Boule de Neige – white historic noisette rose – Lacharme
For professional growers seeking reliable premium historic material, Boule de Neige provides own‑root stability and predictable performance in premium container and specialty routes. This remontant Victorian‑era noisette combines upright vigour, dense dark green foliage and very double rosette flowers with a full‑bodied, long‑lasting fragrance, ideal for nursery propagation beds and 5–7 L grow‑on to retail collector channels. The pure snow‑white colour holds uniformly with excellent retention, reducing quality loss between glasshouse, dispatch and point of sale, while medium disease resistance including good black spot tolerance supports consistent batches for themed historic or collection plantings in projects exposed to winter and wind across northern UK regions. With own‑root boulevards maturing steadily—roots consolidating in year one, framework building in year two and full ornamental expression by year three—this cultivar aligns well with long‑term collection curation and specialised, history‑focused ranges.
Usage options
Finished-product ideas
- Victorian Collector 7 L Bush – Upright, dense plants in 7 L containers, bush-trained with discreet support, emphasising historic provenance and strong fragrance for selection/specialty benches – target audience/channel: retail collectors and specialist nurseries
- Snow-White Fragrance Feature Pot – 5–7 L premium container focusing on pure colour and very strong scent, positioned as a highlight SKU in fragrance-focused ranges – target audience/channel: garden centres building scented rose concepts
- Historic Pillar 40 L – Own-root plants grown on into 40–50 litre containers with support, using the upright habit and dense foliage to create vertical accents – target audience/channel: landscape contractors and public-realm suppliers
- Curated Heritage Garden Line – Uniform 5 L material integrated into thematic Victorian collections, leveraging authenticity and remontant blooming – target audience/channel: estates, open gardens and themed park projects via wholesale
- White Display Hedge Module – Multi-unit batches for hedge/specimen use, using hardy, dense plants from own-root propagation to secure long-term, uniform white flowering – target audience/channel: integrators and project nurseries planning repeatable schemes
Technical cultivar profile
| Parameter |
Data |
| Name and registration |
Boule de Neige is a historic noisette/bourbon rose marketed as a historical rose; it carries the American Rose Society approved exhibition name Boule de Neige, with no separate registered cultivar name recorded. |
| Origin and breeding |
Bred by François Lacharme in France and introduced in 1867, this cultivar derives from the cross ‘Mademoiselle Blanche Lafitte’ × ‘Sappho’; it is distributed as an unregistered historic variety for specialised use. |
| Awards and recognition |
Recognised in American Rose Society Victorian classes, winning at the 1999 National Rose Show and at Kalamazoo, Augusta and Nashville Rose Society events in 2000–2001, confirming its value in historic exhibition categories. |
| Growth and structural characteristics |
Upright habit reaching approximately 130–200 cm high with a 100–170 cm spread, moderately thorny shoots and dense, glossy dark green foliage providing good structural presence for hedging, pillar use and larger specimen forms. |
| Flower morphology |
Medium-sized, very double rosette blooms with more than 40 petals are borne mainly solitary; flowering is remontant with a notably abundant second flush, although self-cleaning is weak and spent blooms generally require manual removal. |
| Colour data and phenology |
Flowers open creamy white at the edges with a pure white interior, maturing to a uniform snow-white shade; colour retention is excellent, with only a faint cream or ivory tint at the margins and virtually no perceptible fading in use. |
| Fragrance and aroma |
Displays a very strong, long-lasting scent with a full-bodied, rich character that can fill garden spaces; the extremely double form reduces stamen access, so the variety functions mainly as a scented ornamental rather than a pollinator plant. |
| Hip characteristics |
Due to the very double flowers, hip set is generally sparse, though occasional spherical orange-red hips of about 12–18 mm diameter may appear, offering minor additional interest without impacting main ornamental performance. |
| Resistance and winter hardiness |
Shows medium overall disease resistance, with good black spot resistance and medium susceptibility to powdery mildew and rust; hardy to approximately −26 to −23 °C (H7, Swedish zone 4, USDA 5b), tolerating moderate short droughts with irrigation support. |
| Horticultural recommendations |
Suited to flower beds, hedges, specimens, pillars and containers; maintenance is moderate with some pest and disease control plus deadheading needed, and it is best grown as bush-trained with discreet support in premium and specialty product lines. |
Boule de Neige combines historic authenticity, remontant white flowering and strong fragrance on predictable own-root stock, offering long-lived, stable stands for specialist ranges where we can align on volumes, timings and project-specific requirements.
