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French rose

Rosa gallica

Also called Red Rose Of Lancaster, Apothecary Rose, Hungarian Rose, Red Rose, Officinal Rose, Rose Of Provence, Cabbage Rose

French rose
Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0

Rosa gallica, the French rose, is a deciduous shrub with fragrant deep pink flowers, one of the oldest roses grown in European gardens. It thrives in full sun or light shade in well-drained soil and is hardy to about -25 °C.

Family
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply during dry spells, especially while establishing, and avoid soggy soil.
Soil
Well-drained garden soil, ideally slightly alkaline to neutral.
Temperature
Hardy to about -25 °C.
How easy
Easy
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Native range
Medit. to EC. & E. Europe and Caucasus
Climate
temperate

About

Rosa gallica, the Gallic rose, French rose, or rose of Provins, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, native to southern and central Europe eastwards to Turkey and the Caucasus. Rosa gallica was one of the first species of rose to be cultivated in central Europe. It is a parent of several important cultivars.

How to grow it

It was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans and commonly used in mediaeval gardens. Until the 19th century it was the most important species of rose to be cultivated, and most modern European rose cultivars have at least a small contribution from R. gallica in their ancestry.

Rosa gallica is easily cultivated on well drained soil in full sun to semishade; it can survive temperatures down to −25 °C.

Other Rosa plants

Prickly rose · White rose of York · Prairie rose · Field-rose · Banksian Rose · Smooth rose · Macartney rose · California wildrose · Dog rose · Carolina rose · Chinese rose · Amur rose

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rosa gallica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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