Mine are just starting. Last week was so hot the first colors seem especially intense. My Belle de C had a crazy nearly neon two-toned coloring I hope I captured with my real camera and will post when i Upload but this one keeps stopping me in my tracks —super intense deep color and 🤯 scent. I keep thinking, I think a person could actually die from the amazingness of this scent. I dont know the lingo but there is something spicy, peppery at the end of the inhale that keeps it from being all sweetness. It’s like life grabbing you by the brain—

Orpheline de Juliet

That Ellen Tofflemire is just gorgeous, Paul! Mine here was absolutely stunning and last year had some gopher/vole trauma to her. I rescued a few canes that have rooted and I will plant them in a gopher root cage this Fall. The original plant is still hanging in there and will bloom. I wish I knew what rose the critters would attack next so I could retro fit them into a gopher root cage.

I found a large burrow under Garland of Love and a mound of soil. I wish it was a badger after Diane reported them dispatching gophers.

@oursteelers 8B PNW Ha, ha! A pot AND a concrete block. I laughed out loud because you and I are side by side in our caution where the infamous (and sublime) Charles de Mills is concerned. Mine is potted and will stay potted. I have a stack of nursery pots all the way up to 25 gallon because Charles will upsize but never be released into the wild in my postage stamp of a garden. Right now he is sitting on a table far above the ground. But later, he’s getting tucked back into my driveway lineup…on top of concrete and far from the crack where a stray piece of Madame Plantier has taken residence. Carol

My Charles is still blooming pink but a darker pink.

@User

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR

@Brandon Garner

I LOVE all these photos of Ellen Tofflemire!! Thank you so much. She is a beautiful, beautiful rose and, to my nose, intensely fragrant. Her deep colors and full, luscious blooms always stop people in their tracks when they walk by my garden. Honestly, she should join the ranks of the Great Gallicas of History. Everyone who sees her asks about her. Carol

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR Argh! The voles must be driving you crazy! I am sending healing thoughts to your Ellen T, and I am going to stop complaining about the Himalayan blackberries that seem to have suddenly and sneakily amassed themselves in the middle of my Basye’s Purple and Botzaris. Carol

@Melissa Northern Italy zone 8

@User

Thank you both for continuing to post photos of rarer Gallicas! It gives me joy to sit down with a cup of tea and gaze at them. I will likely never see most in my garden or any gardens nearby. I wish I could grow all the Gallicas. Melissa, you are certainly giving Vintage Gardens a run for the title of ”Fullest Collector’s Garden”! Paul, your photos are, as always, works of Gallica art!

Everyone,

This class of roses is my dearest, and my heart sings each time I see a specimen— in person, in a book or online. My heart is like a chorus every year as you all share your thoughts, trials, humor and PHOTOS. Thank you so much and keep ’em coming!

Carol

A couple more of darker blooms of Rosa Mundi.

Camaieux Reversion darkens to mauve grey as it fades. Scent: fabulous!

More beloved Tuscany Superb.

Young Gallicandy is in a one gallon pot and has given me 12 BLOOMS! This rose is a bloom machine.

Who are we? Unlabeled and very similar pale pink Gallicas. Scrambled Gallicas: This is embarrassing, so I’m going to provide backstory.

We had an ongoing Battle of the Rats. Norway rats had taken up residence years ago under our elderly next door neighbor‘s porch. I tried to be gentle in my approach because she had a lot going on. Year after year….rats. Then her brother would poison them, and they’d die agonizing deaths all over our driveway and we’d try to dispose of the corpses before scavenging animals found them. Fast forward to last year when developer neighbors across the street bought the house but the rats remained. Finally, after our car had been rat chewed and repaired several times over several years, we parked it on the street to try to keep them at bay. BUT then roving catalytic converter thieves got our car. $900 later we scrambled to rat proof everything in sight, throwing potted roses into areas far away from our car (but still crammed onto on hard surfaces because, well, Gallicas travel) and shearing down and clearing out (with permission) the neighbor’s massive, overgrown tangle of shrubs, weeds and vines lining our driveway. We hired an electrician to replace our garage and driveway light with a dusk to dawn. We replaced our overhead garage door mechanism so we could put the most vulnerable of our two cars in the garage. We placed a dusk to dawn ”rat-io” (radio) in the garage to play rock music around the cars. We strung lights on the deck next to car in the driveway. Then we waited for the neighbors to open up the crawlspace under their porch, repair their broken sewer line, chase away or trap the rats, etc. Winter hit and late spring wintery weather hit. We rearranged and shoved rose pots close together, we bundled potted babies to protect them from the ice and snow and we moved tiny babies and potted rarities in and out of the garage while slip-sliding on the icy driveway. Fast forward to Gallica season: I have 2 unlabeled pink Gallicas growing in pots. Ugh. (I am screaming inside my head!) Do these look remotely familiar to anyone? Sorry about the crappy photos and soil splashed on the blooms!

