Rose Alba Maxima

Rosa alba ‘Maxima’ (Alba Maxima) is an ancient white rose cultivar renowned for its historical significance, hardiness, and fragrant blooms. It stands out as a timeless rose cultivar that combines elegance, resilience, and low maintenance needs. This great double white rose has proven its garden value over centuries, from Renaissance landscapes to modern organic gardens. This rose is highly recommended for gardeners seeking a hardy heritage rose that will thrive with relatively little care. Its key strengths include extreme winter hardiness, shade tolerance, and strong disease resistance, making it suitable for regions and situations where more delicate roses falter. Gardeners in cold climates will especially appreciate that this rose can overwinter without special protection and reliably bloom each year. Likewise, those in temperate areas can enjoy its lush early summer display and rich fragrance with minimal spraying or fussing.

FLOWERING

Flowering occurs once per year, typically in mid to late spring or early summer, depending on climate (usually May - June in temperate Northern Hemisphere gardens). They start as blush pink or white falling in cascades over grey-green foliage. The flowers are generally very disease-resistant. The blooming period is relatively short (a few weeks), but profuse - the shrub can be covered in blossoms, creating a striking display of white against the grey-green leaves.

The flowers of R. alba ‘Maxima’ are particularly charming and are considered archetypal old-rose blooms. Buds are pointed ovoid and often have a faint blush tint before opening. The fully open flower is pure white or creamy white with a hint of blush at the center, especially in the early stages. Each bloom is very double, sometimes referred to as “fuller” or “maxima” to indicate the large number of petals, and have a rosette form, often with a charming button-eye in the centre or displaying bright lemon - yellow stamens. The petal count can range broadly often between 25 and 50+ petals, forming a lush, quartered flower about 8 - 10 cm in diameter.

The flowers are borne in small clusters of 2–3 (sometimes solitary) on the branch tips or from axils of upper leaves. When first open, blooms may exhibit a creamy white center and high petal count that distinguishes ‘Maxima’ from its sister form ‘Semi-Plena’, which has only about 12–18 petals.

The fragrance is strong and refined, a classic Old rose scent often described as a mix of damask rose perfume with citrus undertones. Often Albas are praised as having one of the most refined fragrances of any rose, and Alba Maxima is no exception: gardeners consistently report its perfume is rich and sweet, noticeable from a distance.

After flowering, some decorative hips may form: they are oval, about 1–2 cm, turning orangey-red by late summer. The sepals are elongated and leafy, often remaining attached until the flower is fully open, then shedding early; they sometimes have glandular hairs on their backs - a trait inherited from R. gallica.

PLANT

Alba Maxima is classified as an Old Garden Rose in the Alba group (family Rosaceae). It is a deciduous, once-blooming shrub rose with an upright and very bushy growth habit, with long and arching stems. A mature plant forms a large, spreading shrub typically 180 - 250 cm in height with a similar spread. The canes (stems) are green with a matte finish and are covered with sparse, unequal prickles - some slender, others stouter, recalling traits of both wild Rosa canina and Rosa gallica ancestry. Young shoots often have a bluish pruinose (waxy) coating.

The foliage is a distinctive grey-green or blue-green in colour, dull on the surface and slightly hairy underneath. Leaves are pinnate, usually with 5 leaflets (occasionally 7), including the terminal leaflet. The shape of the leaflet is ovate or broadly elliptic, it is about 4–5 cm long, with serrated margins. This grey-green foliage is noted for being healthy and disease-tolerant, contributing to the plant’s overall hardiness.

In autumn, the foliage may take on yellow tones before dropping, and if pollination is successful, oval red-orange hips can develop, although R. alba hips are not produced in great abundance and may fail to ripen in cooler climates.

While most roses insist on full sun, Alba Maxima can tolerate partial shade better than nearly any other rose group. Ideally, give this rose at least 5–6 hours of direct sun for best blooming, but it will still flower (albeit a bit less) in bright dappled shade or half-day sun. In hotter climates, some afternoon shade can be beneficial to prevent flower scorch. In cooler climates, full sun (especially morning sun) is recommended to hasten drying of dew and reduce disease.

