'Full Sail' is a white sport of 'New Zealand'.

Here 'New Zealand' had a rich and powerful fragrance and a lot of disease. It preferred cool weather. Summer flowers were few, small, and misshapen. If I lived in a cool-summer climate and sprayed fungicide regularly I would grow it.

The fragrance was absolutely superb. Otherwise, not so good.

In my experience, 'Full Sail' has a lot in common with 'Honor', another beautiful white Hybrid Tea. These two roses are incredibly beautiful -- but ONLY when conditions are close to ideal. I'd guess that these two varieties are very popular (and probably at their very best) in California. Elsewhere, they leave a lot to be desired -- at any rate, that's been my experience in two very different locations.

Good enough. Now that I know what zone I live in ( 6 ) what pure white do you suggest that is as beatiful as Full Sail? Thanks. Pembroke

Had Full Sail, Tineke, and Pascali. Have Pope John Paul II and love it.

Hi Pembroke, I am in Louisville and I LOVE white roses. I do consider them a challenge in my garden. Brown spots and insects are an issue. I have had excellent luck with Pope John Paul, Gwenevere, Bolero and Maria Shriver. Garden Party, Jardin de Bagadell, French Lace and White Ice do O.K. I do spray fungicide but no insecticides.I will be adding a second Pope John Paul this spring as this rose has been just about perfect. I am always open to others suggestions so I will follow this and hope to add more whites to my rose garden. Good luck with your choice. Lesley

I had Full Sail and it did not do well. I am in agreement that PJP is a better choice

I didn't have disease problems with Full Sail but it didn't bloom enough. I've had trouble growing white HTs in the past but I'm going to try some next year. The new hard has all day sun and all of the Roses did well this year.

I've killed an embarrassing number of white HT's, however, my JPII seems to be doing well.

Pope John Paul II and Crystalline are my favorite white HT's.
If you don't mind a bit of pink edging to the flowers you should consider Moonstone, Mavrik, Pop Warner, and Cajun Moon.
Moondance is a beautiful white floribunda whose bush gets 5' tall in my garden and has beautiful, large, and fragrant pure white blooms that repeat very quickly.
John

I first met Full Sail at a big garden center near Seattle. Among hundreds of blooming roses in pots, Full Sail gave a fragrance way beyond any of them. So I bought one and took it home over the mountains to a place called the Palouse, south of Spokane. Full Sail may do well in Seattle's dry and cool summers, but its dark side shows badly here. Fragrance is its only good quality. What few blooms it does have are almost always marred with brown dead spots, BIG dead spots, even as they open. It cannot handle an open (no snow) zone 6 winter. The bush is ragged and fungus-prone. Unless you can pamper this rose, try something else.

I had the same experience growing FULL SAIL as Abby did, here in my Spokane, Washington garden. Needless to say, it's been ousted! :p

In my garden 'Pope John Paul II is an outstanding white Hybrid Tea rose with a great fragrance. It stays a mannerly size maybe 4 x 4, which is nice, too. Highly recommended at least for a warm climate!

Christina

I've read reports that POPE JOHN PAUL II doesn't grow well on its own roots.

I had both Full Sail and Honor and they're both gone now. Full Sail had a lot of trouble opening in my humidity and Honor was a disease magnet.

I now have Pope John Paul II grafted on Dr. Huey and even grafted it is not a vigorous grower at all. The blooms are lovely and do open well in humidity, besides smelling so good, but the plant is 3 years old and still very small and it does not repeat often.

I didn't participate in the first survey, but want to bring up an old (1910) HT: 'Mme. Jules Bouche'. This Tea-like HT is extremely easy and good in my Mediterranean conditions: Zone 8 temperatures, dry warm summers, wet mild winters. It has extremely lovely blooms, white with a touch of honey at the center, on rather thin stems. It's fragrant and sturdy on its own roots, is a tough and frugal rose, gets a little mildew in summer but isn't bothered by it. It builds up in time to a substantial bush: I don't think hard pruning would suit it. I don't know if this is the kind of rose you're looking for, or how it would do in your climate, but think it worth mentioning since so there don't seem to be any perfect white Hybrid Teas.
Melissa
P.S. Oops, I went back and re-read your message and saw you want a PURE white HT.

This post was edited by melissa_thefarm on Thu, Feb 13, 14 at 1:57

Here's a pic of my FS taken today. No blooms yet but it does have a good baker's dozen of buds. I've had a "no spray" garden in the past but this year I did use Bayer's 2 in 1 on just my white roses as I hate what insects here do to the blooms.

A bit late, but I would like to put in a word for PJPII; It is new, as it was bought about 7 months ago as a grafted container plant,( not sure what on, they tend to be a bit vague about that over here) . It has been rather vigorous,putting on a lot of growth and flowered very well- no balling or manky petals at all, and they just kept coming. It was one of the few plants that didn't blackspot here in spring. It did get a bit set back over the heat of summer, but then again due to record breaking temps and lack of rain,(including one 5 day heatwave of over 40 C arghh) so has everything else in the garden.

Another vote for PJP, but only if it is grafted. VERY slow to please as an own-root.

Full sail balls up for most of the year in the pacific northwest. Some nice blooms come August. I would not recommend