Hi Mindy, I dislike the dirty look also and love white roses. I only have 2 or 3 that might qualify. Don't know if you have these already. The best for me is Bolero. It has a beautifully shaped bloom that lasts for a reasonable length of time. Blooms a lot and drops her petals before turning yucky. My other 2 are not as white as Bolero. They have the appearance of white when mixed with other colors. These are Lichfield Angel and Windermere. Both are excellent bloomers for me at least. Both drop their petals before turning dark. I'll be interested to see what other roses people may have that are self cleaning. This year I'm trying Desdemona just guessing that she will be fine and self clean before the dirty tissue stage.

Bolero....yes!! I had one several years ago. I loved it so much it still have a framed picture of it. I will need to get another one for sure! Thanks for the reminder, even though the picture is in my own house!!

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This is a common problem with a lot of white roses....they hold on to their petals which turn brown & very unsightly.....I've shovel prune a few whites for this problem also. One of the best whites I had was the florist HT 'Tineke'. No fragrance but good disease resistance and being a florist HT, the bloom lasted well.

Mindy, I can vouch for Bolero. Fantastic blooming machine that drops cleanly. Your picture is lovely, by the way. I have heard great things about Pope John Paul. I don't grow it, but many here do, and rave about it. Lisa

I was just going to put in a plug for Sugar Moon, Sharon! I adore this rose. Besides dropping its petals cleanly and being wildly fragrant, its blooms last a long time on the bush.

vaporvac, I don't know how long they last on the bush, because I am constantly cutting them for the house since they smell so good. They do last a long time in the vase.

It could be thrips. They love white roses. I have to spray the buds on most of my white roses.

I love Pope John Paul II! I have 9 PJPII rose trees and 1 bush in pots! I lost 2 grafted ones in the garden 2-3 years ago, so I grow them in pots now. I found a bargain $10 HUGE JFK in 3 gal pots this fall, like the blooms too.

Irresistible is a outstanding white rose. Although it is miniature in bloom size with miniature foliage that balances the bloom perfectly, it gets very large as a bush. It can easily get to 4' tall, and is rather upright, about 20" wide. Irresistible fits in among the hybrid teas in bush form like very few other minis can.

The blooms last an incredibly long time before they turn brown. Unfortunately you cannot depend on the petals dropping before turning brown, but the necessary dead heading is a very small price to pay for Irresistible's incredibly long lasting blooms. The blooms are very heavily petaled and very deep....outstanding dimensionality.

Moses, what a charming rose! How is the fragrance? You know about the most unusual varieties. Thank you for adding to my knowledge.

Yep, Sugar Moon is a winner.

Plant a PJPII anyway just for the incredible fragrance and cut every last flower for the house, then there will be no aging flowers in the garden :)

Buford, what do you spray for thrips? They destroy nearly all of my blooms, regardless of color.

I cannot detect much fragrance on Irresistible. HMFR lists it as having, "moderate, spice fragrance". Perhaps under different growing conditions than my Irresistible receives it puts out a satisfactory scent.

Some of the semi-doubles also have gold stamens which look dirty after pollination when compared to the unpollinated ones.. I don't think this is so noticeable when they have fetching, dark reddish stamens to begin with like Ivory Fashion or Jacqueline de Près. Then, getting back to the browning, there are some that do this but have other qualities, like Blanc Double de Coubert which is so fragrant, including at night, that one can put up with its defects such as browning on the bush. In this category might be Shailer's White moss, which is so amazing upon opening that who cares what the spent flowers look like? But I suppose you don't see these much in gardens for a reason. To enjoy then you would have to throw a viewing party at its absolute peak, whenever that may be, maybe even a viewing party for one person.

Jeff, I use orthene. I only spray unopened buds very carefully to minimize any effect on beneficials. Before I spray, I usually remove any spent or damaged blooms and put them in a plastic bag and seal them and throw in the garbage. I think this helps cut down on the population.

Thanks Buford.

To combat thrips, if you don't want to spray, I now use fragrancenutter's method. Spray oil on blue (they have to be blue) rubber gloves and put one on a stick near affected roses. Works a treat.

Moses, I have Irresistible (2008) and based on your experience, mine is a definite underachiever in blooms and size. Should I shovel prune it and get another one? Mine is stingy.

Beautiful white roses. Here's a bit of trivia I just read. The number one white rose in the Rose Parade in Pasadena is Akito, chosen for its high centered form.

Eaglelinkdlowers, all of those white roses are gorgeous!

Teka the Orthene that buford suggest is beyond amazing. She told me about it last year and when I started using it on the buds it was amazing. I only use it on the buds like she suggested and used my Bayer when needed on foliage. I will never use anything else. Thrips have been bad the last couple of years but last year was the worst. Give it a try!! Judy

Do you like biocolor white roses? 'Secret' has amazing fragrance.

If you also consider pastel colors, I was blown away by the amazing fruity, warm complex fragrance of a rose that I detected by wafting fragrance. I wanted iy and didn't care what the heck the flower looked like!

I tracked it to a David Austin rose called 'Jude the Obscure'. This is the last flower we had in 2016 before a strong Nov frost hit us.

I had a tremendous success using both orange and blue cups, sprayed with canola oil inside and oil. I just stuck sticks in the ground near the plants. I put out lots--the most susceptible roses had 2 or even 3.

I did re-spray the cups , and once I had a good "catch" I swapped them out.

My best white is a shrub rose called Easter Basket. It's from Meilland and is a non stop bloomer. Photos show a lot of pink around the edge, but I don't get much of that here is my hot 8A climate of SE virginia.

EasterBasket is on my list of 'must-have' someday. But I find that pink edge so charming..

I know this lady who works at one of our local garden centers and she told me that people often shy away from white roses. She ask me if I know why as I love growing roses. When I think about it, I rarely buy white roses either. I prefer roses that are lightly coloured and eventually turn to white in the later stages. I guess I only envisioned white flowers in a white and green themed or night garden. White flowers in general would get lost in my garden as it is multi-coloured themed. I also feel that white coloured flowers in the heat doesn't do anything for me. However, I know that white colours do stand out in shady areas or in the evening.

I have to say I wasn't into white roses before, because the color doesn't pop in a garden among all kinds of pink roses, but after I started collecting more fragrant roses 2-3 years ago, without me knowing I somehow have a lot of white roses now for their fragrance, and ability to climb tall like PJPII, City of York.......

Do you know your car colors can tell your personality? Same thing with rose colors....... :-)

I do arrangements and the white roses do pop in arrangements. And some of them are quite fragrant.