The number of hours of winter chill, matter with the once blooming old European roses, I live c. 10 miles east of San Francisco, Ca and I think our climate zones may be similar. Temperatures here rarely get below 30 degrees above zero Farenheit, and if so, than at most for a week or so in total, and that every few years, however some of the Alba, Gallica and Hybrid China roses bloom very well here,
-de la Grifferaie blooms gloriously for more than a month in spring, and the Apothecary Rose and Alba Semi-Plena have a shorter bloom cycle, but bloom fully. In Oakland, Ca I've grown Celsiana and La Ville de Bruxelles and both are extraordinary roses, for beauty of bloom.
La Belle Sultane didn't bloom much for the first two years in my garden but now it is taking off and Luanne, my wonderful neighbor has an older plant that blooms fully and very beautifully. Her plant of 'The Bishop' is the healthiest and most beautiful of the once bloomers in her garden, it produces a bountiful display of red-mauve roses every year.

If you want more ideas for Old European roses to grow with borderline winter chill, I suggest that you search the Internet to find out how many hours of winter chill you get each year and compare it with San Jose California and if they are close, then check the website of the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, They list all the roses they grow.
I've seen these blooming at san jose heritage and would grow them where I live:
Belle Isis
Nestor
Felicite Parmentier

de Meaux (also grown at the Berkeley Botanical garden)
Mme Legras de St. Germain
Belle Amour
Konigin von Danemark
James Mason (a modern Gallica)
Gloire de Guilan

although the garden is very hot in summer with temperatures in the 90's and triple digits, with few hours of winter chill, San Josee Heritage Rose Garden have dozens of the older European roses, most of these bloom during the weeks between:
mid to late May through June most years.

Best Wishes,

Luxrosa

If your garden has as much winter chill as
Sebastopol California, then you might look at the list of roses that vintagegardens.com sells, as all of their mother plants are grown on site in that town.

Very helpful, Lux, thanks! Yeah, I was thinking that a few individuals of some classes might do--like Semi Plena, etc., since I was able to have them in worse conditions. I'll check it out--good idea.

It's similar to that old joke about raising cactus: "watch the weather in El Paso--when it rains there, water the cactus".

Canary Island is classed as a gallica (although some think it's a gallica/china cross since it blooms on new wood) and it does very nicely in San Antonio where it's evergreen. It's a once bloomer, the plant is very drought tolerant and heat hardy, the flowers are very double and a beautiful lavender color, very fragrant, and I've never ever seen a diseased leaf of any kind on it. However, in a warm spring the blooms don't last very long.

That's interesting. In "Antique Roses for the South", Welch comments on finding gallicas in old cemeteries, so some of them (or their crosses) must do okay. I'll have a look at Canary Island.

Semi Plena, Omar Khayyam & Quatre Saisons really did pretty well in coastal zone 9--not the huge flower-laden shrubs you see in photos where they are planted in a more hospitable area--but pretty good. Enough for me to want to try again, especially since I think their history is so romantic.

I grew several of each and there were years when they would bloom and years when there was a paucity of blooms, and sometimes 1 bloom. I did not consider my real estate invaluable enough for the amount of bloom and though I love their fragrance, I have to settle for something that loves me as much as I love it, not something that will never love me. It's like courtship. You try it, you like it and either it loves you or not and if you must, let it go so that you both can be happier in another's garden.

For me, I had problems with thrips attacking two of my old garden roses. Twice in a row and it becoming really annoying especially when I waited them to bloom but their petals turn brown.