Commercially available

22 favorite votes.  

White, near white or white blend Hybrid Tea.
Registration name: White Swan
Exhibition name: White Swan

Bred by Hendrikus A. M Verschuren-Pechtold (1925-1981) (Netherlands, 1951).
Introduced in United States by Jackson & Perkins Co. (Newark, NY) in 1952 as 'White Swan'.

Hybrid Tea.  

White.  Moderate fragrance.  30 petals.  Average diameter 4.75".  Very large, full (26-40 petals), borne mostly solitary, in small clusters, high-centered bloom form.  Blooms in flushes throughout the season.  

Upright.  Glossy, dark green foliage.  

Height: 4' to 4½' (120 to 135cm).  

USDA zone 6b through 9b (default).  Disease susceptibility: very disease resistant.  

United States - Patent No: PP 1,115  on  22 Jul 1952   VIEW USPTO PATENT
Application No: 236,104  on  11 Jul 1951

Some question about parentage, see References.

Also about breeder, per this email: My aunt tells me that my grandfather (John Swann) bred this rose, I think, sometime before the Second World War when he was employed at the Royal Nurseries in Waltham Cross Hertfordshire England and that we had this rose growing in the garden of the family house at this time and I can remember seeing a rose of this description when I lived there. Is there any way of telling for sure whether this rose was established by my grandfather during the reign of King George V? This was the period when he worked at the Royal Nurseries.