Once-blooming gallicas do not set their buds the previous season like other shrubs that do so such as azaleas and rhodos (which you can see the buds if you look). New buds are formed in the spring on old wood for the old European roses (if you look at the canes in the winter there are just slight leaf bumps, no flower buds at all). If you had winter damage to the old canes and have mostly new ones from the base they would not bloom. I had one gallica (Tuscany) not bloom for me this year, but it had been transplanted in the fall which probably contributed because it lost a lot of canes this winter and is putting energy on the root growth and cane regrowth. My other once-bloomers are blooming more or less normally. So I think Christopher may be on to the culprit as to a critter having a tasty snack.

There are many good shrub roses that can attain considerable proportions with little attention other than a couple of cups of Rose Tone in the spring. Here are a few of my favorites: 'Applejack' gets to be about 6' x 6' in zone 4 and will be bigger in zone 6. It has rather informal light pink flowers that come in several flushes throughout the summer. This is a tough rose but does need full sun. 'Alba Semi-Plena' makes a huge shrub to 8' tall with beautiful fragrant flowers in the spring. It is very tough and can take some shade for part of the day. 'Celsiana' is a Damask that can get over 6' in my zone 4 garden. It has beautiful informal light pink flowers. 'Cerise Bouquet' is a huge rose that has reached about 10' x 10' for me. It flowers once in the spring. 'Clair Matin' is an outstanding modern shrub rose that gets to be about 6' x 6' for me in zone 6. 'Complicata' is a wonderful old gallica that easily makes 6' x 6'. It is hardy and reliable with little attention and has huge single pink flowers. 'Constance Spry' is one of the original Austin roses and still one of his best. The flowers a huge and very cupped. The plant is lax and needs some careful pruning to look its best. Fortunately, it suckers so will make a nice thicket over time. I keep mine about 5'. 'Eddie's Jewel' is one of the Moyesii hybrids and has deep red flowers on a 8' x 6' shrub. All the Moyesii hybrids make huge beautiful shrubs that flower once and require little care. 'Green Mantle' is my favorite of the Eglantine hydrids. As they are all quite similar any will do in this situation. They make 8' x 6' shrubs and are hardy and reliable. The frangrance of the foliage after a rain can be enjoyed 100 meters away. 'Harison's Yellow', the yellow rose of Texas, was found in a garden off Broadway in NY city about 1830. It has made its way all across the country. It makes a nice shrub about 6' x 5' for me in zone 6. It is about the first rose to bloom. It looks great with 'Cardinal de Richelieu' in front of it. 'Ispahan' is a Centifolia that makes a very tall but lax shrub. It is hardy even to zone 4. 'James Mason' is an outstanding modern srub rose with gallica genes. This rose easily makes 8' and does sucker around making an outstanding thicket of canes. It is very tough in zone 6 and grows with little care in partial shade. 'Lavender Lassie' is a modern shrub that gets to be about 6' x 6'. It blooms regularly throughout the summer with OGR type blooms. It is another of the outstanding roses from Kordes. 'Mme. Plantier' is a hybrid China rose from 1835. Everyone should have this rose. It makes a lax shrub 6' x 6' and blooms once with small very double white flowers. It is tough and reliable. 'Pleine de Grace' Now this is a shrub rose! My 14 year old plant knows no bounds. Its self supporting canes can easily reach 12' and with support will make another 6'. The flowers are profuse, white, single and about the size of a quarter. 'R. hugonis' is one of my favorite roses and makes a nice shrub easily 6' by 8'. It is one of the first to bloom with clear yellow flowers. Its fine foliage is rarely eaten by Japanese beetles. 'R. moyesii 'Highdownensis' is another of the Moyesii hybrids. I have to include it as it is such an outstanding rose. It will easily make a self supporting 10' shrub in zone 4. It is really a small tree and when in flower will have hundreds of flowers that makes for a spectacular landscape specimen visible for 100 meters. 'Roseraie de l' Hay' is a rugosa hybrid that makes a compact shrub about 6' x 5' with lush foliage that is disease free. It flowers several times throughout the summer and makes and outstanding and reliable shrub. 'Sara Van Fleet' is another rugosa hybrid. It gets to be about 6' x 5' for me in zone 4. It has light pink flowers and does suffer some dieback of unripe wood . 'Scharlachglut' is another modern shrub rose from Kordes. Its canes form a nice vase shaped shrub to 6' x 6' and is very hardy reliable and tough. The flowers are red and single. The hips are outstanding and pear shaped coming in huge bunches. Well, that should get you started. All of the above roses are easy to grow and require basic care of pruning out old wood and a spring application of fertilizer. I grow them with other shrubs and perennials in a mixed border for a nice display spring, summer and fall.

Oh, you have some lovelies! I especially love Cardinal Richileu - like come one, talk about PURPLE!! I know it's a once bloomer, but I could forgive it to get those one of a kind blooms! Yours has tons of flowers too! Lavender Lassie - talk about a bloom machine! Yours looks SPECTACULAR!!! L'Ingenue (sp?) looks wonderful en masse! I love the yellow of the stamens. Mmm. Then there's Eugene - love, love the darkness of the red. Thank you so much! Carol

That did occur to me also, Christopher. But the description was written by Charles Lemaire, an eminent botanist, who vouches that the illustration is an accurate depiction of the rose. That same illustration is then referred to in the same German publication that says the rose has a red center and no thorns. I think that's weird, but I also think it points to the primary source as being considered reputable. And it seems unlikely to me that the description and illustration would be published without feedback/ correction from the breeder, given that this was a cultivar being advertised for sale for the first time. And the publisher of L'Illustration horticole was also selling the rose- introducing it in Belgium. If you can find a retraction or correction, that would indeed be of interest. But assuming that you doubt the original description, the question is: does the modern version of RdV have a red or crimson center? No- so far as I can see, it has a white or whitish center. So either you go with the very first description and illustration introducing a red-thorned 'RdV' to the world, or you go with the thornless rose with the red or crimson center. Neither of these early descriptions quite fit what is in commerce today. At this point, I'm mostly curious about why RdV disappeared to the point that her absence was lamented in the 1904 Journal des Roses, but she is now one of the more famous of the old rose cultivars. I think it is a false assumption that RdV has been popular and available continuously since her introduction in 1860. I want to search American catalogs (or any catalogs, but I seem to mostly only have access to American ones via the Biodiversity Heritage Library) to see who carried it and when. I know that Peter Henderson Nursery of NYC carried RdV from 1872-1880 (and possibly before, but the earliest catalog I find is 1872). Her absence from other catalogs is remarkable. She is also listed in the 1880 Baudriller catalogue (Angers, France). I'm hoping to get a better feel for who liked her, who sold her, did she really disappear and- if so- when did her 20th C. revival begin, and who began it? If anyone knows of a free online source for old British/European nursery catalogs, I'd appreciate a heads up. Virginia