Roses - Which is the Best Variety for You?

The end of the book provides lists of roses suitable for various growing conditions, including the shade garden. Hardiness zone maps were provided for both the United States and Europe. After seeing the author limit his zone maps to Europe and the US, I am wondering if people in the southern hemisphere even grow roses?

This book is a convenient size to carry with you when you visit rose gardens or nurseries. I wish I could grow roses in my garden - for reasons unknown to me, every rose I plant dies out after two or three years. In its final year, it blooms very poorly and frequently loses its foliage midway through the summer. If I could succeed with roses, I've discovered from reading the book, I would be more satisfied with growing the "Hybrid Perpetuals" which were bred in the mid 19th century. These roses flower off and on all summer rather than just having a 2-3 week blooming period per year. This was my one disappointment in growing roses - a short blooming season.

Let's take a look at a second rose book, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Roses edited by Mary Moody and Peter Harkness. This book was first published in 1992 and reprinted in 1997. I specifically compared it with the book discussed above.

One of my concerns was with the briefness of the section on rose cultivation and pruning. Moody and Harkness' book provides an excellent chapter, which discusses location, soil, and plant selection. This is followed with a discussion of several rose classifications. They provide an illustrated discussion of how to plant both bare-rooted and container grown roses. The importance of feeding roses is discussed under the heading "maintenance". Then they provide a detailed description of properly pruning the various categories of roses. Information on propagating roses through cuttings, budding, grafting, layering and dividing mature specimens is provided. Then some of the most common problems with roses - diseases and pests - are briefly discussed. The conclusion, that prevention is better than having to cure problems should be stressed in every garden book. I am very pleased with this chapter. It is easy to understand, well illustrated and thorough.

[rose-ency]The remainder of this book is an encyclopedia of various rose types. It seems more comprehensive than the book described above. It is the first rose book I've seen that provides illustration of the different forms of a rose. The authors

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic