PlantFiles: Old Garden Rose
Rosa 'Madame Alfred Carriere'

I am now on my second plant of Mme Alfred Carriere, the first having succumbed to Rose Rosette. The first plant was grafted ( something I prefer in most of my roses) and grew with great vigor, but failed to produce basal breaks. The current plant was obtained one year ago as a band and is now about 10 ft tall and producing large numbers of basal breaks. The flowers are mostly white with a 'frosted' appearance. They make a large showing in the spring but only appear sporadically throughout the summer and fall. A superb climber or 'house eater' for informal areas with great disease resistance here in central North Carolina.

I love this rose in all aspects except she only blooms in spring. She is own-root, so perhaps that is the problem. If she were grafted onto china stock, perhaps she would have repeat bloom. She will pop a blossom or two here and there in summer, but perhaps our ATL summers are just too hot for constant rebloom. Either that or the root stock issue. I would like to try a grafted one to see if that solves my rebloom problem.

I just planted one of these about a month or so ago (own-root). It's grown about a foot and already has one bloom that will be open in a day or so! I can't wait to see what this thing is going to do next spring! I have it in the back yard where it gets morning sun only and it seems to be doing extremely well.

I planted mine summer of 2005 bareroot. Grew up and sideways. I love the foliage, although it's naked now (winter). Can't wait for it to creep this year, on it's second....then leap on its third.

I don't think it slept on its first year though. The longest canes reached 6' and i love how it's arching.

I haven't seen blooms yet, because I just planted a small own-root plant last spring. It came through the winter looking like it's ready to eat the fence, the Virginia Creeper and small animals. That was the general plan.

In north Florida it repeatedly blooms in flushes until the weather gets too cold. It is very large--mine is trained the length of a 25 foot wing of the house. It needs pruning at least 3 times a year--removing the "telephone poles" down to a few buds. In retrospect, I would recommend stopping growth of young bushes to encourage lower growth to avoid bareness at the bottom of the bush.

I have been growing this climber, now for over 22 yrs. and her performance as far as bloom output is so very generous! She is susceptible to a little blackspot as most Noisettes are. These climbers in my garden, zone 8a on the West Coast of Canada are close to 25-30' long...I have always recommended this particular rose for a new rose grower starting out!!!! Elaine (She was hybridized in France by J. Schwartz******* parentage unknown)

1879 12-20' Flowers repeatedly. Zones 6-9
Climber or Shrub

Double, 3-4" blossoms of white, flushed with pale pink tightly curled petals in the center. Intensely fragrant, and more hardy than most of the Noisettes.

A graceful large shrub to plant at the top of a gentle slope, but equally good when used as a climber.

Constantly in bloom in milder climates, and a rose to admire in any planting. A good candidate for a tree climber.