I love Albas. I have most of Pickerings.
Although, I have killed off several Mme Legras de St Germains for some reason (blackspot?), Albas do very well in Iowa with just about no care. The only one here I haven't grown is Blush Hip which I just thought about ordering. It is in my cart!!! 1,2,3,4----
GMB is one of my FAVs along with Félicité Parmentier. Nuts! They are all great as long as you have the room.
I had them growing in dappled sunshine along the bank of our stream.
The ground hogs had an underground city underneath which was all washed away during our Spring flood. I picked up the plants from the creek bed, trimmed them back to 3' of root and the same for cane and planted them in one of the last veggie beds. They made it through the hot summer. I will see how big they get with some sunshine! At least there are no houses to eat down there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Armide is a smaller Alba.

I don't have GMB but I've had this fascination with it for years because, as far as I've been able to tell, it has the MOST pseudonyms of any rose on HMF, lol! 32 alternate names! Lovely photos too. Hmmm...how big does it get in cold climates I wonder?

I got gmb coming in spring. And a lot of band size albas can't wait for them to grow.

I'm replacing an own-root GMB with a grafted MB. Smaller, so will fit the space better; and grafted, should not be prone to wanderlust. The own root plant suckered pretty badly.

Rosefolly

It's these little details that make a huge difference, thanks Rosefolly (love the name) for letting me know i have to be prepared for sucker space. The reviews and books don't always tell you stuff like that - then once it's too late after planting, the garden re-arranging becomes endless, moving one thing leads to another. All I have is a tiny garden space with my apartment, and had to plant half of my garden to fill the neighbors front yard. This year God willing, I'll continue around the corner to the next neighbor who is also not strong enough to plant her own garden. Funny thing is my plants all grew better at the neighbors.
Bman I'm excited for you to get your Albas, now I'm trying to guess what you ordered. I've wanted Felicite Parmentier for years. Maxima has an exceptional high rating, hope you have good thorn proof leather gloves if you get it. I ordered Konigan Von Danemark, you reminded me I can't stand the wait ...
Seil, let's both buy GMB and give it a couple more names.
Iowa Jade, you make me wish i had not left the ranch we had years ago that had a creek and wild roses by the mailbox. I'd even be glad to have the prairie dogs back as part of the daily battle of survival in the country.

My son-in-law is on my case for a Alba I bought my daughter for their ideal wild patch at their former home. I had no idea she would move it to their stamp size city garden plot.
He advised it was not vase shaped. I advised him that it was, he just had to go to several yards away to get a proper look at the beast. I advised him I would help shovel prune this art form after it finished blooming in the Spring. 1 1/4- 1 1/2 ' at the base 6-8' at the top wide and about 10-12 ' tall. It should be fun digging up. At least there are no thorns.
Albas only bloom once a year, otherwise you are looking at a lot of green, healthy though it may be. They also have a fair size footprint. I have a Alba Semi-Plena that is left in the creek bed. It has about a 18' -20' footprint with its' arching canes. This is a grafted rose that mutes to a large extent any suckering.
Perhaps David Austin developed his line of roses because he liked the bloom form, scent, but wanted to drag out the blooming time through out the year. People still complain about the footprint of many of his roses.
I still like Albas, but I have the space for them.
Foghorn Leghorn
I A G L

Here is a link that might be useful: Chloris

Damask, I've wanted to get it for a long time but I'm on a suburban lot and just don't have the room for it to really show off.

I don't have room either Seil, I figure if the little starts are in pots lined up along the walkway , by the time they are bigger maybe I will know what to do with them. That's how far gone I am, to be willing to squeeze past thorns every day. Two more months to knit myself chainmale armor before the roses arrive.
You possess way more sense than i do to resist the Spring fever rose buying "just one more".
It could be worse, people buy expensive cut flowers all the time and toss them out after a few days. I just happen to buy a dozen roses by the bush. In theory it's more practical...
If you happen to read this Iowa Jade, how did you know I would find Chloris shockingly beautiful, I gasped at the photo on HMF.
Thanks to this forum we are boosting the economy keeping all the rose nurseries rolling in dough.

I heartily recommend 'Felicite Parmentier'. One of my favorites amongst the OB-OGR's. Sweet and mannerly.

One alba I have never grown but would like to someday if we ever come to live in a climate with colder winters than we have here is 'Alba Semi-Plena'. I'm not planning to buy any more of these roses as long as I live here. Much as I like them, they really are not well suited to my low chill climate. Sometimes they are robust at first. Then they limp along and slowly, slowly, very slowly, dwindle. It would make you cry to know how many have died or been removed. I seem to be a slow learner.

Still, I have thoroughly enjoyed this experiment of more than a dozen years, and am glad I did it. Tomorrow I hope to plant my final purchases, grafted replacements for three OB-OGR's which I originally grew own root: 'Tuscany Superb' (Tom's favorite), 'Rosa Mundi', and 'Maiden's Blush'. Also in my garden grow 'Leda', FP, and 'Ispahan', these three own root. Up until this time they have been well-behaved.