@User Does one of these look like it might be Allegra? I’ll go sniff blooms and try to get better shots after I pick up my daughter from school.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR For a little pest variety, we swap voles and rats? Ha, ha!

Thank you all for looking at the photos and offering your thoughts. I have Juno and Allegra in my Gallica mix, so maybe those two? All guesses appreciated. Carol

#1

#2

If you are talking about Juno the centifolia, this is the best picture I have. It hasn't started blooming quite yet this year.

It did produce a pink sport a couple of years ago. It looks like this year about half the shrub will be pink, and half blush.

Carol, I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that! Gosh that's awful. I hope the rat ordeal ends soon. I live surrounded by tons of farmland+prairie, plus I live right next to a big drainage ditch, so mice abound. The first year or two I tried to take a gentle approach but I've since given that up. I don't poison but I do deliver swift deaths to any mouse in my home that I can catch. It's maddening to have them be so evasive and so persistent, so I really feel for you. I wish I knew what your roses were, good luck getting their IDs.

@portlandmysteryrose Yes, that looks about right for 'Allegra'!

I have two large rows of Gallicas that represent 90% of the Gallica catalog that Pickering Nurseries used to sell, but they've grown so big and the spaces between filled with Blackberries that I can no longer get to the ID tags at the bases. I don't recognize most of them well enough to know their names. I ought to post photos of as many as I can reach anyway. Such a mess. Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe Himalayan Blackberry??! (Not fond of the man who introduced it either)

Carol your rat story gave me the heebie jeebies. We have a lot of critters: mice, shrew, voles and moles but as far as I know we’ve only had one rat and Cookie (one of our cats) took care of it

Gallicas are a new project for me, and my zone is too hot for them, so I don't expect them to last long. But I'm trying anyway.

Mine were all bands, so I only got a handful of flowers late winter. So here's some foliage. So far, Burgundian Rose and Tuscany Superb seem to be the most enthusiastic about being here. They both have healthy leaves and are growing new basals. Tuscany's basal breaks are visible in the photo, but I didn't get the right angle for Burgundian

Tuscany Superb

Burgundian rose. The leaves on this one are so small, but so perfect.

@Paul Barden

Wow! Thank you so much for your instantaneous reply! It’s such a gift that you are right here on the forum. I was pretty sure these blooms match the ones I saw in your garden when I almost swooned at the sight, and I right then and there decided that Allegra was actually outshining its famous Gallica parent (whom I also absolutely adore). I am attaching a few more photos of my most likely Allegra in case they are helpful. If life weren’t so hectic right now, I’d have gotten some pics of the blooms when they were fresher. They are absolutely lovely even when fading. Larger blooms than my Duchesse de Montebello. Scrumptious and rich Gallica scent plus something else with a lingering sweetness! Strong canes. Healthy foliage. I need to get this plant in the ground! I am conforted that even experienced rosarians and breeders don’t recognize absolutely everything by sight. :) Carol

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) Yes exactly. Thanks! I should have said Centifolia. Juno: the Centifolia which I was sold as a Gallica hybrid. I think HMF also lists it as a China hybrid. I appreciate your photo! My Juno looked like yours in past years. So maybe #2 is something else? Or the weird weather? Or sporting like yours? That’s interesting about your pink sport and your 1/2 pink and 1/2 blush Juno. If this is not Juno, the real Juno must still be somewhere in the tangle of potted roses that I am untangling and organizing. Note the blackspot on this one. Carol

Off topic: Blackberries anyone? (Screaming emoji!)

