The White Garden Rose
The elegant and majestic white garden rose is a symbol of purity, innocence and secrecy. Unlike its cousin the red rose; myth states the white rose was stained with blood or made to blush from a kiss.
It was the white rose, not the red rose that was originally the symbol for true love. However, today white roses are portrayed as angelic, while red roses are very much associated with passion and love.
The white garden rose is particularly well known for its aroma. The Winchester Cathedral variety fills the air with the fragrance of honey and almonds.
One of the most popular varieties of white garden roses, the Winchester Cathedral is a very strong rose and blooms extremely early in the year. The Fair Bianca white garden rose has a very unusual appearance, with a green eye in the centre and a very strong and spicy fragrance. The Fair Bianca is notorious for being disease resistant.
If you want to fill your garden with the lovely aroma of lemons then plant the madam Hardy white garden rose which fills the air with citrus fragrances. Or there’s the Queen Mary 2 which is a new rose of the Hybrid Tea variety named after a cruise ship and which smells just like bananas.
Rosa Kent Towne and Country white garden rose is a very small white rose standing at only two feet tall and wide. However just because it’s small does not mean it is weak. This strong little white rose battles through the winter months to bloom its semi double flowers throughout the summer.
Another white garden rose is the Panda Meidiland, another smaller white rose which has singular blooms and a golden centre. This variety doesn’t have a fragrance at all but is very good at fighting off disease and very easy to look after.
The White Flower Carpet is a white garden rose that only grows to two and a half feet tall but has twelve luminous white rose petals throughout the summer months. This rose grows very quickly and is mostly used to cover a large area quickly or as a white rose hedge.
A tiny little white garden rose called the Gourmet Popcorn, named because it resembles a popcorn ball on a stick has rich golden centres and is extremely popular with rose lovers. The Gourmet Popcorn white rose has miniature rose flowers but can reach to heights of three feet.
The Rosa Rugosa, otherwise known as the ‘Alba’ white garden rose has rich and fragrant blooms which burst into flower in late summer to autumn. The Rugosa varieties of white roses are extremely tough and are some of the most carefree, easy to grow roses. They are wonderful to look after because they don’t need much pruning and can push off disease easily. Another type of Rugosa rose is the Blanc Double de Coubert which also has a strong fragrance with 25-30 petals.
The white garden rose is strikingly beautiful as well as beautifully fragrant and is an asset to any garden.
