I think MP too.

'Marie Pavie'

Thanks!

Now to decide between Marie and Sophie's Perpetual....

Let me help you decide. Here is Marie Pavie.

Yes, Marie Pavie. I love her! Very fragrant, clean and always in bloom. Carol

The roses will be going in these two Chinese pots.

Marie would look stunning in those pots! She reminds me of fine Chinese porcelain. :-)

Marie Pavie is a rose I have bee eyeing for long but I don't know if she can tolerate alkaline soil. I do have bitter experience from other polyanthas like The Fairy. Does anybody have an opinion about this?

Marie Pavie will probably get chlorotic in alkaline soil. They would need special attention to address that.

Beautiful examples of MP, Adam!

Thanks, Noseometer. Do you have actual experience of this or are you just assuming (as I do also)? I'm sick and tired of providing 'special attention' to plants that become chlorotic in my soil..

I have quite alkaline soil here. My MPs do get mildly chlorotic, but never all that bad, nothing like as severe as some of the HPs and rugosas I have tried.

Here in California they grow big, easily 5x5 feet if you don't prune to keep them smaller. A friend visiting from England was stunned by how big they get here. Where she lives it is a mannerly little shrub around 2.5 feet high. She was even more shocked by Perle d'Or which can grow 7x7, possibly more, though I do keep it pruned smaller as well.