What a gorgeous book filled with glorious photographs!
This striking, comprehensive guide really should have been entitled The Random House Picture Book of Roses because of its stunning photographs. Like last month’s suggestion, 100 Old Roses for the American Garden, this work is equally noteworthy for its illustrations as well as its information. In it, the authors, Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, have provided essential background on a huge variety of roses – some 1,400 – and have included hundreds of glorious photos that reveal the distinct features of these classic beauties. The text is actually considerably shorter than what is typical in such guides, so this paperback is as much wish book as it is coffee table volume. More important, the scope of the contents is much broader than what most guides offer. The authors begin with a very brief introduction and a short but unusual discussion of wild roses. Other information is also unexpected: a detailed list of rose species and a discussion of the history of cultivating roses, which includes very brief descriptions of nearly 30 groups of roses. Many of the groups are familiar to ARS members, such as Noisettes, Hybrid Perpetuals, and Kordesii hybrids, but almost as many others are unknown to current hobbyists, such as Wichuraiana Ramblers, Boursaults, and Macrantha roses. As the opening sections conclude, two pages of dense type adequately cover both growing roses and controlling problems, and a few photos illustrate the text well. Then the real surprises are unveiled: The guide becomes encyclopedic in its brief, broad contents itemizing hundreds of older roses. While separate chapters efficiently categorize groups of roses and provide very brief, basic descriptions, the accompanying photographs are particularly exceptional. The first of these chapters is unique in that it discusses dozens of delicate wild roses and shows photos of them growing in their natural habits, including the rugged terrain of Yunnan and Sichuan, China. This chapter also begins the guide’s notable format: Providing staged group shots on the left-hand page and, on the right, another half dozen photos of additional roses in various garden settings amid brief descriptions of each specimen, such as classification, traits, history, and parentage, which is another feature that makes this volume a useful reference. The full-page photos on the left feature 8 to 10 beautiful roses displayed side by side and identified individually. The majority of specimens include open blossoms and buds, leaflets and stems, and thorns, so we get a complete view of each lovely rose. The full-page group shots are also unique in that they indicate when and where the glorious roses were cut.
The final delightful surprise comes at the end in four pages dedicated almost entirely to photos of rose hips taken on September 2 from Valley Gardens, Windsor. Because this volume, which was published in 1988, is an oldie, but a goodie, we might have trouble finding all of the roses covered in it, which is unfortunate because the vast majority of them (even most of the Hybrid Teas) are the lush, old-fashioned kind that have become popular again. Even if we can’t order all these varieties today, we can still enjoy their beauty thanks to Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix and their stunning photographs. The Random House Guide to Roses is available through Amazon. To learn more about the gorgeous roses that grow well in Western New York, consider joining the Greater Rochester Rose Society.
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Patti Dee, Archives
December 2018
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