Nice pictures. I used to have that rose at my other house. It didn't have all that many flowers. I think it was in a bad spot. However, they were always rather richly colored. Thanks for posting these.

What a clever way to to keep the canes off the ground. That's pretty impressive for a two-year old rose, and the color is beautiful. The yellow stamens add the final touch.

Ingrid

mmm, I was admiring the plant support too - rather nicer than my efforts with bent wire and cane. Lovely rose as well.

the_bustopher , mine is only in its second year and is covered with buds. Maybe you should try another one if you have room for it.

Ingrid and campanula, the fencing is quite cheap, it comes as a ten panel fence from a canadian hardware store.
There is probably something similar in your areas. I wish I had more, it works really well.

I can see why you are in love!
Remy

I can see why. Beautiful color. Gean

I'm in love too, and TS is part of my harem. I adore the Gallicas in general, though: we had an unusually good spring for them, and I spent a lot of time admiring and studying them. 'Ipsilante' was particularly inspiring this year.
My 'Tuscany Superb' tends to flop, just like this one, but I'm wondering whether pruning the plant shorter might help. It doesn't seem to flower all along the cane, so perhaps wouldn't mind harder pruning. TS is one of the easier-to-root Gallicas. Many of them are difficult, at least with the methods I've tried (fall cuttings), but TS is quite obliging.
Melissa

My OGRs are all in their second year. Charles de Mills and Belle Isis both had some winter damage so I pruned them and when I was finished they were 1/3 their previous size.
Didn't think I would get any flowers.
Belle Isis and Charles were covered in flowers and stood up to the winds and rain better than the others.
Poor little Ispahan was cut back to a foot from the ground and it has been covered with flowers. Absolutely beautiful.
I can't believe how many flowers these roses cover themselves with.
( I think there is a message in there for me)
I think it is probably a good thing they only flower once.

Helen

That is exactly what I tell like a broken record every year. Gallicas (and albas and moses and damasks) LOVE good winter/early spring pruning. They bloom better this way, stand better, don't flop and you can see what you are doing when you prune them in spring. Many books and even rose experts advise to prune oncebloomers after flowering. They say that when you prune in spring, you get less flowers. This is wrong. Good pruning stimulates growth of side branches that produce flowers. So instead of long canes with blooms at the ends, you will have shorter branches, but with blooms all the way from top to bottom. Definitely I get more blooms from pruned gallicas than from unpruned ones.
Pruning after the bloom is also difficult because you can't see the structure of rose bush. It is much easier to clean old, weak and non-productive canes in spring before they leaf out. Cutting 1/3-2/3 of the canes length to self supporting wood and thinnig out the brances in winter(warmer climates)/early spring (colder areas) is the best you can do to your onceblooomers.

Olga

Tankyou for showing us your Tuscany Suberp Maggiepie, looks super ! I will remember for the future what you said about them, Olga and Melissa.

Olga, thanks so much for your input.
Unfortunately, I have cut back the rest of my gallicas and albas due to excessive amounts of rain and them lying on the ground.
I hope I haven't hurt them too much. I didn't prune as much as hacked.
I will tidy them up next spring, hopefully I haven't caused too much damage.

Olga, when do you prune exactly? I want to time pruning 'Duchesse de Montebello' and 'Tuscany Superb' correctly, I'd assume around March for us fellow people in Maryland, correct?

Would that method bode well for other once bloomers like mosses 'Henri Martin' and Damasks like 'Leda' as well?

Leda is nicely woven with perennials and its floppiness isn't as much of an issue as she looks rather attractive being semi-prostrate and supports the butterfly weed but if I can get more blooms out of them this way, I'm all for pruning them in the same manner....

oath5, I pruned mine when the snow finally melted.
Here's a pic of my Charles de Mills. Not sure if you can tell from the pic but it is only about 30 inches high but was covered in flowers. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics when it was at its peak.
You can't see a lot of the flowers as they are buried under stems on the ground.

{{gwi:293937}}

How lovely your Charles de Mills is ! I can't wait till mine is like yours.

When we were last in England, Tuscany Superb was the rose that Tom fell in love with. He spotted it everywhere we went. After we returned home, I ordered and planted one for him, even though gallicas perform indifferently for me here.

Rosefolly

Max,
Here in MD we can prune old European once bloomers any time from late December till end of March. In colder zones it is better to wait until spring and not to prune in winter, because there could be more dieback. In MD these roses get no dieback , so any winter early spring time will work. I usually prune my gallicas, albas, mosses,etc. during chtistmas break at work (between Christmas and New Year)
Henri MartinD, uchesse de Montebello, Tuscany Superb and Leda are fine with this treatment.
I usually do some additional pruning in summer too, after the bloom, just to shape the bushes and take the spend blooms off. But this is more like a "fashion haircut", not "military haircut" which I do in winter :)
I know that Lori, who lives very close to me does the same to her hardy roses and her garden is beautiful.
Olga

I'll have to do that over winter break then for sure, Henri Martin is awfully floppy and Duchesse de Montebello is considerably sturdier but is rather leggy, perhaps the supposed china influence in there. Thanks for the advice Olga!

I mean, I've read about pruning but I was always worried mine weren't settled in enough yet. I guess now that they're around three years old though I guess I can trim them up.I can pick hips by December as well.

My idea is that Henri Martin will semi-climb or fill in around the ankles, so to speak, of a celeste sugar fig I planted in between my two bushes of 'Henri Martin' though they are currently bigger than the fig! That got much bigger this year though, hopefully next year will be even better. I thought the magenta-red would compliment the rather bright green matte leaves when in bloom, and also get some protection from rain. Here's to hoping the fig gets over three feet tall next year...

Maggie that Charles de Mills is awesome! I never realized it was that purple/mauve....always thought it was more of a crimson? Stunning, either way.

One of my first bands ever in the mail was a Charles de Mills but it ended up dying on me due to being a bad clone. It was one of the only disappointments I had from Ashdown Roses when they were in business.

Tuscany Superb on the other hand, it really is a great rose, and I appreciate that its rather inconspicuous out of bloom as well and not terribly awkward, I mean it gets a little haggard by September, but by then most plants are...I look forward to the flowers.

Max, the Charles de Mills is only in its second year for me.
It was bare root from Pickerings last year but didn't flower.
We had so much snow that it had lots of broken stems so had to cut it back.
I was really surprised by the colour too, especially as the buds started out white.
It is so much more beautiful than I expected, I can see why it is a favourite with so many people.

Lovely rose bush. I do the same with my plants and bushes if they droop and lay on the ground by the way. It looks nicer than seeing all of those pretty blooms laying in the dirt. I started doing that when i saw my peony blooms laying in mud! eekk Now I do it for most of my shrubs.