More Gloire de France blooming and blooming and blooming….

Also lost a tag, but a baby Ellen Tofflemire, yes?

@Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b)

@oursteelers 8B PNW

Thank you! Sympathy most welcome. It’s been a trial, for sure. Hopefully moving toward the upside now. At least I’m finally getting my pots organized! 🎉

@User I am so glad you are getting some blooms from TS and Burgundian! Your babies look very healthy and happy. Lots of foliage and busy making roots? I am very curious to read your follow-ups over time. I hope TS performs for you! When mature, it is a prolific bloomer, so even if each bloom is short lived, you may still get an extended show. And, honestly, does it get any better than TS? :) I think Cardinal de Richelieu, having China in his history, might do well for you, but in my experience he requires part shade or his blooms fry. Even here in Portland now. I planted and then unplanted mine so that I can give him a shadier or east-facing spot. NO west sun! Carol

Carol, that does look like Ellen to me. That is one thing about the gopher/vole damage is that it is giving me multiples because I root their trimmings and have the original attacked plant too. I'll plant the potted offspring in gopher baskets.

@Paul Barden, are your roses available in Europe? That's my first question. I always seem to buy roses on the eve of historic droughts--this has happened twice--but perhaps I'll get interested one day in making new purchases. At the moment, my health and energy are at a low ebb, so I'm not currently thinking about it.

It's encouraging to hear that other gardeners' gardens are as big a mess as mine.

I believe I need go get busy propagating, to get duplicates of some of my roses. This is true of the ones that are reluctant to sucker in particular, to preserve them. I've given some time this year to cleaning out one of my propagating beds, and it will be available for this fall. Photographing my roses this year, practically for the first time, as I now have a camera, has been a positive experience, as it has caused me to have a good look at them and also look them up on my maps and lists (maps and lists are STRONGLY recommended for anyone who has a sizeable number of roses!), since the labels, however carefully I place and replace them, are never, ever there.

Carol, my 'Juno' is blush, a pale rose. Sorry to hear about your rat (and human rat) experiences. That's the advantage of living in the country, in a not intensively farmed countryside, you get a more balanced ecosystem: rats, but also foxes and other carnivores to keep them down, not to mention our neighbors' farm cats, and our own pets. It's a jungle!

Again Carol, and Paul, oh, do I know the trouble of keeping varieties straight. My Gallicas are mostly in fair order, with a few exceptions, but I have a pile of Ayrshire ramblers, possibly some Sempervirens among them, that I absolutely cannot straighten out, and I've given up. They come from cuttings a friend gave me. It turned out that some names were incorrect, then I grew them in beds from cuttings that got mixed up, the kinds being so similar; then the documentary information isn't that helpful, at least for me. I can tell that there are different varieties in the group: I once sat down and tried to sort them out, carefully noting characteristics, but all in vain; which is which is beyond me. So they get planted out once in a while, or live in pots until I can find a place for them, which isn't easy as they're large ramblers. They're thorny, and they do fine here.

One last (perhaps) photo:

A sea of 'Gloire de France'.

Carol! Do you do a thread on ramblers? Or shall I start one?

@Melissa Northern Italy zone 8 As you said, it is nice to be in good company! Trying to untangle everything this spring has been hair ripping. If I were in your garden shoes, I’d surrender to the Ayrshires and Sempervirens, too. I am trying to get an accurate label on my small collection, but if I had a spread like you or Paul, I’d surely let my borderline OCD take a vacation. WHERE do our rose tags disappear to? Glorious Gloire photo! Please do start a rambler thread.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR Thank you for the ET confirmation! You are truly making lemonade from voles and gophers by rooting the offspring. :)

"My gallicas are mostly in fair order..." Famous last words! I took a look at the rooted suckers of 'Tuscany' that I had planted in a corner that needed something, and lo and behold, the last lingering bloom was pale pink! DEFINITELY not 'Tuscany'! Further research offered a suggestion of mossing on the receptacle. It does look like a Gallica, but is a young plant that may assume a more definite character as it matures; my best guess is that somehow I picked up a bit of 'Alfred de Dalmas'/'Mousseline' when I was trying to get 'Agathe Rose' instead. This isn't a very credible explanation, but then neither is any other.

