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There are mix of pics here of Meidiland White and Meidiland alba. Alba has cascading clusters, more buds in them and they are smaller flowers that are more double. If you can see stamens in the center of the flower, those photos are Meidiland White, a totally different rose than Meidland alba. Meidiland alba gets big, like Volkswagen bus big. Its very disease resistant here in Richmond Virginia, being pretty much half Rosa wichuriana and half Rosa sempervirens. It has little or no fragrance, but on occcasion when conditions are right I detect a clean soft smell to it like womens face powder. My bush has tens of thousands of blooms on it for its main flush and in the fall I always find a few hips the size of peppercorns, always less than 10 hips total, so it is not entirely sterile. I do on occasion find stamens hidden among the tiny packed petals and at least one open pollinated hip seed off my Belinda hybrid musk rose grew a huge bush of single white flowers that reblooms like a demon....it looks like a wild rose except for it reblooms about every 4 weeks through hard frost. I strongly suspect Meidiland Alba is the other parent as Belinda grows just a few feet from her and this seedling grew into a 5' x 7' bush in one season, so the vigor of it alone makes me think its a Meidiland Alba kid. If you need a huge hedge, Meidiland Alba would be a strong candidate, and in full bloom here in Richmond Virginia in May, it looks like an enormous snowbank. Just gorgeous! If it had a strong damask fragrance it would get my vote for the most perfect garden rose ever bred, and I'd put it atop my list even above New Dawn which isn't a stellar rebloomer for me. Meidiland Alba is in bloom for me to some degree right through hard freeze here in November and even reblooms just the same in severe drought, the flowers are just smaller.
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#1 of 5 posted
13 AUG 08 by
Kayren
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I am glad to read your glowing post on the Alba Meidiland, because I bought 3 last November and needed a little encouragement. I have had exactly 2 blooms from the 3 roses! Other kinds of roses I got at the same time have bloomed continuously with the same care/sun/water. I am not sure what to do with them. Though it is listed as a landscape rose, can it be trained to grow on a 5 foot chain-link fence? They are vigorously growing in 3 gallon pots until I decide where to put them, if I want to keep them. I was told by the folks at Heirloom Roses to be patient with it, but 10 months is a long time to wait for blooms. Do they need to have some age on them before they bloom?
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Plant them, give them some fish emulsion a couple times in the early spring and late spring and it should grow into the same beast I have. My single plant is the size of a car now and looks like a snowbank when in full bloom in mid May. Mine gets morning eastern sun and blooms continuously from about May 15 through hard freeze in late November or early December. Nothing compares to its main flush in May, but it always has blooms on it. If you have the correct rose, the blooms should be in clusters of between 5-30 and each bloom the size of a quarter coin, very double and no pollen stamens of note, although digging around in the blooms does turn up one here and there. It sets very few hips. I find about 10 or less every year, the size of a pepper corn and red, but I eagerly plant them every year, as its such a good rose, it has much potential to through good seedlings since I have it in the near vacinity of about 30 other really superb shrub type roses and wichuriana ramblers. Don't give up on this rose, I have no clue why yours is underperforming, but get them in the ground and fertilize them and they will be fine. They will overwhelm a chain link fence without judicious yearly pruning and if you have three, don't plant them closer than 15 feet apart, they get utterly huge. Mine is 7 feet high by 15 foot long by 10 foot wide, and that is with yearly pruning or I would not be able to use the side door to my house!
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#3 of 5 posted
15 AUG 08 by
Kayren
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The 2 blooms I had are exactly as you described, and I got it from a reputable nursery, so I don’t doubt I have Alba Meidiland. I got three of these roses because I mistakenly thought they were going to be like The Fairy in size and performance (Boy, was I wrong!). What I really liked about them is the blooms fall off, without needing to deadhead. Helpmefind is great in that you can see pictures and read comments about real life experience, like yours. I hope to have a snow bank in May. As you suggest I will get the fish emulsion for next spring and get them planted this fall. I added bone meal to the first planting last November and have given them about 3 feedings of a Miracle Grow type liquid bloom booster this spring/summer. They are in full sun. Maybe they don't like the Alabama heat and refuse to bloom…but grow instead! One of the pots has stayed in one place too long and has set roots in the ground. Though they all are very vigorous this one is really growing…and roots wherever its very long branches touch bare soil. Many roses have flushes in the fall similar to those in the spring, so maybe my Albas will join them. Thanks again for your testimony and advice.
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Rooting where the canes touch the soil is one drawback of this rose (another beast that does that for me is PInk Bells, now a 20 foot long by 10 foot wide mass of bush as it has advanced through cane rooting!). You are mistaken though that the blooms fall off cleanly. Mine does not do this, they dry up brown and it takes some weather events like a strong thunderstorm and wind to remove the old blooms, not a big thing for me, as the rose performs so well I can forgive it this fault.
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#5 of 5 posted
21 AUG 08 by
Kayren
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Well, the brown, dry bloom IS a disappointment...really the only reason I chose this rose was because of self-cleaning! I will still give it a fair chance to thrive in my garden.
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