Chuck, it would help me if you say what is your zone and even better what state you live in. There would be quite a didfference in size between the same rose in zone 5 and zone 7. I am in zone 6b, MD. I have experience with all the roses on your list and currently have all except Marie Louise. Marie Louise is Centifolia/Damask, not gallica. It was succeptable to Black spot here, so I removed this one from my garden. Other roses on your list (with the exception of Camaieux) are quite healthy. I actually love them all, even more BS prone Camaieux a lot. Here all of them have zero winter dieback and I prune them all in December -January, taking approx 1/3 off. Camaieux stays small for me. Probably mature size is 4x4, I don't know if it would be bigger w/o prunning. Apothecary's rose - can get relatively big here, but with prunning you can keep it about 5x5. Tuscany superb - I keep it 5x4, but there is just not enough space, it can be much bigger, if allowed. Can be even a climber, I think. Rose mundi - see my comment about Apothecary's rose Charles de Mills- is your own root or grafted. Own root will sucker a lot. Cana be as big as 6x6, or even grown on a pillar, as a small climber, but you can also prune it to keep 5x5. Isplanti - not so common, but so beautiful. Slow to start blooming for me. I waited for 2 years to see firsat blooms and only inyear 3 it gave me finally really good show. But so worth the wait. It is actually big rose, 6x6 easily, again probably can be contained to smaller size. All gallicas on your list are my favorite. Couldn't make a better list, just would add Belle de Crecy and few others :) Olga

I know that I may have to wait to see the white edging around the Baron's flowers -- I just want to get them well established. It sounds like he will be taller so I guess he'll go at the back and Orpheline de Julliet will go at the front. Good to hear that she's an attractive bush as she'll be in plain view and without flowers for most of the summer. One concern now is that I was planning to buy her from Pickering as well. Do you really think that pickering doesn't have the right version of this rose? She is supposed to be a darker colour, pink/purple/crimson/red. A dark mix of those colours anyways . . . Maybe I should look for a different source!

If you have room to keep only the one it can grow into a handsome shade tree. I've only seen two and they were enough win me over. Should you decide to prune, enlist the help of an arborist. In 'Plants for Dry Climates' I find it described as having brittle branches - if you prune, the tree will need to be structurally sound enough for not only the weight of the tree itself but also of the nut crop. And, pruning increases fruit yeilds, thus the weight the pruned branches must bear increases. I hope you decide to keep it, even if not for the nuts. They have - as you said - an enormous, spreading canopy that just invites one to sit and enjoy its shade. (Maybe it could help lower your cooling bills if you plant it on the south side of your home?) - S.

I do grow an R. Laxa and it likes the sandy loam it's in. If the Gallicinae that I had from Pickering are any guide, laxa also likes the heavier clays. I don't think I've got the laxa rootstock growing on its own. My guess would be that laxa rootstock accepts buds of this group better than some other rootstocks. Or it could be that the growers just prefer it for those. Sometime y'all might want to read some of the rose books that are on Google Books. Back in the 1800s, there was a lot of concern about matching roses to the optimum rootstocks. Recently I found a symposium (actually part 2 of a symposium) in which there was a discussion of what rootstocks worked better in New England. Hovey was a major name and it was a good read ...you'd feel comfortable because it was a bunch of rose people, sitting around, talking roses, a century and a half ago. Googling "Transactions Massachusetts Horticultural Society" 187* and Hovey and Roses and rootstock should turn it up.