Carol, I think an element of iron discipline, i.e. OCD, is really needed to keep track of a large population of roses. I have an orderly mind, if not the most orderly habits, and I find it requires serious work and attention to keep track of my varieties. When my attention fails, as it has on occasion, it turns out that I regret it, well, pretty much for ever after.

Someone needs to invent a better rose label.

Today I spent an agreeable morning hunting down and freeing some roses from grass. These roses have been in the garden quite a while, long enough for their original canes to have died, and new smaller canes, suckers from the scion, to have sprouted in their place. This is how it seems to work in my garden. I didn't see my old roses, but I thought I would find the young suckers if I looked, and, in fact, there they were: 'Alain Blanchard', the lovely 'Ohl', and 'James Mitchell'. All present, if small. They may take a while to get build enough vigor to bloom--the soil is, as always, bad--but they're there. Also my white Centifolia, with one old. old cane left, but sparse new young ones suckering out. It would probably like better condtions, but it holds on. This is a most beautiful rose, and I wish I grew it better. I still have more clearing to do down there, to see how 'Maréchal Davoust' and 'Orpheline de Juillet', both suckers taken from the parent plant, are doing, and check that the hops growing over the pergola aren't taking over the world, as hops are terribly prone to do.

This thread is so fun. So many beautiful roses.

Carol, i hope that this year the rats will be eradicated. I'm so sorry any all the trouble.

This is the first year of blooming for some of my gallicas that started out as bands.

Cardinal de Richelieu. This rose is so tmagnificently purple in real life.

Belle de Crecy looking great.

It's hard to catch the color and velvety nature of Tuscany Superb.

Marianne has put on quite a show this year. She's winding down now .

Ellen Tofflemire

Librarian you take the best photos. Your roses look incredible.

I'm over here still waiting on Henri to finally bloom so I can actually contribute to the topic.

I look forward to your photos, Magpie. It can ss a long wait for bands to take off sometimes. A few of mine needed at least two years. Others did great in just one year.

These OGR threads are amon.g my favorites.

@librarian_gardner_8b_pnw Gorgeous photos of some of my VERY favorite Gallicas: oodles of rich, classic purples plus the incomparable apricot Marianne. If you look out your window and spy a stranger sitting in your garden and communing with your roses, it’s just me! Ha, ha. :)

@Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b) Patience is a virtue, they say. I look forward to your Henri’s blooms, too! Have you noticed that you may be the only one on the forum posting his photos? I am so glad you are growing and preserving this now rarely seen Gallica.

Carol, come. by any time!

I have Henri but he looks awful this year-I do not think he liked being sprayed with Deer Off.

Henri Martin here is a Moss Rose.

Henri on left. La Reine middle.

That is so beautiful, Sheila. You're doing a great job.

Well, HF was finally about to open a big fat bud today to show me in year 3 its first ever bloom. Instead I looked out the window just in time to see a squirrel grab it and run up a tree. Pink petal confetti at the base of the tree is all I get this year. Ugh.

Ugh, I'm so sorry, Magpie. Those squirrels are ruthless. I hope the HF has a great season of growth for you this year and that it produce well next year. Does it have more buds this year?

The squirrels have been quite upsetting to me when I've had young blooms, too.

Some of my gallicas bloomed the first time this year too. It's a long wait.

There's only 1 small bud left on it now, Librarian. We'll see if it gets a chance to open. It is a long wait.

@Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b) Ooooo! I hate that!! (Insert cursing emoji.) Last year, squirrels ate my Ellen Tofflemire buds. ALL of them! Something dug up my young Rook a few years ago, the whole plant, and killed it. I am still trying to replace Rook. :(

I am gnashing my teeth in unison with you! I wonder if you can temporarily cage your Henri F? When it was a baby, I saved my Botzaris by wedging my old school Smith and Hawken riddle over the top of its pot. Someday, your precious Gallica will be big and strong and pump out too many blooms for a squirrel to devour without its belly exploding! As @librarian_gardner_8b_pnw said, it’s a long wait. But a mature Gallica in full bloom is jaw dropping! Carol

More Allegra.

