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Alba recommendations for NE US

15 years ago

i'm a newbie rose grower with a handful of OGR's. i've been interested in albas because of their fragrance, foliage color and disease resistance. i've had Mme Plantier, FelicitÃ© Parmentier, Semi Plena and Great Maiden's Blush for a few years, and they seem to do well for me. My only complaint is that i wish the bloom would last longer and i wish GMB's blooms wouldn't ball up so much (none opened for me this past year). i would like to get some more, but have been reading past posts from some of you who state that some albas are prone to black spot here on the east coast. i'm looking for some that aren't very thorny, get tall enough to allow me to grow a viticella clematis in it for late summer bloom, and if possible, to produce some hips like Semi Plena in the fall. What would you folks recommend? Thanks for the advice.

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Comments (7)

mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
15 years ago
It sounds to me like you already have the best of them. Madam Plantier comes the closest to your wants.

The only other one I have is Chloris, and you don't want to be anywhere near that one. It not only blackspots badly, but also balls.
olga_6b
15 years ago
Two Albas, that are not on your list, but are great here and in CT (I lived in CT before coming to MD) are Maxima and Konigin von Danemark. Maxima produces some hips, but much less then Semiplena. KvD doesn't produce hips in my experience. Both are super healthy and very fragrant. Maxima is much taller. KvD is only ~6 feet high here.
Another good one is Celeste. It is not as healthy as the other two, but still very good resistance in my experience. This one can be tall. Most years it stays clean, but some years it will get some BS and defoliate approx 50%.
Mme Legras de St Germain, Blanc de Belgic(sp?) - are beautiful, but get BS here, don't know about CT.
Alba Amelia and Chloris are very BS prone here.
Olga
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rjlinva
15 years ago
I would add that KvD and Celeste are both rathy thorny to me. But, they've been wonderful.

Robert
veilchen
15 years ago
In my garden, my albas are the only roses that DON'T get blackspot.
thorngrower sw. ont. z5
15 years ago
I'm in the great lakes region, Zone 5. Kvd is bullet proof here, very thorny, never any black spot, and doesn't ball in wet weather, 6-7 ft. Mme legras gets black spot here nearly thornless, very slow grower for me about 6 ft. I've wanted to take her out but the blooms are too beautiful. I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. Celestial is fairly new for me, this will be its 3rd year, so far so good. It's been clean and a good grower. I have alba maxima on order so i'm looking forward to having a new addition to my alba collection.

Thorngrower
macarius
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the responses all, but man, i'm disappointed to hear about Chloris, Celestial, Mme Legras de St. Germain and Blanche de Belgique suffering from black spot.

Are you spraying any of these in your gardens? Are you finding that black spot seriously debilitates these roses or just makes them look a little disheveled? Imperfection i can live with, but twigs with thorns i can do without.

Finally, i read somewhere that Maxima reverts (or sports?) back to Semi Plena. Have any of you seen that happen and is this extremely rare or fairly common with this rose? Thanks again.
patriciae_gw
15 years ago
I am not your climate but we get plenty of blackspot. Stay away from Armide-I get good early bloom from it but all the late flowers tend to ball and it spots badly-has a long bloom though. Princess de Lamballe is really good-not too thorny and a nice long bloom here. It grows very upright and bushy. Another good one is Jeanne d'Arc. Similar to Mme Plantier but smaller-an arching grower with very white fragrant flowers. Blanche de Belgique is very good for me too.

patricia

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