Old-fashioned and David Austin Roses

by Barbara Lea Taylor

A gardener-friendly guide to growing roses. Old-fashioned roses are cherished by gardeners for their timeless beauty, strong fragrance and fascinating history. Growing these roses -- along with their hybrids -- offers gardeners an opportunity to bring history to life. It is enormously gratifying to know that the roses blooming in one's garden were first cultivated by the Empress Josephine or were originally used to cover Cleopatra's bed. Old-fashioned and David Austin Roses communicates the pure romance of old fashioned roses while demystifying the process of growing them. Contents Each section of the book is organized by species and near hybrids. A concise history introduces the cultivars along with a short description that includes date of origin, growing requirements and interesting historical facts. Straightforward advice for planning and growing includes practical tips for feeding, watering, mulching, deadheading, cutting, pruning and minimizing the effects of pests, diseases and cold weather. There are landscaping instructions for borders and beds, containers, groundcover, rose shrubs, hedges, the woodland garden and climbers. Finally, a rose cookbook includes recipes for creating such ancient concoctions as rose oil/perfume, rose and rhubarb syrup and rose brandy. Old-fashioned and David Austin Roses is an accessible and essential reference for novice and experienced gardeners.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2004

Reviews

[Bookslut · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, lady porn...how I love to read about roses. But I must say, if the premise of the book is to describe the author's preference for certain species of roses and describe them in detail, shouldn't there be a picture for each rose? As riveting as it can be (somehow?) to read about what shade of apricot a rose is, it needs a picture to seal the deal. Therefore, two stars!