Thank you Riku, This is exactly the info I'm always looking for. I have big plans for expanding my rose garden in the coming years with many antiques and species. This will help tremendously. BC:)

Kim, I'm not convinced that the color was so rare- a search of Tea Roses at HMF shows quite a few that are called red or dark red, including FD's presumed ancestor, 'Souv. de David D'Angers'. The dark red color combined with the large flower probably was a real treat, though, and it sounds like the plant was a nice shape if grown in suitable conditions on suitable understock. I read the review below of 'Francis Dubreuil' from a 1906 issue of Gardening Illustrated Magazine, and felt that 'FD' was being praised for his beauty, but also subtly dismissed. The writer suggests that because 'FD' has a weak neck that the HT's 'Liberty', 'Warrior' and 'Richmond' are better choices for red flowered pot roses, and that 'Princesse de Sagan' is a better choice for mass planting of a red Tea in the garden. 'FD' is best grown as a standard for buttonhole flowers. Honestly, if I were in the market for a red Tea rose in 1906, I wouldn't have rushed out to buy 'FD' after reading this review... As for why 'FD' wasn't available in U.S. nurseries at the turn of the 20th Century, it may have been due to something fairly simple- poor marketing, problems with importation, plant losses due to weather/poor storage or some other factor(s) lost in the sands of time. Or you may be right to suspect that 'Francis Dubreuil' just wasn't a very good or useful rose, and American nurseries preferred to devote limited space to better/ more popular plants. Virginia Rose Francis Dubreuil Red Tea Roses appear very much out of place when mixed with other Tea-scented varieties at the exhibitions, but in the garden their value is justly appreciated. It is a question whether the Rose under notice of the variety Souvenir de Therese Levet is the better, but I think the place of honour is usually accorded to Francis Dubreuil. It is a lovely Rose, of exquisite shape in the bud, and of a rich dark amaranth-red colour, with a maroon shading. Its beauty is best displayed when grown in standard form. Here it will make a glorious head, if budded upon a thrifty Brier, and one may always be sure of a good button-hole flower from a tree of this sort. Neither this variety nor Souvenir de Therese Levet is seen to very great advantage as bush plants, their growth being rather too diffuse to be used as garden varieties, but upon a low wall they would be grand. Where highly-coloured flowers are appreciated several plants of Francis Dubreuil should be grown, considering the scarcity of good reds among the Hybrid Teas, and by good cultivation upon well-drained soil blossoms of great beauty may be obtained. Being a true Tea, it is as free flowering in autumn as in summer. The tropical weather of the last few weeks has been very favourable to this Rose, and I have been able to cut numbers of lovely blossoms. There is a beautiful reddish Rose named General Gallieni which is worth growing. It has a tinge of coppery-yellow at base of petals, and often pervading the centre petals, but its general effect is red. Betty Berkeley and Friquet are two other good crimson or...[bottom of the page is cut off]... but the best of all for general effect in the mass is Princesse de Sagan, which is as much a China as it is a Tea Rose. How effective are its velvety crimson blossoms, so quaintly twisted and so freely produced! Another Rose that has been splendid just lately is the Hybrid Tea Etoile de France. I have been inclined to condemn this Rose, but must hesitate in view of what I have lately seen. I am afraid that in a cool or wet season it would be a failure, but in seasons like the present it will be fine. As a pot-Rose Francis Dubreuil has one failing, and that is a peculiar weakness in the stalk, which causes the blooms to bend at the neck and appear on the plant quite distorted. Market growers have, for this reason, been obliged to discard the variety. Perhaps it is not wanted as a pot-Rose now that we have such beautiful reds as Liberty, Warrior, and Richmond. ROSA.

I only know R. dumalis of the species you mention, but I know it very well as it's the most common species around here. I have several selfsown shrubs in my woodland. It's very similar to Rosa canina, sometimes considered a subspecies. I wouldn't want to be without it, especially for the hips in winter, but I am a bit surprised that you should pick it for your very benign climate. If you haven't an eglanteria I think that would be a more interesting choice among the European species as the apple scented leaves are an added bonus. Marianne in Sweden where our most common wild roses are R. canina and R. dumalis

Dealing in any other way than credit card, paypal and the like is prohibitively expensive unless we are talking about very large orders. To give an example, my bank is asking for a euro 50 fee for the transfer of amounts up to 500 euros or so...Three roses which is a reasonable amount will thus cost at the minimum 45+15+50 euros... I have had experience exchanging emails in english with Le Roseraie du Desert and they have been very helpful and easy to talk to (they are Americans if I understand correctly). They accept paypal I gather. I was about to order from them when I needed to be hospitalized last year. Last time I checked Bierkreek the only payment method available was bank transfer or cash which prohibited me from dealing with them. I don't know if this has changed but I doubt it. Additionally you had to email them your request, and they would come back with availability and the shipping costs quote. Not very efficient I think. I've had very bad experience with a couple of german nurseries which never responded to my emails. For one of them I left a bad review in HMF and discovered I was not the only one with such a bad experience. What I like to do is go online to an english language site, put a few roses in my shopping basket, check out, pay with my credit card both the rose price and the shipping cost, receive a confirmation email and be done with it. Anything more complicated than this is a hassle. Contact with the nursery should only be needed if one needs to clarify something or resolve a problem, not for a business as usual order. If contact is needed I expect this to be conducted promptly by email and in english, not because I happen to speak the language but because it is the de facto lingua franca for international commerce. I don't expect to have to use a translator nor jump through the machine translation hoops. So if anybody has any recommendations for such nurseries not in the UK with a good selection of OGR's and the like and which will ship across the EU, they are welcome. PS. Bierkreek seem to be preparing a proper e-commerce site. When they have it ready I will be pleased to try it. PS2. The Lens nursery was mentioned. Below the link to their terms and conditions. Please note, on top of the payment method problem and uknown (and possibly very steep shipping costs judging from their costs for shipping to nearby places like the UK and Germany), their disclaimers about shipping and state of plants on arrival. This is what I call bad business practices and I would never buy from them. Lens nursery (Belgium) terms & conditions