More below

Now that the rose is more established, it blooms with a high center. The photo below is from this past spring.

Hope that helps!

Ann

White Lightnin' has a characteristic strong citrus (lemon) scent. It has been one of the most commonly available, highly scented white roses from most sources since its introduction. Whether yours is, or isn't, I can't tell from the photos, but if the scent is strongly citrus, it's a good bet it is.

Thank you so much @roseseek! Your photos helped a lot. Your White Lightnin' is so beautiful! The first pictures look very different from my rose, but the last picture looks like the same rose. The rose that I have has a very strong citrus scent, so I'm guessing it is most likely White Lightnin'. One thing I have noticed about it is that in past years it has struggled with powdery mildew, but this year I haven't seen so much as a speck of mildew on it. Maybe it is because we didn't get too much rain this spring? I have a few more pictures of it but I can't seem to find them. I will see if I can find them and post them tomorrow.

Thanks again and have a lovely evening,

damask_rose : )

I found the pictures : ). Here they are:

Oh my goodness, I just realized that it was @Ann9BNCalif who posted the pictures! I'm so sorry! Thank you both Ann and roseseek! I appreciate both of your help!

In looking at the growth habit of your rose, I think it mirrors White Licorice more than White Lightnin'. In Help Me Find and in your photo, the rose is very straight and upright like White Licorice.

I don't have a bush shot but mine is wider than tall, a mostly leaning, spreading habit with only about third of the canes being upright.

Ann

Thank you so much @Ann9BNCalif! So maybe it is not White Lightnin' after all. Unfortunately I'm going to have to rule out White Licorice as a possibility because my dad bought this rose in '97 and White Licorice wasn't created until 2009. The rose is very upright and very tall, and is also very wide. It has multiple blossoms per stem with a strong citrus fragrance. The center of the each blossom is tinted with creamy yellow, but only slightly; the rose is mainly white. It often produces buds with leaves instead of sepals on them. I'm guessing it is a grandiflora or a floribunda, but I think that the bush is too big for it to be a floribunda, although I could be mistaken. I will post some pictures from today in just a second.

Full bush shot. I had to edit the picture because the original photo came out fuzzy.

The flowers crisped in the heat.

Flower with leaves. It does this a lot.

Thanks again for your help,

And have a wonderful evening,

damask_rose : )

My roses have been in consecutive days of 100F heat and aren't crisping. Here's a pic of White Lightnin' I took yesterday. It grows in an outward, leaning direction from the center rather than straight up. The leaves are bright medium green whereas your rose appears to be a greenish/gray with red edging at times. I also don't get the leaf as a petal feature.

I hope you identify your rose someday!

Ann

Thanks @Ann9BNCalif! I'm really stumped on the I.D. of this rose. I looked through all 39 pages of grandifloras on HMF (thank God there aren't nearly as many grandifloras as there are HTs) and I couldn't find one that matches the description of my rose. I guess it does kind of resemble Mount Hood or Mount Shasta, but the new foliage is red, not a medium green, and it has a distinct lemon scent, not a moderate old rose scent. I guess I'll call it 'Mystery' for now. With the way things are going, it'll probably remain one lol : ). I'm even starting to think there is such a rose as White Lincoln ; ). I think I'll propagate some of it this winter because I only have one bush of it. It's a nice rose and I'd hate to lose it. Although it's probably not something too rare since it's from the Home Depot garden center lol ; ).

Your White Lightnin' is so beautiful. The blossoms seem to glow from the center!

Have a nice evening,

damask_rose : )

Hmmm...I'm starting to think it's not a grandiflora after all. It looks exactly like JFK and PJPII. They also bloom with multiple blooms per stem even though they're HTs. Maybe it is one of these roses mislabeled as White Lightning or White Lincoln.

Now the problem is, which one, if any?

Oh this rose is so beautiful Damask !! I hope you do find out who it is ! Pope smells knock your socks off incredible . You could always head to Armstrong’s or a local nursery and compare plants ? It’s a pretty common there .

Ann your photos are so beautiful too , it’s going on my list of roses when I have land again . Lol

I was thinking the rose reminded me of an HT, and it crossed my mind that it could be PJPII. I compared the leaves in your photo with my photos of PJPII, and the leaves don't look the same. I hope you figure it out soon.

Good luck!

Ann

Thank you so much @Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca and @Ann9BNCalif! You are right Ann, it is not PJPII. PJPII was created in 2006, so it can't be a possibility. I think it might be JFK. They had one when I went to Home Depot a couple of weeks ago but it was not in bloom. If we go again I will see if I can find one in bloom and take a picture to compare the two roses. I have looked up other popular white hybrid teas like Sugar Moon, Pascali, Full Sail, Honor, and Secret's Out on HMF, but Sugar Moon and Secret's Out were introduced too late, Pascali and Honor don't have a strong fragrances, and Full Sail looks too pink in the middle. The pictures and description of JFK seem to match my rose exactly, but I'm still not positive about the I.D. Do you think it is JFK?

Thanks again, and have a lovely day,

damask_rose : )

I just looked at JFK and Sugar Moon on Help Me Find and it doesn't strike me as a match. I have Sugar Moon and feel pretty confident that it's not a match. Sorry!

Ann

More pics from today

Thanks @Ann9BNCalif, but I don't quite understand. Are you saying that Sugar Moon is not a match to my rose or that JFK is not a match, or that neither of them are matches?

Sorry - I meant that neither JFK or Sugar Moon appear to be match to your rose in my opinion.

Ann

Thank you @Ann9BNCalif! I wonder what it could be? My neighbor across the street has what looks to be the same rose in his front yard, but I think it was planted there before he moved in. My last resort is digging around the bush to see if I can unearth an I.D. tag. When we transplanted what we now know is Rio Samba, we found the I.D. tag underground, and when my dad was tilling around the red roses in the front yard, he found a really old metal I.D. tag identifying them as Bing Crosby roses. I don't want to disturb the roots in the heat, but this winter when the bush goes dormant, I'll dig around and maybe I'll get lucky and find the tag.

I wonder if it might be Evening Star. I have heard really good things about it, and your plant is beautiful.

i contacted a friend from my rose society who has an amazing ability to identify roses from photos. In his opinion, your rose is JFK!

Ann

Thank you so much @BenT (8a Dallas, TX)! It looks nearly identical to Evening Star, but the only problem is HMF says that Evening Star has a mild fragrance, and the fragrance of this rose is very strong. Evening Star is such a beautiful rose though. I love the name! Roses hybridized by Bill Warriner are some of my favorites!

Thank you so much @Ann9BNCalif! The mystery has been solved! I can officially call my mystery rose JFK! Please tell your friend thank you from me!

Thank you to everyone who has helped me to identify this rose! Have a wonderful evening everyone,

damask_rose : )

You’re dad was correct about it being presidential all along

@damask_rose_zone9b JFK was a seedling the breeder, Gene Boerner, who had bred roses for Jackson and Perkins for decades, reserved to name for himself. That should give you an idea of what its creator thought of it. When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, the J&P board over rode Boerner and named the rose for the fallen President. Three years later, in 1966, when Boerner passed, the board named one of his unreleased seedlings for him. It was a very vigorous pink floribunda, which was totally fitting as Boerner created and named the class. Gene Boerner is still found in body bag selections and has proven itself over the decades to actually be one of his best creations. This, and many other marvelous stories can be found in his biography, "Papa Floribunda: The Gene Boerner Story".

Your Dad was right. White Lincoln Rose! Ii planted them myself, and I found mine at Home Depot