What type of rose do you prefer? I have so many whites and blends. And I am in Chicago, which is tougher. Love blanc double de Coubert, pope John Paul 2, Anastasia, Bolero, Tineke, JFK, Crysatlline, Snowbird, Majesty, and so many others. Whites can be a challenge.

I don't grow it, but lots of posters on this forum recommend Pope John Paul 2 as a wonderful white hybrid tea. Tineke is another good one.

Kate

So far I love the floribundas & hybrid teas. However, I am starting to look more at the antiques and do not yet have any. I also like the nice blends.
Thank you for the suggestions Susan and Kate!

Rene:

kate has already given you two recommended HTs. We grow both and I can only second those recommendations. - "PJP2" has the added advantage of very nice fragrance.. "Tineke" tends to be a bit tender, but based on your zone it should be OK for you. "White Sail" is another fragrant white HT that has been recommended for warmer zones.

We don't grow any white floribundas ourselves, but 'Moondance' has been highly recommended.

As far as OGRs are concerned, you should not have any problem finding a white one. There are many good white OGRs (we grow a few ourselves). But be aware that OGRs tend to grow very large and may take up a lot more space than a typical HT or floribunda. Suggest you post on the Antique Rose forum here - I'm sure you'll get many suggestions.

This post was edited by nickl on Sat, Jul 6, 13 at 11:18

A closeup to show what type of discoloration you are getting would be helpful. Some white roses turn brown when they fade, and hang on the bush. Many are susceptible to botrytis petal blight in our frequent cool rains. This fungus causes moldy brown spots, rotting of the outer petals, buds sticking together and failing to open (balling), and, in some varieties, pink spotting. Also most white roses readily show damage from thrips, which cause brown dry petal tips and a scratched-up, scruffy look.

I like the OGR 'Kronprinzessin Viktoria' which is resistant to botrytis and a great bloomer. It gets 4' high and wide but can be kept a bit smaller. KpV is more resistant to blackspot than white HTs but benefits from spraying here. 'Bolero' has a very beautiful and fragrant flower. A compact grower, it is somewhat resistant to BS but susceptible to botrytis. 'Katerina Zeimet' is a nice, low-growing polyantha with many small, fragrant flowers.

Decades ago, when it was colder, I lost several white HT and Fl to winter kill, so I got out of the habit of replacing them. I think all white HTs will need spraying. I haven't grown PJP. 'Tineke' was resistant to botrytis. 'Garden Party' is a tough and beautiful old HT that is winter-hardy.

I second the recommendation of Pope John Paul II as a perfectly white, exhibition form HT. It's the best white I've seen.

I've had Crystalline for years, it certainly has outstanding blooms that are perfectly white and with wonderful fragrance, but the bush sucks. 10+ years on it and it still won't bloom without having to support the stems. It's also a BS magnet and has to be sprayed consistently.

Thank you all so much for all of these recommendations. Michael, below is a picture of what the petals look like today. I really have not done much pruning this week due to all of the rain...and that may be my biggest problem. ? Garden party is on my wish list. Since it is pretty tough, that may be the one I need, as a newbie. Again, thank you all so much!

I would like to suggest Guinevere. This is my favorite white rose ...always in bloom...no black spot...no brown edges. I don`t hear much about this rose and I don`t understand why. As a mature bush here,it grows 3-4ft tall and 3 ft wide. I also love PPII and Bolero. My Garden Party is a beautiful rose also. Good Luck with your choice. I love a beautiful white rose!! Lesley

René, I see why you are unhappy with that rose! The brown spots could be botrytis fungus, worst in cool rainy weather.

lesmc, are you recommending the rose sold by Heirloom as "Queen Guinevere," aka HAReasy, Sir Galahad, and Great North Eastern Rose? I am not sure which is the official ARS common name. Harkness has released several roses named "Guinevere," but Heirloom applied the name to this rose.

I have never heard anything about HAReasy (or whatever) and would be glad to get details of your experience, or others' experiences, with it.

Rene, you need to seriously deadhead.

Some of my whites.

Yeah, not happy with them at all. I usually cut them back in the evenings, except for this week. However, these roses turn brown very quickly & do not keep a nice bloom for any length of time. Susan, I think I am slowly giving up on these and have paid attention to my prettier roses in this rainy mess... prioritizing. I might go ahead & dead head in between the next set of showers; They do look horrible :(
Thanks a bunch everyone!

