White Roses

In a sea of color, a white rose bush is more eye-catching than red. That’s why white is often considered a bold choice in garden design. However, it’s not the bold, impassioned statement of a red rose. It’s bold in its simplicity, especially in a monochromatic color scheme. Of course, there’s nuance in this neutral, as there are many shades of white. And white roses also come in a wide array of white shades, such as alabasters, French vanilla chiffons, creamy buttermilks, fresh cottons and linens, barely-there blushes, and pinky pearls. These well-bred white rose bushes connote purity and innocence, create serene and soothing visuals, evoking feelings of tranquility and peacefulness, and call to mind da Vinci’s suggestion that “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

White roses have an undeniably elegant, ethereal quality, most notable when luminous in a moonlit garden. Incorporated into a pastel palette of pale pinks and peaches, they become impossibly romantic; but mixed with brightly colored blooms, they create striking contrasts. However, some white rose plants are just downright audacious all on their own, with heavily rouged margins or painterly patterned stripes and splashes in daring colors.

Whether as the bodacious long-stemmed beauties of hybrid teas and grandifloras or as the small bushy blossoms of floribundas and shrub roses, whether accompanying the aerial acrobatics of climbers or the ramblings of ground covers, white rose bushes are always memorable, particularly those whose redolence lingers.