Well Bart, Gallicas are rather wonderful, if you live where you can grow them, I'm assuming your in Italy, I'm so jealous! I say grow as many as you can, I do and only half bloomed last year, with our rather mild winter we had :) I've been seriously contemplating moving, just to grow them! Health reasons too, but I'm not going to lie, I'm crazy over those, I guess that's why they are called Mad gallicas! I want to move just to be able to fully enjoy them!

Its those plummy purply colours that do it ! Even I can dream about Gallicas, although theres no way they could be happy here.

Yeah, those colours just are irresistable.But I've got to try to control myself: so far , my list of Gallicas alone is 20 roses...

I agree. Love of roses never dies.

Well Bart, what I do, I'm not sure if it would work for you, but what I do is grow them in pots for a year to get good roots, plant them and amend hole some, and mulch and forget, maybe throw them some rose food once a year. Most gallicas are not hard. Charles de Mills does like well amended soil, lots of food and water, so that is' one that you can't plant and forget. If rainfall is decent, you should never have to water. If it goes more than a week- to a week and a half , I will give some supplemental water, if able. The year I got in a wreck, I was able to give none and only lost 3 or 4 roses total and none were gallicas. I hope this helps.

Bart, you are not alone. Our summer was really hot, no rain for more than one month. I said no more roses. Meh...yeah. When I got this year Petrović list of roses, I forgot all my promises. I have ordered twenty roses from Petrović. Mostly older Austins, which are hard to find. In my heat, gallicas do not do well. And a lot of other roses also, which I ordered in past years. After discovering this forum, I decided to try teas (unfortunately, Petrović currently has limited selection of teas). I search for other nurseries, but no other has so affordable prices as Petrović.

And after visiting David Austin nursery this summer, I have to get The lady gardener and The Albrighton rambler. Where I will plant them, I have really no idea.

Lol I'm with Curdle on that! Plummy purples are awesome and the Galicas prob would hate my climate. My next tattoo is gonna b a purpley gallica rose lol. At least I can have one that way :)

Bart post pic of yours as they grow so we can grow them vicariously lol.

Luckily Petrovic doesn't deliver here. I mean the selection...come on!!!! Massad roses aren't even available here. That would be my difficulty. We have such great growing conditions .... but the roses I really want aren't available! It's frustrating... and it's also my financial salvation. If Massad and more Delbard roses were available here I would be poor. Rose rich, but cash poor.

I just pre-ordered a bazillion roses from a local nursery because I found a new spot they could grow in my yard. All in the name of the backyard remodel. In actuality I just wanted them.

It's ok Bart.

Hey if you can buy a Claude Monet Delbard rose for me ok? And post pics! Because they're not available here!!!!

Bart, be aware that Petrovic's online rose list differs considerably from what he actually has available; you need to write and request his list of roses for sale this year. Have I written about this before? Mr. P. knows English and responds, promptly in my experience, to e-mails.

More expensive, though still reasonable, and a good nursery, is La Campanella: they have a lot of Gallicas and other once-blooming old roses, send good plants, and almost always provide the correct variety. (I received 'Mme. Zoetmans' once when I ordered something else, but that's the only error I can remember in a lot of ordering. And 'Mme. Zoetmans' is a great rose.) I bought a lot of roses from them back in 2007-2008.

I mentioned my worry about passing box moth to other gardens with plants from mine. If you don't have this hideous pest, which doesn't just damage box, but kills it, then I won't suggest suckers from my roses, of which I have quite a few available. If, or when, box moth arrives in your area, and it doesn't matter any more, I'd be happy to mail you a selection of suckers.

P.S. Alana, your enthusiasm for Gallicas is endearing!

Alana, thank you so much for the heads-up on Charles de Mills; it's such a big help to be able to eliminate one option from the list of luscious-looking flowers. One of the excuses I'm using for my lack of will power is that, finally, I can actually grow roses in pots for their first year (at our old place this was a failure, because of the lack of good light; here it's perfect: morning light, afternoon shade). This should be a big help: in my garden, only first-year implants get water,and due to our brutal summer weather,I've lost first-year bare-root roses in the past . "If it goes more than a week- to a week and a half , I will give some supplemental water, if able"...I WISH it were like that for me!!!here,we usually get what amounts to ZERO rain for 2-3 months each summer!!! but I think Melissa's garden is like mine in that sense,and since she can grow gallicas, I figure it's worth while for me to try it, too. Melissa, I have ordered from La Campanella and have found it to be totally excellent: some of the finest bare-root roses I've ever seen! I wrote to Mr. Petrovic to ask about shipping rates,but have to formulate my question better, since he just replied that it depends on the amount of roses. What I would like to know is, for example, how many bare roots make up, say, 1 kilo. I checked on other nursery sites and,according to La Roseraie du Désert, 1-3 roses= 1kilo, 15-20= 5 kilos, so now I'm struggling to formulate an order of no more than 20 roses from Petrovic. I'll send this list as a tentative order, to see whether he's got the ones I'm hoping for. I'm especially interested in the Warners and Massads, since these are harder to find than the OGRs on the list...

Yes Bart I do receive more rain that, although this summer was drier than usual. Bart I was reading/ looking through Vintages Garden Book of roses last night before bed and if you can get your hands on Belle Herminie- their words were- " Forget CHARLES DE MILLS- grow this instead!" Other than that I'm sure Melissa can tell you which Gallica's do well over there and good luck with your choosing!

Melissa, I am very much in love with the Gallica's - it really was love at first site, first chance I get to move where I can better grow them better-I will take it!

This year Petrović has good selection of Massad and Warner roses. I am waiting for Belle de Sardaigne. He has also Tom Carruth `s roses (I`ve ordered Oh wow).

Could someone please provide a link for La Campanella nursery? I have hesitated ordering from Petrovic because dealing with Greek customs (since he's non EU) can be a nightmare. It's probably easier just to drive up there and collect any roses ordered..

Nik, try:

La Campanella

Thanks. I've just checked them out. One more continental nursery not accepting payments in any form other than wire transfers... That's probably a deal braker for me as wire transfers are too expensive and too much hassle over here. I'm so used in nurseries in continental Europe making international buyer's life difficult that I first check the terms of payment and the rest before I check out their selections..

I wish fervantly that more nurseries would accept payment with credit card,whether through PayPal or otherwise,too. Nik, have you ever bought ftom La Roseraie du Désert?