Roses (RHS Practicals) - Softcover

Linden Hawthorne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751306894 ISBN 13: 9780751306897

Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

These flexibound, lavishly illustrated, user-friendly guides identify every type of garden plant with up to ten salient features, at-a-glance information on height, spread, and color, and useful cultivation symbols. There are also separate sections on gardening skills and a complete index of common names.

About this title

Review

Full of solid, practical advice and plenty of how-to pictures, Roses is an ideal title for those wanting all their questions answered about these lovely, surprisingly versatile flowers. Focusing on possible combinations with different varieties, training possibilities, containers, and growing conditions, you may be tempted to turn your lawn into an award-winning rose garden. With so much detail on one particular type of plant, you'll find plenty of direction for growing healthy blooms, no matter what your specific needs may be.

Designed to be a complete do-it-yourself guide, don't let the small format of this book fool you--it's absolutely jam-packed with ideas for all styles of gardens, and as always, publisher Dorling Kindersley manages to take fairly complicated projects and reduce them to a manageable size that even the gardening novice can handle. Practical considerations are dealt with firmly--choosing healthy plants is an essential beginning, and without intelligent pruning, your roses will never achieve perfection. The listings by size, bloom shape, color, and optimal conditions are very specific, and new gardeners will find all kinds of useful tips.

Inspirational ideas are plentiful--the garden photographs are lush and detailed and provide all kind of unusual notions for creating a truly unique gardening space. Whether you're looking to design a simple bloom-filled trellis or a garden filled with fragrant hybrid teas, you'll find options for all your projects involving these lovely and versatile plants. --Jill Lightner

From Library Journal

These two volumes pack a great deal of information into a small space, with the distinctive design and high-quality illustrations that are DK's hallmark. Perennials is a small, attractive reference guide "to selecting and identifying perennials." The plants are grouped first by size, then by season of interest, and then by color. Major garden plants like peonies and chrysanthemums are grouped together in boxed spreads. There are brief descriptions of the plants, their preferred habitat, and their cultivation, with U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zone information. Despite this effort to accommodate American gardeners, many of the named varieties listed seem to be of British origin and are not common in the American trade. However, this book would make a nice supplement to a more authoritative work like Ellen Phillips and C. Colston Burrell's Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials (LJ 12/95). Roses describes over 300 varieties, arranged by type (Modern Bush, Old Garden and Species, Miniature, etc.) and then color. Following is a brief guide to rose care. Although it describes more varieties than Judith McKeon's Encyclopedia of Roses (LJ 9/1/95), the latter provides more information on each variety and is far stronger on rose garden design, care, and disease control. Recommended as a supplement to more comprehensive works.?Molly Newling, Piscataway P.L., N.J.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0751306894
• ISBN 13: 9780751306897
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 72