Dear Eric, OOOhhh how lovely your garden Blooms!!! I live in Victoria on Vancouver Island and have just bought my first rose bush - Gruss An Aachen. I see you have one and your roses are truly spectacular. could you give me a few tips? Would you please recommend your favorite rose gardening book for good tips on growing them? Would half day or full day sun be best for this species? Do you add coffee grounds to your rose beds? I adore roses and I have shyed away from them for a long time because I've heard they can be hard to grow. I've only been gardening for the past 6 years although an avid gardener I am still a beginner. Any tips would be so very much appreciated! Thank you for posting your fabulous photos!!! Sincerely, Margot

I don't know what to admire more, the rose or the photography. Both are exquisite. This must be another one of those once bloomers that would faint in short order in my garden. But, oh, is it ever gorgeous. Ingrid

Village Maid, the centifolia and Village Maid, the gallica are actually two different roses. I grow both, and they are different roses once you know them personally. The centifolia gets much taller, more sprawly, is more heavily-armed with great big thorns and the blooms have no crimson-red stripes, just pale pink mingling with the white. Suzanne Verrier, in her book "Rosa Gallica" says this: (in reference to the Gallica, Village Maid).... The blossoms of Village Maid show irregular and varied stripes of white, lilac and crimson. These various ribbons of color often so dominate or cover the rose that the crimson-purple ground color itself appears as stripes; hence its other name is La Rubanee' (or covered with ribbons). Clearly Village Maid is among the most historically unclear of the gallicas. Not only is it entangled with many synonyms (Belle Rubine, La Belle Villageoise, La Rubanee', La Villageoise, Panachee Double, Gallica Panachee), this rose has also been confused with R. centifolia Variegata which is a variegated sport of R. centifolia." So....not sure which one you have....but both are pretty and very vigorous & hardy here in zone 4/NH....but you are in Texas so I can't say how either would do there. But I love them both, with a tad more love for centifolia Variegata since she is one of my very first roses (aside from the rugosas) to come into bloom each June and those palest-pink & white confections of beauty just keep on coming for a full month. (She does scratch me up a lot, though....her thorns are vicious)....but I always forgive her!LOL Celeste VILLAGE MAID, THE CENTIFOLIA......more cupped in form than the gallica, with pale pink and white striping. VILLAGE MAID, THE GALLICA.....notice the crimson striping .

Thanks so much for the encouragement everyone. I was planning only 10 roses in the backyard before I found this forum. Lol. Now I have I think around 70 in the back yard. But on my own, I had already planted about 60 azaleas in the front yard and maybe 30-40 roses throughout the past 3 years (although a lot are just carpet roses for drought tolerance)... and that was before I found this forum, so obviously I had the pre-existing propensity for this. ;) I didn't really need a lot of arm twisting or convincing to go for more! Everyone here has helped me so much. Please if you're in the Bay Area of northern CA, direct message me and maybe I can invite you over! :)