Those are very pretty, much closer to what I want!!

michaelg....the rose I am speaking of is a floribuna rose by Harkness sold by Roses Unlimited.I am not familiar with the Heirloom rose you mention. I am not as knowledgable as most of the rose growers on this forum, just know what works in my garden and Guinevere has been outstanding. When first opening there is a pink tint which quickly disappears. The blooms last a long time on the bush and when cut. Bloom,bloom,bloom. Hope this answers your question. Happy 4th! Lesley

I have a floribunda (I think) called Sans Souci that is a very nice white most of the year here. She works no-spray! The flowers last nicely on the bush. That impressed me.

In cool whether, she is apricot/cream in the center. But she's white most of the time (here).

I don't know her final height yet. I'd say at least 4 ft, but I don't know if she'll make 6. Great rose, though :)

Garden Party? Not really a white when it gets blushed with pink fairly consistently. Mine does OK:
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;-)

Oooooh for Garden Party above!

I looked up Sans Souci, and I have the Barni floribunda from RU, yes. Mine'll be at least 4 ft, but YMMV :) Great rose! Nice form and stays that way a while.

Iceberg is nice, too! Those are all the 'specimen' whites I grow. I recommend noisettes and 'groundcover' roses like Alba Meidland (that one is really great as a 'landscape rose'), but for bigger blooms, I recommend the Barni Sans Souci out of my limited experience with whites.

For an OGR that works in modern beds, I love Coquettes des Blanches (one of those words is singular, but I forget which). She's a Bourbon, but her repeat is awesome and she's very healthy. She starts out the most gorgeous barely-pink, but that quickly changes to white all the time here. Mine isn't fully grown, but in 2 years she's not shown any monster tendencies. I'd say she doesn't last as long as Sans Souci, though. She has those thinner petals. I recommend her highly, and she's white more times of the year than Sans Souci.

This post was edited by meredith_e on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 22:15

I have PJP and I am very happy with it. Got it from Jackson and Perkins 2 years ago

I highly recommend the floribunda Moondance pictured here. It has clusters of large creamy white flowers that hold their color and stay fresh looking for a very long time. It seems to be constantly in bloom. Mine is just over 5 feet high. It's my favorite floribunda and one of my healthiest and most carefree plants.

This year I am growing Kronprinzessin Viktoria that michaelg mentioned and can't comment much about her yet except to say that the flowers are exquisitely beautiful.

oooh, so many great roses to choose from! I am very glad to know of the ones that are doing well in the area too! I might have to take out the pitiful pink unknown next to my white. :-) Thank you all so very much, the responses are above what I was expecting!! I sincerely appreciate all of your input & pictures.

If you'd like to avoid diseases in general, then steer clear of the vast majority of Hybrid Teas.

Michaelg gave you two really good choices in 'Kronprinzessin Viktoria' and 'Katerina Zeimet'. Another nice Polyantha is Marie Pavie.

If I had to recommend a couple of whites, then they would be the shrub roses 'Escimo' and 'Kosmos Fairy Tale'. 'Petticoat Fairy Tale' is another very good creamy white rose. All three of these roses are hardy, vigorous, floriferous and exceptionally disease resistant.

Sugar Moon.
They have been very BS resistant here in rainy PNW and continue to bloom despite rain, holding the bloom for about a week on the plant. They bloom fairly continuously for a hybrid tea.I hear PJPII doesn't repeat well.?
As far i know, any white will get spots if hit w/rain.

OOOh and the scent is to die for (*got rave reviews at the recent rose show)

Yum......O

Both PJPII and Garden Party are beautiful but will have to be sprayed to be BS and/or PM free. Garden Party will get to the wanted height of 6 ft. but it's doubtful that the Pope ever will. It's growth habit for me has been short and wide instead of tall and lanky like most HTs.

Pop[ Warner is a nice white. Moonstone is a white with pinkish blends, Pascali. I live 200 miles south of you in Decatur

Polarstern is a great white rose for our area. I think it is classified as a HT, but its form is more a Grandiflora with multiple roses, usually 5, per stem. The blooms are high-centered. It is nearly a continuous flowering rose bush.

