Landscape with Roses: Gardens * Walkways * Arbors * Containers

by Jeff Cox, Jerry Pavia (Photographer)

Filled with practical design advice for incorporating roses into virtually every kind of landscape, this timeless, inspirational guide is destined to become a landscape gardening classic. Learn how to purchase and care for roses throughout the year.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2002

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the best guides I’ve read. I don’t love it with all my heart and soul, but Cox comes across as knowledgeable and practical, (mostly) without being overly simplistic. He manages to give recommendation lists without totally overwhelming the reader! I may wind up checking it out again for reference.

Cox doesn’t think in terms of native plants. I guess you wouldn’t, if rose hybrids are your thing. He recommends a few plants that are on the please-do-not-plant list for my area. So read this for the roses, not necessarily the planting mix.

He also went off on a weird tangent about Like Water for Chocolate in his section on growing romantic trysting bowers. 🥴 All I can figure is he doesn’t read much fiction and that made an impression!

There were a couple of ideas that I want to include in my garden, not bower-related, and he briefly discussed the climber I have going over the shed. It’s always gratifying to find your own rose in a book.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overview for someone new to roses. Lots of pretty photos and details on varieties.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book before and now I'm re-reading it. This is my favorite book (so far) that I've found about rose gardening. It has many beautiful pictures; lots of ideas; and lots of practical, how-to advice. There are some descriptions of specific roses, but it's not an encyclopedia, nor does it have a section devoted entirely to descriptions of different rose choices. If you're looking for a book to help you decide which roses to plant, this may not be as helpful as some (though there are plenty of suggestions of rose varieties for different gardening needs), but if you are looking for ideas and advice about integrating roses into your garden, refining your plant combinations and keeping your roses healthy, this book will be very helpful. One of the things I particularly like about this book is that the photographs are mostly of roses in gardens, surrounded by other plants. Many of the other rose books that I've looked at are illustrated mostly with close-up photographs of the rose flowers. Being able to clearly see how different rose varieties interact with other flowers in the landscape and really see what sort of growing habits they have is much more useful for me than seeing what the flower looks like and reading a description. Now if only a book could let me smell what the flowers smell like...

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely photos. There's also some great information about growing roses and working roses into your landscape/garden design.

[Lissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the easiest to comprehend, informative book on roses that I have found so far. Not a lot of fluff, good diagrams, great photos.