The morden roses are also named the parkland series. Under the parkland series, there is a white rose called "Morden Snowbeauty". The Cdn Rose Society says it's named as such because of it's snow white flowers. It grows 1-3 feet high and wide, resistant to black spot and powder mildew. I have never grown this one, but it might be your best bet if you must have a white morden rose.

How do rugosa roses do for you? The only problem is possibly chlorosis on our clay soils. There is a small rugosa in the Explorer series called "Henry Hudson". 1-1/2 to 2 feet high, 3 feet wide, with white blooms throughout the summer. Sometimes the blooms might have a very very slight pinkish tint.

Then there is the other Morden rose, "Morden blush". Not true white, but the blossoms often range from blush pink to ivory. In cool weather they are more pinkish, warm weather more ivory. It hits 2 feet high if that.

I have attached a link to the Cdn Rose Society website, it gives good descriptions of hardy roses.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canadian Rose Society

I was going to suggest Snowbeauty too. There was one in bloom at the nursery this evening - very pretty! I don't have it myself (yet!), because i wanted a larger white rose, and so i've purchased Blanc Double de Coubert this year.

If you don't have much snowcover, it wouldn't hurt to protect your rose. Glen gave me this idea last year - to place an opened cardboard box over the rose in late fall and fill it with leaves. The winter before, my Morden Sunrise had died back to the ground, but this winter she was fine. Neither of my Explorers need extra protection, though.

There is also Marie Bugnet (rugosa rose) that is so beautiful and the fragrance is rated as a 8.2 which is highly fragrant in standards. It also has double blooms which blooms from spring to fall, no rosehips on this one though.

Sharon

My vote is for Morden Snowbeauty as well. Planted Snowbeauty last year. It overwintered very well with just a bit of leaf mulch - very little winter dieback. No blooms as yet (too early) this year, but looking very healthy. Currently about 3' x 3'.
Margaret

Thank you all for the suggestions. I checked with local nurseries this past weekend and of course the supply is very limited now. I could have all kinds of pink. Roses shipped in from Canada are very expensive so I'll be doing some checking on mailorder sources over the internet.

Hi there,

I have a white Morden (Snow beauty) Rose. It started blooming nice and early (May) but it sent out long stems and the flowers ended up face down in the dirt. I was reluctant to prune because the flowers were only at the tips of the stems, but as soon as the flowers wilted, I pruned the long branches back. Now (July 5), it appears to have stopped flowering?! Any comments anybody? I live near Ottawa (Ontario).