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White rose?

sarinkasarinka Posts: 270
in Problem solving
I would like a white rose for a part of the garden with not much sun- a couple of hours at most. Healthy, not too sprawling, plenty of flowers and repeat-flowering if possible. Probably as a shrub though there is space for a trellis /obelisk if it needed support.

I am drawn to two classic roses- Winchester Cathedral (DA... dunno if it's droopy? Beautiful, though) and Iceberg, which was on stamps I collected as a kid and was bred by the breeder of my favourite rose (Lavender Lassie).

I'd welcome other rose suggestions or comments on Winchester Cathedral and Iceberg. Thanks.😊

Posts

  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    I love my two DA Desdemonas but not sure if they'd be happy with so little sunshine. In their second year they have grown to a very orderly bush form, but I suppose a lot is down to pruning. 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    Both of those like full sun so I think they would struggle. Kew Gardens is a good white one for shady spots - haven’t grown it myself but have heard good reviews of it
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • TackTack Posts: 1,367
    edited September 2020
    Funny, I just received an email from David Austin website plugging their roses suitable for a shady spot. Susan William-Ellis seems to fit your brief. I think someone on the Rose Season 2020 grows it so you can ask their opinion on there.

  • sarinkasarinka Posts: 270
    @Tack, i finally had time to look up Susan w-E, and she looks wonderful. Thank you very much for the suggestion. 

    Kew Gardens is also beautiful...

    Thanks all!
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    My iceberg climber does Ok in partial shade, possibly because there's more sun at the top of the fence. I'm not sure that a shrub would do well right down in the shade
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I used to have a group of 4 Winchester Cathedral in my front garden which is north facing but did get good sun in the summer.
    It was a nice rose with a good scent. Like many DA roses flowers did droop, after even a light rain shower.
    The strange thing was, often the flowers would have some pink petals and some flowers were half white and half pink - this happened every year.
    I had them for about 10 years, but then had my drive extended and they had to go.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • sarinkasarinka Posts: 270
    Thank you both for the input on both roses. I'm sorry to hear DC has that rain droop thing... it's a real black mark for me. I have enough droopy beauties in my garden.:)
  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    I have Susan Williams-Ellis in my fairly shady garden and it is a 'good doer' in that it repeats flowers even up to December, and has a very nice smell. Having said this, it has decided to change its habit in view of the shade and is sending very straight stems up to about 2m and flowering at the tops.

    Iceberg is famous for coping with shade, but it gets a lot of black spot and is often defoliated by the end of the season. 

    My frank advice--though this may not be what you want!--would actually be that perhaps a rose will not give you the kind of satisfaction you would want in a shady spot like this. For a good part of the year it will either not flower, not have leaves, or be flowering over the hedge in your neighbour's garden (the ultimate insult). But there are alternatives: for example, Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' would love the conditions you describe, and it flowers from July until the frosts. You could plant some white variegated foliage around it for spring interest, too.
  • sarinkasarinka Posts: 270
    I like frank advice! I was actually looking at a shade-tolerant thalictrum as a possibility, but that anenome you recommended is sweet.
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