A bloom past its glory and battered by my pot sorting and the sun, but still gorgeous and SO fragrant. Notice the baby katydid on the bloom! I almost bumped it with my nose.

Allegra bud.

A final bloom from young Tricolore de Flandre. For a one gallon baby, TdF really exploded in flowers. Around 8, I think.

It is really frustrating, and it absolutely put me in the worst mood this morning. Last year I was about to see the one and only bud that my little Indigo grew, and just like today, it disappeared the morning it was set to open. I didn't see the act last time but I assume it was a squirrel then, too. I moved Indigo this past winter and it's got 1 bud on it again, really hoping to see it this year. I'm not totally convinced yet that it's the correct rose.

@Mischievous Magpie (CO 5b) Can you message me?

Ugh, Magpie, I'm so sorry. This is very frustrating. 😢

Librarian, honestly I whined and pouted about it for most of the day today and I think it's out of my system lol. We got a good rain tonight, and there are lots of things in the garden just on the verge of their moment to bloom, so there's lots of good things coming up soon, fingers crossed.

Mischievous Magpie, gardening does teach one patience and philosophy, doesn't it? Also to grow a lot of different things, so that if one plant is a disappointment, another one will be a joy. I hope your roses will, sooner or later, make you very happy.

Great thread ! I'm liking everyone's comments, but got tired of pressing the thumbs up sign. I myself have no Gallicas, but perhaps someday after I get my pot ghetto somewhat under control...However, I can SO deeply relate to the whole "sawing down brambles and giant weeds" theme. I'm focusing on that as much as possible now; many areas have not been touched for at least 2 years now, and it is truly a jungle. There's way too much to do,and I can't seem to ever actually finish any given area,because some other area demands attention ASAP. For example: I had started on an area under an oak, near one of the garden' edges that border on woods (almost all do) that has been invaded by brambles from said woods that are now huge and spreading all over. But then I had to get down to the lower garden to get a tall ladder, and had to saw my way through chest-high weeds. Also noticed that these horrid,sneaky, uber-invasive weeds that look like moonflowers and act somewhat like bindweed had to be removed immediately since they were getting ready to bloom. Then yesterday I had to access my water tanks (still need to set up that drip irrigation system),and so once again had to saw a trail up to them and around them. Also realized that yet another area, full of lunarias that have finished flowering, has to be cut down NOW, while the plants are still green, because I'm using the stuff I cut as organic matter for areas that need it desperately (I remove roots and flowers of the not-moonflowers, of course,and some of the obvious large seed-pods, but just ignore all the weed seeds I'm doubtless spreading about,since this organic matter is all going into the most cultivatable areas of my garden). So, nothing ever seems to get totally DONE.

BTW,I, too, wish that I could find some European nursery that carries Paul Barden roses ...

" So, nothing ever seems to get totally DONE. " Bart, that is EXACTLY my case. What do you think: "Mal comune mezzo gaudio"? At least I understand that part of your difficulties perfectly, and wish you luck carrying on.

The climate has made the weeds larger and more prolific than ever. I saw Comfrey last year in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 12 feet high. I had a friend who worked in a Botanic Garden and she said that before visitors come they tidy up like crazy. Just as you and I perhaps may do with your living room before guests arrive. At least I do. Perfection is an illusion with gardening, or at least something very ephemeral.

This was Marianne last week, still covered in bushels of blooms. I finally HAD to give her a good haircut yesterday so made one last bouquet for the house and went hacking away. We've had a wonderful mild spring which blessed me with a long spring flush. One of the best I've had. Not much rain either to spoil the blooms but we're catching up on rain now thankfully.

One more

Apothecary Rose

My gallicas are all tiny and stsrted last year but i am enjoying them very much and so inspired by all you gallica lovers and your lovely photos and words of wisdom.

Duchesse de Buccleugh

Was extremely bright, nearly neon, in the heat last week and now thrse folds of color

One day later and the edges are going paler and the center deepening its a lovely effect

Agatha Incarnata

smaller and a powdery pink puffs that look very nice with the paler, slightly gray-ish foliage, with an almost hidden eye.