noisettes yet, but I do plan to have them, probably starting with Lamarque and Madame Alfred Carrière, but I am drawn to Crepuscle too. I do think the noisettes might want considerably more sun that what is available for this woods area, though, so when we get some noisettes, they'll go into a little different spot.

Kiftsgate was one of the first roses I thought of, having seen so many positive remarks about it at the Beales' forums, and loving its flower form which, like dogwood flowers, would look terrific in our woods. However, it has the disadvantages of having thorns and also blooming significantly later than I'd hope for--meaning that it might not bloom well in the dense shade it would have to endure for too long before the buds open.

Meredith, I do mean to get Purezza sometime and may end up getting it for this spot too this spring too. It's just that if the ability to bloom later takes away any of its focus on going all-out for the spring flush, then a once-bloomer might work out better, since the spot is too shady to get any noticeable number of blooms past May anyway, even if the rose wanted to. And Purezza isn't as vigorous as the other two, so the quick screening effect with that choice is somewhat lower.

Thanks for mentioning Sebastopol Queen. I hadn't heard of that one but it's very, very appealing. I might find a place for it sometime, but probably this isn't the right spot. There's a gorgeous picture of Morletti in the Peter Beales' book, but he doesn't mention it for shade tolerance to any degree. And it's hard to say enough good things about Evangeline's looks; I've so many times stared at the full-page picture of it in the Scanniello & Bayard "Climbing Roses" book, wishing for that one. It's highly prone to mildew, though, and might be less than a sure thing in our no-spray yard. Blush Rambler looks perfect except that it's not noted for lots of shade tolerance. Cecile Brunner, Climbing, is likely easy to grow and there are spots here where it might do well, but it's noted that it's not heavy in foliage. Since we're looking for a screen, something with more foliage would work better. I didn't have an easy way to find any information on Wichuriana Curiosity, but if it blooms with the bulk of the other Wichuranas, the bloom period is later for this spot than would be ideal.

Thanks to everyone for your input. I am very much farther along on the spring lists than just a day ago!

Best wishes,
Mary

P.S. By the way, Randy, your user name is extremely attractive! I have that rose on the list for this spring for an area with some sun, near the other teas.

Oh! Why didn't I think of this sooner! Rosa eglanteria is a big hulking monster of a rose, and not at all refined looking. It's the sort of rose that immediately reminds me that roses are briars!

Having said that, if you have room for a big rose hedge the eglantine rose is fragrant even when it's out of flower. The leaves smell of green apples, especially when they are wet and the water is drying off in the sunlight.

Eglantine has an extremely appealing looks for woods and I can almost smell the apples from here! But for this spot I'm hoping for few thorns. Thanks for reminding me of this one, though... it's a very pleasant reminder!

Best wishes,
Mary

I'll note that Evangeline and Blush Rambler behave exactly the same in my shady spot. I have them right beside each other :)

I'll check for evergreenery or semi-evergreenery in the next couple of days, actually. I am near Winston-Salem, so yours should behave like mine.

BTW, if you need cuttings of any of my monster roses, just let me know. I can give you a few yards!

Meredith, you are most kind. I'll certainly remember your offer and may well eventually want to take you up on it. Right now my plate is full, very full. We are working on trying to recover/replant a huge area of our yard that a car totally destroyed in driving into it from off the road (at apparently pretty good speed).

We lost, among many other things, a 35 year-old rhododendron tree (yes, rhododendron tree!) that broke my heart. I'd highly, highly recommend that particular variety of rhododendron, if you like rhododendrons. Buy 'Mother of Pearl' if you ever get a chance; it's more drought tolerant than most rhododendrons and you can smell its fragrance on its zillions of blooms just by walking near it. It's a lighter sport of rhododendron 'Pink Pearl' and that one might be just as desirable.

Well, some new roses and camellias are going to help me recover from that loss here... :)

Thanks so much for your help and information, Meredith!

Best wishes,
Mary

Mary, 'G. Nabonnand' has been a very enjoyable tea rose in my garden. I'm glad you're going to give him a try.

Randy

It's so good to hear your satisfaction with G. Nabonnand, Randy. I'm thrilled with everything I know about that one, including the pictures on HMF and what Antique Rose Emporium says about it.

As an old-time tea person (having had two teas since way back in October 2009... ;) I'm rather thrilled with my two little teas: General Schablikine and Mrs. Dudley Cross. No blooms yet, of course, but their foliage is so pretty and they look very attractive in the landscape. Besides the G. Nabonnard, I am figuring now on a General Gallieni and probably another General Schablikine for this spring. And perhaps a Duchesse De Brabant and Madame Berkeley. I can envision a vase filled with those roses right now...

Best wishes,
Mary