Gallica, Provins Rose 'Charles de Mills'

It was hard to start this plant as a cutting; but after 2-3 yrs staying as a small cuttings it just woke up one day and took over my rose...Read More patch. It does suckers all of a sudden and send out a lot of shoots to shade out other shorter younger roses. The petals are tightly arranging in one directions in a swirl. I fell in love with that deep burgundy color in the shades of lighter reds and purples all mix in one(see my photo), the fragrance is medium in a warm day of spice and fruit. It has always been healthy for me, no mildew. The flower size is impressive, one of the biggest I've seen. Its not as big as a gradiflora but bigger then a hybrid tea, the size of my palm. The stem can hardly support the bloom, it does nod a little from the weight of the flower. You can pinch the old bloom and it can be a great cut flower. It looks even more splendid in a vase. There is prickles all over the cane. Not as bad as some of the David Austins. I have very mild winter and this rose is almost totally ever green; it lost very little leaves in winter.
I know this rose does not repeat well but like a Camilla it has a very long blooming season. There is no reason not to grow this rose. I've really not come across it aside from seeing it in a park. I've read it Claire Martin's Book. The photo is very close likeness as mine. But only when you grow this rose then you'll know how delightful this wonderful rose really is!

Healthy 4 foot plant but you better have plenty of room because it suckers wildly. It has been in my garden since 1993 when I planted one...Read More plant. It now covers at least half of one quadrant of my 50 foot square (with bisecting 4' wide flagstone paths in cross form) rose garden. Good thing I like it because I can't imagine how I'd get rid of it. Suckers come up every year along the edges. I have nothing else like it in my garden! I like to say "you can't kill it with a stick." Very cold hardy too!

Although referred to by one vendor as "charles de mildew" this rose never stints on its yearly production of flowers. It remains compact...Read More and aside from the mildew, which plagues it most where the air drains poorly, is imperturbably healthy. The flowers are a wonderful shade of red more genuinely wine coloured (think of the ruby red of cab sauv or an aussie Shiraz) than the purply colour usually called wine, and as they age take on the usual gallica motley purple & crimson fading to lavender & mauve -- a much lovlier phenomenon than that description conveys!!!

Many people refer to the flower's unique shape -- it really does look at one point as if each flower had started life as a ball which was then sliced perfectly across the middle..