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Rose Resources
Rose Resources | |||||
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Included on this page are books, web links and mail order sources for roses. Books The following are my favorite rose books. They all have good pictures and tons of helpful information. I got most of them from http://www.amazon.com . Amazon has an excellent search facility and if you look for books on roses, you will find plenty. Be sure to read the reviews though, as some are just "artsy" and not much help other than having nice pictures. The Organic Rose Garden by Liz Druitt This is my favorite book and I carry it with me when I travel. Not only does Liz Druitt give good advice on organic gardening, but she concentrates on Southern gardening and has a great list of roses with pictures and good descriptions. When I seriously began planting roses, I followed her suggestions and have had extremely good success. 100 English Roses for the American Garden by Clair G. Martin If you are going to grow English Shrub Roses, you must get this book. It seems to be especially accurate for the South. Each rose has an absolutely beautiful picture and very detailed description. It is a simply beautiful book, published by Workman. This book was so beautiful that I bought the Heirloom Tomatoes book.published by Workman, as well, and was just as pleased with that volume. The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book by Graham Stuart Thomas If you want to read the history of roses and detailed descriptions of the rose classes, this a great book. I was a little intimidated by this book when I first got it, as it was not one of the rose books I had seen with a picture of each rose and a description. However, after I sat down and started reading it, I could not put it down. It lives by my bed and I read sections almost every night. Mr. Thomas is a very gifted writer and his love of roses really shines through. If you are interested in old garden roses, you must get this book. It is one of the most informative on the subject. Old Roses and English Roses by David Austin David Austin developed the English Roses and this little book is not only beautiful, but probably one of the more accurate regarding Old Roses. He doesn't especially care for Tea roses, however, but I believe this is because of his climate in England. Here in the South, it is hard to find better roses than the Teas, with the exceptions of the Noisettes and Chinas. Shrub Roses and Climbing Roses by David Austin This is the companion volume to the book listed above. It covers modern shrubs, climbing roses, Hybrid Teas and Floribunda. Again, he is accurate and gives wonderful descriptions. There are a few photographs, but not one for each rose listed as it is not that kind of a book. The Random House Book of Old Roses by Roger Phillips & Martyn Rix This is a lovely, informative little book which gives very succinct information about old roses, along with some good pictures. It is a small book and easy to carry along. Botanica's Roses forward by William A. Grant This is a great, fat but little book. It gives more information than is usual about most of the roses in existence. Most roses are shown in very good pictures. It is a small book and easy to carry along, although it is very fat. I have used this extensively when trying to identify orphaned roses. 500 Popular Roses for American Gardeners Published by Barron's This book is great to take with you shopping because it has a plastic slip-cover that keeps it from getting wet or soiled in garden centers. There are excellent photographs of the roses listed, and excellent descriptions. There is a good section devoted to old garden roses. This is an wonderful "first book" for new rose growers and I highly recommend it. Classic Roses by Peter Beales This is a large book with good photographs and excellent text. It is organized by rose class, which has been of tremendous help to me when trying to identify orphaned roses. Not every rose has a photograph, but many do, and his introductions to each rose class are very well written. This is another book that really grows on you as you develop your rose garden. There is a great section in the back on the cultivation of roses, with good drawings and photographs, including propagation. Modern Roses XI, The World Encyclopedia of Roses published by the Academic Press There is a big version of this and a small one. I have the big version and it comes with a CD-ROM that allows you to search by several criteria for roses. This is more of a reference work and has very few pictures. However, I have found it invaluable when trying to look up information about my roses. If you are going to participate in American Rose Society (http://www.ars.org) rose shows, you should invest in a copy of this book, especially if you are going to show any old garden roses. Mail Order Sources for Roses All of our roses have been purchased from mail order sources. Here are the companies we use most frequently. Chamblee's Rose Nursery http://www.rosesunlimitedownroot.com/rosesunlimited001.htm Roses Unlimited These roses are own-root and extremely healthy. I have never had one of their roses die on me. They have a good assortment of old garden roses and modern roses that do well in the South. They also carry a great list of English Shrub roses. Heirloom Roses Heirloom Roses has a beautiful catalog for $5.00 that you should get. They used to really specialize in old garden roses and was my source for most of my really old roses, but they have since "commercialized" and are going more with the modern shrub roses such as English Shrub roses. Their own-root roses are small and I tend to have a high failure rate because I plant them in the garden immediately instead of transferring them to a larger pot and babying them for a year. (I can't do that as I travel and they would die from lack of water while I was gone...) I have better luck with them if I order for shipment no earlier than June, or in the fall. Then, I have about a 80% success rate. This is also my source of orphan roses because you used to be able to get 10 orphaned (unnamed) roses for $49.00. Interestingly enough, I have always had a much higher success rate with the orphans and many have turned out to be English shrub roses. Go figure.... |