Rosefolly

Damask 55 I ordered felicite parmentier, great maidens blush, suaveolons, mme legras de st. Germain, belle amour, pompon blanc parfait, blanche de belgique for spring. I planted bands of maxima, konigin von danemark, chloris , semi-plena, blush hip, celestial, mme plantier last season. They will be mixed in with damasks along the highway at the edge of my front yard.

I almost fell over backwards after reading the last two posts -had to go make an extra strong cup of tea.
It still amazes me to hear of the experience and rose collections the forum writers have obtained. Some of the roses you named I'll have to research more, can't wait to dig in.
This likely will mean a total re- revision of my buying list.
Last Summer my son's 4 year old hopped out of the car, ran past me over to the flower garden and exclaimed in her little girl voice
" Oh, pretty ! "
My knowledge of roses is pretty limited, but that is the results i'm striving for.
I'm grateful for all the info,funny stories, trials and triumphs you shared with me. We will make little Lizzy a 5 year old rose authority.

We have a real cold winter this year. Im hoping my first year alba bands make it. They are all buried in snow at the moment. If they make it through this rough winter as first year bands . They should live for along time.

Damask55
I am indeed a fortunate that I love pink blends. I am so ready to play in the mud again.
F.L
IAGL

I have grown several Albas (Blanche de Belgique, Blush Hip, Chloris, Félicité Parmentier, 'Great' MaidenâÂÂs Blush, & Königin von Dänemark). When I designed my current garden I used Alba roses and hydrangeas for a lot of my great foundation planting spots. They may only bloom once-per-year, but they are worth the prime garden real estate for their toughness and beautiful blue-green leaves alone (well, those flowers don't hurt ofc).

I love each that I've met for different reasons (though I don't have the KvD any more and did choose to leave her behind in the end). Great Maiden's Blush is definitely among my favorites of all my OGRs.

She thrives in shade, remains healthy all year long, develops nice fat hips come winter, and has a particularly graceful arching habit. My favorite thing though (and this may be because of the crappy spot I put her in) is that she is one of my latest-blooming once-bloomers. So just as everything else is sort of fading away she decides to delight our eyes for a few more precious weeks.

I WILL say though that I kind of doubt I have the 'Great' version...I have a grafted plant that I originally bought I think in 2002 from Pickering and "deep planted" so I assume she's own root at this point. I lifted her, most unceremoniously, in 2010 to take her to my new home because she was one rose I was NOT going to leave behind. Mine is only about 4-5 feet in height/width (but again, I have her in a particularly crappy spot). In fact, maybe it's time to officially just drop the "Great" in my own head?

Anyhow, I've since heard that labeling the shorter "Maiden's Blush" as "Great" is a pretty wide-spread problem so that is definitely something to keep in mind as her site her.

Would you like a photo? (Of course you do, right??!!) I've shared this one before but maybe it's worth sharing again?

{{gwi:226623}}

Did I forget to mention that she has THE most elegant and beautiful sepals?

{{gwi:226624}}

How much longer til June? Ugh. I had forgotten about those sepals Cheers!
~Anika

Here is a link that might be useful: GothicLibrarian.net

Oh, and IowaJade, you need Blush Hip. ;-)

Her scent is incredible...truly.

And her flowers go through a lovely color-change as they age. Flowers are small, but she's one of my impulse purchases that I've been super happy with. Great dark pink for the class...I like her more than KvD, especially since she's not nearly as visciously thorned.

Blush Hip:

{{gwi:226625}}

She does sucker profusely...and gets big.

Cheers!
~Anika

I have great maidens blush coming in spring from pickering. Thanks for the pics. Is it spring yet?

Anika, your photo of Blush Hip is enchanting, it's those close up pictures that persuade me to dig up the pansies and make room for more roses.
I asked the nursery to special order Konigin, now i'm wondering if i'd been better off with a wild cat from the shelter that would claw me for feeding it.

Bman, I'm excited for you to get your GMB, it is the #1 top rated rose on HMF members favorites. Hope they send you the true Great Maidens Blush.

GMB is definitely "the" ogr I would grow despite it being once blooming. It is really too beautiful to pass it by.

Yes it is - have you seen the pictures? It's one of the most prized roses of all the old roses. It's beautiful, charming, and has the disease resistant of old roses. It's why I'm going to start switching back to old roses. The disease resistance, and less work, and worry. One bloom has more roses than any of the newer ones I have, and no chemicals, no fish emulsion, I literally do nothing to them, but trim off any damage, which there rarely is. Yes I would jump on it, unless you hate pink. If anyone out there has sticks of it, I would take even four sticks anyone sent me. I can propagate that. Good grief I would love to have that rose