I'm writing my 1st post on Help Me Find because I wanted to praise Marie Van Houtte as one of the healthiest and most overall attractive roses that I know of.

Its growth habit is fairly strong, but mannerly, its blooms are very attractive and come in strong flushes in the spring and fall and it appears disease free in my no-spray garden.

Its only drawback is that it does not have a strong scent, at least to me.

Highly, highly recommend it to anyone looking for a moderate sized, well-mannered climbing rose.

I garden in Zone 9b, so I can attest to its heat tolerance, but of course not to its cold tolerance.

For anyone who has this rose, can you tell me please if your rose is virtually thornless? not totally but just a few downward facing ones here and there, and small prickles on the back of the leaf stalks, because that's all mine seems to have, the uppermost canes are smooth, and I'm wondering if I have the correct rose, but otherwise the blooms and foliage seem to conform to what I see here.
I'm in England, and my rose does not appear to be William R. Smith with which it's sometimes confused apparently.

My rose has a light sweet fragrance, very upright in growth, quite vigorous, possible short climber - I shall have to move it - with creamy white, tinted yellow, sometimes pale pink edging but not much so far. Not many petals, not very full. My plant is first season..

A member here below in the U.S. states ''horrible thorns'' which is why I'm making this query. Thank you,