Okay--another question for ya--have you considered miniatures, since you'd prefer something more mannerly? Many of them have fabulous bloom form that never collapses, especially if you're looking for that perfect, tight spiral. Most minis aren't that fragrant, but there are a few that are fabulous. I'm sitting outside right now, so I'll give you a rundown of some of mine that fit the bill: Voodoo - Tall & narrow grower. Lovely orange-juice colored blooms with yummy fragrance that are phototropic and change in sunlight to a screaming scarlet-orange. Pretty darn good disease resistance. Jean Kennealley, an apricot miniature. She has the bonus of fragrance, and gets pretty big for a mini. Spent blooms will flatten out & fade to nearly white, but I think she's spectacular. She's held a very high rating for a long time. Folklore is a hybrid tea with perfect spirals & yellow reverses to coral petals. Lovely scent, big shrub, good disease resistance. Grows taller than it does wide, at least for me. Gemini is a drop-dead gorgeous hybrid tea. New blooms open ivory with just a hit of a deep coral picotee, then it changes with sunlight to almost a completely coral flush. Mine like to pitch candelabras and I think that's due to the Grandiflora breeding line. Great scent. Flawless is a true, medium pink miniflora with a nice scent. It is very disease resistant for me & blooms like crazy, but it tends to have more decorative or frilly blooms than the classic high spirals. I love it nonetheless. I really want to recommend Secret, but I have to spray her to keep her happy. The scent and the blooms are worth it, though. It does not mind the heat and rain does not spot her blooms as badly as most of my other light-colored roses. How white is your white requirement? I grow Irresistible, another miniature. It has no scent, but oh MY!! The blooms retain their form for at least a week and a half, it grows spectacularly, it's very mannerly, and disease resistant. It is a bit cream-colored upon close inspection but looks white from a distance. Also in my white-ish category is World War II Memorial. It's technically a mauve, but from a few yards back it appears to be white. It has glorious scent, very good disease resistance, and I just cannot describe the way the blooms contrast with an almost forest-green set of foliage. The aroma is incredible. It does spot with rain, unfortunately, but it's one of the few whose spots aren't that unattractive. If we get rain while there are blooms present, it looks like a white rose with pink freckles. One of the hardiest I have is Garden Party, but I'd describe it as an ivory rose that likes to have pink petticoats every now and then. Very good disease resistance and AWESOME fragrance, but mine grows like Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. I think I witnessed her eating a rabbit this morning. [Or maybe it was that Swamp Tea.] All of these are repeat blooming, and I'd say that Flawless, Folklore, and Irresistible are the quickest to repeat. Gemini is sluggish, but when she blooms, she chucks out about 30 at a time. I live where blackspot pressure is very high due to silly nighttime cooling and condensation. I spray for blackspot, but these are the best of my 60 roses that fit your bill. And since I am too lazy to edit my post [Swamp Tea again...dangit], I totally forgot Tahitian Sunset. I am in love with this rose and put her in a bad spot where I can't admire her while on the deck. It is a skyscraper of a hybrid tea with apricot to pink blooms that have a perfect spiral, and the scent is unusual. It has been described as anise, licorice, myrhh....but everyone at work loves to stick their nose in her when I bring her in. Very, very good disease resistance. These are some of my faves, and if you haven't been over to HMF to check out people's rose pics I would encourage you to do so. There is no better enabler for rose buying than this website and that one, combined.

The Floral Fairy Tale, Cream Flower Circus, and Elegant Fairy Tale are light apricot that fade to cream, and they are quite compact (3' in my zone). Also, Lion's Fairy Tale is mostly cream for me and a large and pretty profuse bloomer. They're all heavy bloomers, reliably hardy in our zone 5, and supposed to be at least somewhat fragrant. They might be, but I can rarely smell most roses. As far as I can tell they last 5-7 days on the bush, but I don't tend to cut them so I can't tell in the house. The full petaled ones tend to be a little less long lasting in general. Here are photos of three of them: Floral Fairy Tale Cream Flower Circus Lion's Fairy Tale (mine was sold as Champagne Moment). It's usually on the pinkish side, but here it is last month in a white mood: Summer Memories is also a nice clean white and it has survived in the zone 4 pocket of my yard just fine. The photo is a little blurry, but the color is pretty true to life. Hope this helps! Cynthia

Hi Patty, I actually bought Peter's book as a preorder from Amazon after reading about him and his book in Fine Gardening. I gave him his very first Amazon review and got a very sweet thank you note from him! I love the book and he seems to be very realistic and non biased in his assessment of a rose's performance when guaging his assessments against the few roses I already had like Easy Elegance 'Centennial' and 'Julia Child'. I had purchased several roses prior to his book and was happy to see that many I purchased came highly recommended by him. I have 2 'Poseidon' and these so far have bloomed nicely and are very healthy, and performing as he stated. We both garden in same zones and similar conditions although he is more coastal ME and I'm more inland MA. I would love to see his gardens but don't know if they're open to the public. He's only about 2 hours from me so it would be great to meet him and discuss roses with someone who is so knowledgeable. Whiteout is interesting. I just bought (against my better judgement since it's so late in the season) 2 Radler Rambling Red Climbers from High Country Roses (gallon size so hoping they'll be well established) 2 own root Double Pink Knockout Roses and 2 Livin Easy from a vendor on Etsy. Keep your fingers crossed that we have a loooong fall, lol. It's always a gamble here on when old man you know who will arrive! Sharon

Looks like Turtlehead or Chelone sp. It has just about finished flowering. Not a shrub at all but an herbaceous perennial. Around here we seek out the White flowered species or Chelone glabra because it is the host for our beautiful Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.