It grows to about 6' in our area. It has extraordinary hardiness for a rose this far north. It is scented. The bush is upright in form, which is what I prefer.

My roses have been decimated in recent years by Japanese Beetles, and the whites are particularly susceptible, as they attract the beetles which then spread to the other bushes. If you are not inundated with JBs this is the best white I have seen with an upright form.

Polarstern a/k/a Polar Star a/k/a Evita.

Apologies for lack of deadheading.

Polarstern

Here is a link that might be useful: Polarstern on helpmefind

Polarstern see link. This is just what it looks like without my poor photographic effort:

Here is a link that might be useful: Polarstern a/k/a Polar Star

My favorite white is Maria Shriver. Gorgeous grandiflora and the fragrance is heavenly. I did not like my PJPII -- it just wasn't vigorous. I owned Bolero and it did not do well for me either. This year, I added Winchester Cathedral after having Mary Rose for years and it doing well. We shall see. Good luck to you.

i am a rose lover. I added a new rose plant every year in my garden.My favorite white flower is Akito. It has a very goog fragnance and it looks very nice. i have this plant from last 3 years

My best white is Silver Anniversery (aka Karen Blixen). White flowers, healthy leaves and give lots of bloom. Flowers look very good too. Well worth checking out how it does in your area ;-)

I like the white Old Baylor - a Pioneer rose from the Antique Rose Emporioum - it stays healthy and blooms lots - a very tough rose.

For my light colored roses, I like to spray some of that organic insecticidal spray on the buds to prevent thrips, which can turn a light colored rose brown.

I have a young Pope Paul II that is quite healthy and has lovely blooms. If you want a climber, Lamarque is great.

I have a Kordes floribunda that's been excellent for me. It's from the "Fairytale" series and it's called Kosmos. It makes a big, frilly, old-fashioned type bloom that smells great and completely unlike any other rose I can recall. They start out tinged a flesh or blush color in the center and then fade to pure white, but last a long time.
The plant itself is extremely healthy. It's really helping turn me into a Kordes fan. It doesn't have the "wow" factor of a perfectly formed white HT like PJP2, but I would highly recommend it.

The Kordes floribunda is gorgeous! I have an area where I am only planting soft shades and this one will be perfect there. I will have to see how this one does in our area.
The Evita is a beautiful rose, I will need to look in to this one as well...and all of the others that are just as perfect. This search of a perfect white is going to be harder than originally anticipated! LoL....thank goodness I have until next spring to research and decide!!

If your zone is warm enough, the Noisettes have lots of great no-spray whites, Champney's Pink Cluster never stops blooming and is large clusters, I have 2, they can get quite long...also Prosperity is a great white, ,also Rock Hill Peach,,,a great China is Ducher.... all these are no-spray...sally

Fragrant Wave is also nice.

I like the hybrid musks Moonlight, a creamy white with good rebloom, Prosperity gets really big, repeats well, and Penelope. Penelope has apricot buds and can have a blush of pink or apricot that fades to white. For tiny blooms I like Lindee with dime sized blooms and good vigor. Makes a nice 3 or 4' shrub. Darlow's Enigma is a healthy, wild looking white. Lucille is a great bloomer, a small found rose with delicate, luminous blooms but bs prone. A friend gave me Sweet Afton , too early to say much. Another friend has Royal Highness , a mostly white ht with outstanding fragrance. I hear good things about Margaret Merril (sp?). I like the teas Angel's Camp Tea, mostly white, very fragrant with good rebloom. Also Madame Joseph Schwartz. I used to have Garden Party and liked it a lot..had pretty good bs resistance here, and bloomed very well. Moonstone is gorgeous. Martine Guillot is prolific, vigorous and healthy, mostly white.
What about Secret's Out?

My moonstone was soooo picky.

Try 'Prairie Star' a Griffith J Buck shrub rose. Has a strong apple fragrance and holds up well to rain with some red spotting of the petals. It holds up well in dry conditions also. It is, like all white or light colored blooms, Japanese Beatle attractor if you are affected by them. It will last a long time after cut and in a vase and with debudding produces a nice flower. It is a constant bloomer and will produce flowers on a nice long stem with disbudding.
I also have found success with HT Pascali.