‘Charles de Mills’ Gallica Rose
This morning I dug out some photos I took last June of ‘Charles de Mills’, a hybrid Gallica rose growing in the Rose & Fragrance Garden at PSU. What you’re looking at here is 3 plants grouped in the shape of a triangle, but even singly these plants can get pretty sizable. They do tend to sprawl a bit (and sucker) but don’t you think it looks pretty with the blossoms flowing over the ground sprinkled with fallen petals? Very romantic. Charles de Mills is a classic Old Garden Rose, having been cultivated for well over 200 years. Fragrant, very full flowers bloom once in late spring on a disease-resistant, cold-hardy shrub. It’s also top-rated…if I’m not mistaken it’s an 8.4 in the ARS handbook. The flowers are a deep crimson/wine color and I apologize because I didn’t quite capture it correctly with these photos. Like Henri Martin, it can be a tricky color to photograph but I’ll try again this spring. 😉
Thank you for being here as we celebrate roses this month. More to come!
These look very much like a rose my mom had growing everywhere in a bed we cleaned up at the farm this summer. The rose had suckered like crazy and were very short, but filled with flowers. We ended up digging them all out and although I was tempted to try bringing a bit home to try growing in a pot it was the height of summer when we cleaned out the bed and there were so many weeds growing intertwined with the roses that I decided not to risk it. Now I’m kind of wishing I had.
Oh gosh I hate when that happens. I’ll bet, since it was suckering so heavily to begin with, that you haven’t seen the last of that rose. Maybe there is still hope to salvage a piece!
Wish I had space for this one – the only once blooming rose that I have is Madame Hardy. I really like the color of Charles de Mills, it’s so hard to find roses with that depth of coloring. Thanks for sharing it!
I agree–the coloring is quite remarkable. And a rose garden isn’t complete without Mme Hardy, don’t you think? 😉
Oh, joy joy! You’re blogging again! I just rec’d a mailing from DA which has me thinking of roses so I thought I’d check out your page again “This Rose Not That One”. And I can see I have some catching up to do on reading your blog! Thanks for sharing such lovely photos and your vast knowledge, Laurie! I’m following you now on Instagram so I won’t miss any more posts! Cindy from TheCranesNest.com
Hi Cindy! Lovely to hear from you again! Thank you for your follow on IG and Happy New Year!
Gorgeous! What a glorious color! You always show us such beautiful flowers. I love coming here, Laurie. Thanks for visiting and leaving the lovely comment on my blog. xxx ~ Nancy
Thank you Nancy! Yes, Charles is a very handsome rose. 🙂