Alba Maxima is adaptable to various soil types. It grows well in loam or clay-loam that is fertile and rich in organic matter. Good drainage is important; like most roses, it dislikes waterlogged soil. Water deeply during prolonged dry spells, especially in the first 1-2 years.

This rose ultimately becomes a large shrub, so allow plenty of space. Planting as a background shrub or against a fence or wall is common, since because of their size, they make good background plants in the landscape. Alba Maxima can also be grown as a loose hedge; traditional gardens sometimes used Albas along boundaries because of their height and hardiness. It is not a climber, but long canes can be loosely tied to a support or pergola if one wants a climber effect – the canes are flexible when young.

R. alba ‘Maxima’ is extremely cold-hardy. In USDA hardiness terms, it can survive in Zone 4 or even Zone 3 winters (approximately –30°C to –40°C) with minimal protection. In the UK and northern Europe, it is rated RHS Hardiness H6, meaning hardy through severe winters down to about –20°C. Gardeners in cold regions (such as Canada or the northern US) report Alba Maxima surviving and thriving where many modern roses cannot. In very hot climates, Alba roses can be more challenging; they prefer temperate conditions and can suffer in tropical heat. However, they do appreciate warm summers for ripening wood. Overall, a cool winter dormancy and a mild, sunny growing season suit them best.

Alba Maxima requires relatively little pruning. As an Old Garden Rose that blooms on old wood, the general rule is to avoid heavy winter pruning, or you risk removing the wood that would bear next spring’s flowers. Instead, perform pruning and shaping immediately after flowering in summer. Right after the bloom flush, you can shorten spent flowering shoots and lightly shape the bush. Remove any dead, diseased, or crossing canes at that time as well.

One of the strengths of Alba Maxima is its natural disease resistance. Albas in general are noted as disease-resistant and not as prone to black spot or powdery mildew as many modern roses. Alba Maxima’s grey-green leaves have a good resistance, but in wet summers black spots can still appear. In practice, Alba Maxima often needs no chemical sprays in climates with dry summers. In very humid areas, a preventive spray regime (perhaps every 10–14 days in spring) can be used if black spot pressure is high, but priority should be given to using resistant varieties and cultural methods.

In general, Alba Maxima aligns well with organic gardening. Its inherent vigor means it seldom needs chemical intervention. Many gardeners grow Alba Maxima with zero sprays, and still find it to stay “clean.” Should problems arise, they are usually manageable: for example, if black spot defoliates some leaves one wet summer, the rose likely will bounce back next year with good care.

Unfortunately we do not have information about the origin of the name of this rose.

Award of Garden Merit (RHS/RNRS), Royal Horticultural Society Show, 1993.

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY

The exact parentage of Rosa alba ‘Maxima’ is not documented in any one breeding event, as this rose has been cultivated for centuries (recorded before 1500) and likely arose from early hybridization of species roses. Genetic evidence and historical accounts point to a hybrid origin involving the Gallica roses (old European red/ pink roses) and the Canina group of wild roses (often white or pink and very hardy). In fact, DNA analyses have effectively “established that [Alba roses] are the result of a cross between Rosa gallica and a relation of Rosa canina, indigenous to Europe” (historicroses.org). This is consistent with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew database, which gives the hybrid formula for Rosa × alba as R. corymbifera × R. gallica. In simpler terms, Alba Maxima can be thought of as a product of crossing a wild white hedgerow rose (with vigorous growth and hardiness) with an ancient garden rose (with fragrant, double flowers).

Alba Maxima VS Alba Semiplena: roses ‘Maxima’ and ‘Semi-plena’ are so closely related that botanists consider them essentially forms of the same hybrid entity. Recent genetic research using microsatellite DNA markers demonstrated that “R. alba Maxima and R. alba Semiplena accessions [have] a clonal origin from a common ancestor.”(academia.edu) In other words, both the semi-double and double forms likely descend from one original hybrid plant (or one line of vegetative propagation). It appears that at some point the semi-double R. alba produced a sport (mutation) that increased petal count, yielding the fully double ‘Maxima’, and gardeners perpetuated both forms by cuttings or suckers thereafter. The two forms have occasionally been observed to “sport” back and forth. This clonal relationship underscores that any discussion of Alba Maxima’s parentage inherently includes Alba Semiplena – they are essentially the same cross, expressed in different floral forms.

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