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Over forty years after it's introduction, Iceberg is still one of the world's most widely planted roses and with good reason. If you are looking for a rose which will reliably provide wave after wave of white blooms on a sturdy, bushy plant, Iceberg is a good place to start your search (and most likely the place you will finish). Plants less than a year old may exhibit hundreds of three inch blossoms on clusters of three to seven buds. Because of the huge amount of flowers and the time it takes to trim them after blooms have faded, Iceberg is the only rose which I actually have to schedule a dead-heading session with! Disease resistance is good. Blackspot may make an appearance on occasion, although rarely to the detriment of the plant. Canes are virtually thornless, and the normally dark, shiny, green foliage will lighten somewhat when plants are grouped closely together. Growth habit is bushy on a nicely formed shrub. Iceberg makes a fine hedge when plants are spaced more closely than usual, and this brings up an interesting point about the size of this cultivar. Iceberg is a robust plant which will grow in a season to four feet or so, assuming proper planting, culture, and environmental conditions; plant Iceberg with a little more space between specimens - thirty to thirty six inches would be appropriate, with twenty four being fine for a hedge. (By the way, as a reference point, I tend in most cases to pack roses in on top of each other in the more European way. I like masses of color, so floribundas are normally planted 18 to 24 inches apart in my garden. Of course, the larger shrub and old garden roses are planted farther apart). |
