If you’re expanding your garden this year, you’ll want to read this book before buying any more roses, for what an informative book it is!
This paperback guide not only instructs us on a new way of growing rose bushes—without as many pesticides and fungicides—but Roses without chemicals also introduces us to a large number of unique roses including ones bred for their heartiness, fragrance, and beauty. Peter Kukielski compiled this book based on his research and professional experience, which includes being the curator of the celebrated Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden for seven years. The book is filled with the author’s first-hand knowledge, and its premise is simple: Choose disease-resistant roses, and have better gardens with less work and fewer chemicals. That alone makes this book a must-read before investing in any more roses, which are plentiful at garden centers this time of year. The book includes a description of what Kukielski calls the “new millennial rose garden” that features “greener” and more sustainable roses as well as a brief history of the rose and the development of its groups (species, heritage, modern) and their numerous classes. Better still, Kukielski itemizes his favorite roses by class in 10 or more handy lists, which could easily become our own shopping lists. He provides a brief but useful description of how different rose bushes grow as well as equally useful line drawings that show the different shapes of the mature plants, which helps us decide where to plant our roses and how to design our gardens. His lengthy discussion of using roses in the garden covers topics like growing roses vertically, in containers, and in small spaces, and it’s accompanied by a helpful chart of 50 companion plants and their characteristics. Among Kukielski’s favorites for containers are Coral, Peach, and Pink Drift, Easy Does It, Flower Carpet Amber, Julia Child, and The Fairy. The author also discusses and recommends roses for each region of the country. Among his suggestions for the Northeast are Crimson Meidiland, Poseidon, and the Knock Out series. Best of all, throughout the book, all of Kukielski’s information is illustrated with stunning photos of gorgeous, colorful roses whose scents are easy to imagine. His chapter on “Growing roses sustainably” covers: • the basics of buying, planting, pruning, and feeding roses; • the necessities of sun, air, soil, water, drainage, and mulch; • and some options for treating diseases and pests, including an unusually lengthy discussion of both predatory insects as well as pesky ones and some “control measures.” His discussion of pruning is more detailed than usual and also offers useful advice for both winter and summer pruning. Then we come to the longest and most significant section of the work: Kukielski’s directory of 150 disease-resistant roses. Each rose receives its own page with a large photo, numeric rating, informative description, and useful suggestions for companion plants. The individual ratings, which include disease resistance, flowering, and fragrance, are indeed helpful. Surprisingly, the vast majority of the 150 roses that Kukielski rates and recommends are less well known, so, happily, his book also provides inspiration for adding new varieties to our gardens. In addition, we might be delighted to learn that the author, too, favors some local favorites, including Belinda’s Dream, Francis Meilland, Grande Amore, New Dawn, and Thérèse Bugnet as well as several in the Carefree, Drift, Flower Carpet, Knock Out, Oso Easy, and Thrive series. Even as the book ends, it continues to provide another useful feature: listings of roses by class and habit and by color, which makes planning our gardens and our purchases particularly easy. Peter E. Kukielski’s very useful, very inspirational book--Roses without chemicals—is available at the Charlotte, Monroe, Parma, Penfield, and Central libraries. If you’d like to learn more about how gardeners in the Rochester area grow beautiful, fragrant roses with fewer chemicals, please join us at one of our meetings.
0 Comments
|
Author
Patti Dee, Archives
December 2018
Categories |