Sweet Melody (a color sport of Pierrine)
Remembering Dee (a color sport of Madeline Spezzano)
Whirlaway
Leading Lady (white w/pink blush)
Miss Pearl (white w/pink blush)
Snow Bride
Innocence
Irresistible
Marie Jeannette (sport or Irresistible)

Anyone have any experience with, and opinion of, any of these or their sport partents? Please share. : )
Any other whites I should check out?

Thanks,
Mike

The pics of this one are incredible and one of people you need to ask an opinion of who's grown it a long time is Digger. You wouldn't be sorry growing this one.
Leslie

Other whites I grow that aren't on your list:

Moonlight Scentsation
Sandy Lundberg

Some roses are white and others just fade that way. Sweet Melody is supposed to be apricot, which I can't ever say I've seen. My Irresistible and Marie Jeanette both succumbed this past summer. Both wanted more shade than I could give them. Irresistible is quite beautiful on the show table but mine never had that touch of pink and oft-times had more of a green tinge. MJ didn't last a full year but probably would have with a shade structure.

Moroseaz, funny you should mention Linville. It's currently 1 of only 2 whites I have. Linville is a champ; My only rose out of 3 dozen to be covered in blooms when I returned from 6 weeks forced evacuation from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The only rain that whole time came about 3 weeks into the exile when Hurricane Rita to the west sent some rain feeder bands over New Orleans. Anyway, Linville impressed me so much then that I have to keep it from now on. Another perk is the change to icy pink slightly larger blooms in mid-winter. A surprise variation that's a fun change. My other white rose is the nearly-out-of-commerce Neige Parfum, a HT I got from Vintage a year ago, which smells divine but has only produced about 4 blooms in the past year and is still no more than a foot tall. I'm giving it another year probation to start growing and blooming.

I just find I have a lot of red roses, a fair number of mauves, a few yellows and apricots, a couple pink blends, and I "need" another white or two. I actually bought Peter Cottontail last November, but the plant has taken its time and bloomed 1 not-so-shapely pale yellow bloom about 6 weeks ago. I think it's either mis-labeled or the first bloom just wasn't true to form, which happens sometimes. Anyway, it has a few new little green buds on the baby plant. As does another plant I bought at the same time that was supposed to be the burgundy and yellow-striped Memphis Music. I've been anxiously awaiting it to bloom. Just today I started to see petal color thru the sepals of "MM." and Oh NO! It doesn't look dark at all. So I'm wondering if that is another mis-labeled plant. Maybe it will be the Peter Cottontail that the first plant was supposed to be. If none of them is the dark striped rose I paid for, I'm writing the nursery, or calling, or both. Anyway, I'm also waiting for a baby Ingrid to bloom, and I'm really just going to have to see how everything looks before I finalize plans for what to order this fall. I don't buy roses in the summer, as the shipping conditions get way too hot for the poor baby plants down here. October is a better time.

Mike

My Linville impresses me both because it blooms very nice in the heat but also because it never seems to have thrips. Could be because they're chowing down on Marilyn Monroe, lol, but I also noticed that Fabulous!, the J&P floribunda, and Pillow Fight don't get them either.

I have to apologize for my comments on Peter Cottontail. The first misshapen yellow bloom turned out to be just one of those early "practice" blooms. It took a little time to establish, but by this mid-autumn it's produced some wonderful big, ivory-yellow blooms, perfect hybrid tea shape and floribunda size. Not very many blooms yet, but they have each lasted one-and-a-half to two weeks on the bush. Pretty darn good. I wouldn't call this rose white, though. To me its more yellow and less white than, say, Fairhope, which is classed as a yellow.

Moroseaz, Linville is definitely a keeper for me. I've had one for 4 years now. I actually have a second one that's about a year and a half old. But Linville has not been pure white for me. That's probably your 100+ temps that give you white. Mine is antique white with a wonderful soft eggshell-pink blush to the centers, very reminiscent of how French Lace looks in cool climates (which is dissapointing for me in my climate). In winter, Linville's blooms get bigger, close to 2 inches across, open more slowly and are the softest icy pink rather than white.

By the way, how's your Memphis Magic doing in Arizona? Mine is also nearing the end of its first year and has not produced a lot of blooms but HAS slowly but consistently produced gorgeous and long-lasting nearly black roses. One of my favorites already, just from its sheer beauty.

That Memphis Magic was nearly 18inches tall when I pruned it the beginning of February. It's thrown out two new canes since then, too. The hot pink singles it puts out in summer are rather weird but the winter blooms were very dark.

Linville tends to have a pink tinge when we have cooler temps but it's definitely pure white in summer heat.

The mini that really caught my eye this fall was Trickster. It threw so many perfect bi-color blooms, I was able to use them for table decorations for the office holiday party.

The local rose-it-all's told me Caliente wouldn't live a year here. So far, mine went from the two-leaf wonder into a lovely little rounded bush with some very nice blooms. It does get some shade from a patch/forest of Autumn Splendor, though.

Whirlaway kills at the shows here, although the climates of the exhibitors I know are drier than yours. I want that one too!